A day in the life of an AVP, Legal Operations & Network Strategy at MetLife Legal Plans:The AVP, Legal Operations & Network Strategy provides executive leadership for the department responsible for overseeing both the strategic management of MetLife Legal Plans' nationwide attorney network and the business processes that support it. This role ensures operational effectiveness across panel management and claims collaboration, while driving accountability to service level agreements, audit standards, and enterprise objectives. As a senior subject matter expert, the AVP provides guidance on complex coverage matters and escalations, ensuring cohesion between internal teams, member experience, and participating law firms.
This leader sets the vision and direction for a team of relationship managers and support professionals, strengthening internal processes, enhancing network engagement, and delivering measurable performance outcomes. The role partners closely with Sales Support, Legal, Claims, Finance, and Operations to support growth initiatives, fee strategy, coverage evolution, and sponsor reporting. Success requires strong business acumen and the ability to balance legal expertise, operational scalability, financial considerations, and customer experience.
The ideal candidate is a seasoned attorney and proven people leader who understands how law firms operate and can confidently lead at both the executive and practitioner levels. This is a strategic leadership opportunity for a legal professional who wants to influence how legal services are delivered at scale while leading a high-performing department within a growth-oriented organization.
This position will be a hybrid position, with roughly two days in the Cleveland, OH office and three days remote.
Responsibilities (Essential Duties and Responsibilities):Attorney Network Management- Manage attorney panel including recruiting, training, supervising, evaluating and re-credentialing and communicating with PLFs and visiting PLF offices as appropriate
- Lead a team 40 relationship managers to engage, support, educate and manage attorney relationships across the country
- Develop communications and strategies to strengthen our relationships, engage, educate and improve the network NPS
- Support coverage reviews including coverage determinations and coverage appeals.
- Manage annual review of network attorney fees to determine if adjustments need to be made to existing fee schedules including negotiation of fees.
- Maintain and update Participating Law Firm manual on a regular basis.
- Support and manage virtual panel engagement offering available to members.
- Lead a team of associates that support scheduling appointments with our attorneys
Sales Support- Support Sales department in completing RFP (request for proposal) responses, plan comparisons, and competitor comparisons.
- Participate in finalist meetings, customer facing sales calls/presentations as requested by the sales/marketing organization.
- Partner with our Sales and Legal departments in creating new coverages and/or updating coverage definitions and establish alignment of these changes throughout the organization.
- Partner with Finance and Legal departments in establishing network and out of network attorney fees for new coverage offerings.
- Approve special fee requests at firm level during recruitment to our network
Compliance/Audit Management- Manage attorney panel including recruiting, evaluating, and re-credentialing to including malpractice checks.
- Manage recruiting of network attorneys including: reviewing and approving all attorney applications
- Manage the attorney audit system including assisting accounting with audit standards and cases, determining PLF status related to audit issues and managing training related audit issues
- Support and manage responses for member complaints relating to coverage, claims processing and network attorneys.
- Support and respond to any litigation which may arise from items directly related to position's management responsibilities.
- Support company litigation by researching legal issues and/or coaching members of the organization in their responses.
- Support and manage audit activity and responses related to the panel and claims departments.
- Obtain and maintain adjustor licenses as deemed necessary for role responsibilities.
Team Management- Manage, coach, train, supervise and develop direct reports.
- Manage departmental staffing levels, paid time off, performance reviews and compensation
- Support budget planning by ensuring staffing and capacity models are kept up to date and reflects work responsibilities across the Attorney Network and Claims Management teams.
- Participate in user acceptance testing for any changes in process/technology for the Panel Management and Claims departments.
- Support training of new team members in the Panel Management and Claims departments.
- Serve as a resource and provide training for other departments on coverage and attorney network issues
- Manage the client inquiry system including: review and resolution of difficult inquiries; review allegations of attorney misconduct or poor service; review of attorney status; and categorization of inquiries
- Support Strategic Planning efforts and deliver on the organization's objectives and key results.
- Support organization with achieving Service Level Agreements and NPS goals.
- Manage SLA report out requests for Sponsors
- Assist Legal, Panel, and Claims organization with other items as required.
- Ensure that all employees are adhering to and modeling after company Success Principles.
Minimum Qualifications (Knowledge, skills, and abilities required):- Bachelor's degree from an accredited university
- J.D. from an accredited law school
- Must be licensed in good standing in the State of Ohio or have the ability to sit for the State of Ohio bar
- Possess a minimum of 8 years of experience as a practicing attorney
- Strong leadership skills and ability to work with internal and external partners at all levels
- Strong time management skills and an ability to prioritize tasks
- Ability to motivate a team to work together to achieve and support organizational goals
- Ability to manage team and support the individual goals and objectives of team members
- Detail-oriented and well-organized, with the ability to handle a high-volume workload
- Self-motivated with the ability to take initiative
- Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing
- Ability to analyze and manage client service issues
- Ability to handle confidential and sensitive situations and documents
What Will Make You Special (Preferred knowledge, skills, and abilities):- Experience in all aspects of the general practice of law and litigation matters
- Strong business acumen
- Prior experience managing a team
- Prior client relationship management experience
- Knowledge of the industry, business and product
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Strong mediation/conflict resolution skills
- Ability to coach, mentor and train team members
- Ability to think outside the box to resolve issues
Characteristics of our Director of Panel Operations (Competencies):- Customer/client-focused
- Detail-oriented
- Communication proficiency
- Business acumen
- Ability to thrive in both a team atmosphere and an independent work environment
- Problem-solving/analytical skills
- Demonstrated leadership skills
- Ability to meet deadlines and deliver results
TravelUp to 10% travel may be required for this position.
Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the associate in this position. Associates will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties as requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the incumbent will possess the skills, aptitude, and ability to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an "at-will" relationship.
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