Position SummaryThe Director of Research & Intelligence leads the firm's research, intelligence and premium content services across all US offices. The Director understands the firm's practices, anticipates their information needs, and translates those needs into research, intelligence, monitoring and technology solutions. The Director leads a team of research and intelligence professionals, delivers business and competitive intelligence, and is accountable for the research portfolio, its vendors and its value. Serving on the Innovation leadership team, the Director partners with practice group leaders, Client Development and Legal Technology to bring research expertise to the firm's AI strategy.
Key Responsibilities:Practice engagement and research strategy- Builds a deep understanding of each practice group's work, clients and priorities, and anticipates its research and information needs.
- Meets regularly with practice group leaders to discuss current work, emerging research needs, gaps in current resources, opportunities for automation or current awareness, and overlap among tools.
- Translates practice needs into research, intelligence, monitoring and technology solutions, combining people, content, technology and external resources.
- Develops strategic plans and policies for research and intelligence that advance practice, departmental and firm goals.
Research and intelligence services- Leads the delivery of high-quality legal, business, regulatory and public records research to lawyers and business professionals.
- Leads business and competitive intelligence services, including client, industry, market, litigation and regulatory, and competitor intelligence, in partnership with Client Development where appropriate.
- Develops current awareness and monitoring services, such as alerts, docket and regulatory tracking, and market monitoring, tailored to practice needs.
- Maintains expert knowledge of research resources, techniques and best practices, and performs complex research as needed.
Premium content and AI research tools- Owns, or holds substantial responsibility for, evaluating research content and products, including AI research tools, with testing for accuracy and value against existing resources.
- Manages licensing, content-use rights and entitlements for premium content.
- Reviews license terms before licensed content is connected to any firm AI tool.
- Partners with Innovation and IT, which own platform and technical decisions, to deliver appropriate and secure access to premium content.
- Establishes access rules by role and practice, supports single sign-on where available, and maintains a responsive process for access requests.
Resource optimization and value- Develops, manages and forecasts the research and information budget, covering all research, data and news subscriptions across the US firm.
- Analyzes usage and cost to optimize the research portfolio and demonstrate its value, recommending whether to renew, renegotiate, downsize, retire or expand access to each resource.
- Shares cost and usage data with practice group leaders as part of regular engagement, and leads an annual subscription review with each, documenting the outcome.
- Attributes practice-specific subscriptions to the relevant practice group budgets in partnership with Finance, while managing firmwide platforms centrally.
- Reassigns idle seats, eliminates duplication, and supports client and matter cost recovery where engagement terms allow.
Vendor management- Serves as the firm's primary contact for research and information vendors and negotiates contracts, renewals and pricing.
- Maintains a contract calendar of renewal dates, notice periods, price terms and license conditions.
- Holds regular business reviews with key vendors on usage, service, pricing and product roadmaps.
- Maintains current knowledge of product changes, especially AI features, and briefs Innovation, practice leaders and users on changes that affect workflow, cost or permitted use.
- Negotiates terms for AI-enabled products that protect client confidentiality and firm data, address data retention and model training, and define permitted use of licensed content.
- Monitors license compliance, including seat limits and authorized users.
Research resource directory- Builds and maintains the firm's authoritative directory of research and intelligence resources, showing what each resource is and does, who has access, how to obtain access, available training and any restrictions on use with AI tools.
- Keeps the directory current as subscriptions, access or terms change, and uses site analytics to identify gaps.
Training and adoption- Designs and delivers training on research platforms, including effective prompting and verification of AI output.
- Tracks adoption of research tools and reports results to the Senior Director of Innovation.
- Participates in onboarding of new lawyers and staff.
- Promotes effective, independent use of research resources by lawyers.
Team leadership and development- Supervises, coaches and develops the research and intelligence team, continuing its move from a traditional library model toward a consultative Research Advisor model.
- Builds staff capability in practice consultation, competitive intelligence, monitoring, automation and AI-enabled research.
- Sets and reports on departmental metrics, including practice engagement, intelligence products delivered, request volume and turnaround, tool adoption, user satisfaction, spend against budget and the value of renewal decisions.
- Works with the Eversheds Sutherland (International) research and knowledge leads to share resources, coordinate global agreements and standardize practices where useful.
- Participates in firmwide initiatives that support the firm's strategic goals.
Leadership standards of performance- Interacts with personnel at all levels in a tactful, cooperative and professional manner.
- Acts with honesty, integrity, courtesy and respect, and represents the firm well in all interactions.
- Maintains strict confidentiality of client and firm information.
- Delivers outstanding service to internal and external clients.
- Embraces diversity and inclusion in all aspects of the role.
- Champions change and the firm's initiatives, and adapts readily when priorities shift.
- Is fiscally responsible and communicates concisely and effectively with senior management.
- Takes initiative, works effectively under pressure, and continually seeks improvement.
- Performs responsibilities in accordance with all firm standards, policies and procedures.
Knowledge, Skills and AbilitiesEducation- Master's degree in Library and Information Science, Information Management or a related field preferred, with law firm experience.
Experience- Ten or more years of experience in law firm research or library services, preferably in a multi-office national or global firm, including at least five years in a management role.
- Demonstrated success partnering with practice groups or business leaders to anticipate information needs and design research, intelligence or monitoring solutions.
- Experience leading business or competitive intelligence work in a law firm or professional services environment.
- Demonstrated management of a research or information budget, including usage and spend analysis, forecasting and resource optimization.
- Significant experience negotiating and managing contracts with major research vendors.
- Hands-on experience evaluating or deploying AI-enabled research tools such as Lexis+ with Protégé, CoCounsel, Vincent AI, Harvey or similar.
- Experience developing staff and leading a team through a change in its service model.
Skills- Deep understanding of the business and practice of law, and the ability to consult with lawyers on their research and information needs.
- Expert knowledge of legal, business, news and public records research services, and of competitive intelligence sources and methods.
- Working knowledge of content licensing, including terms affecting use of licensed content with AI tools.
- Strong analytical skills, including use of usage analytics platforms (such as ResearchMonitor or Onelog) and data visualization tools.
- Ability to communicate research value, cost and usage clearly to practice group leaders and firm leadership.
- Change management and training skills, with experience presenting to lawyers.
- Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
This is a hybrid role and will require 3 days in office per week. The salary ranges for this position vary depending on the geographic location and other factors such as experience, internal equity, market data, and job-related considerations. The range for this position is from $175,00 - $250,000, with offers contingent upon the various factors. The firm's compensation strategy includes not just a base salary but also comprehensive benefits such as healthcare, paid time off, discretionary merit bonuses, life and disability insurance, retirement plans and tailored learning opportunities.
