Requisition ID:
7432Senior Practice Innovation AnalystOur innovation team maintains that vision by exploring new process and technology solutions to modernize our client service delivery and firm operations. We infuse business design, technology, and data science into the practice of law. Under the direction of the Practice Innovation Advisor, the Senior Practice Innovation Analyst will take a lead role in driving ongoing implementations of emerging technologies throughout the firm. This includes hands-on technical work - building automations, configuring and integrating platforms, and developing data-driven solutions - as well as independently identifying new opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our legal teams. The role requires deeper technical judgment, stronger problem-solving skills, and more project ownership than is expected at the standard Analyst level.
This position requires hands-on work with Katten lawyers, business professionals, and key external partners across both project execution and strategic brainstorming. The Senior Practice Innovation Analyst will own project work on initiatives across the firm - including scoping, risk identification, and stakeholder management - and will gather research, insights, trends, and best practices from the legal profession to help determine where the firm can best apply innovation solutions. The ideal candidate will be comfortable diving into technical details, troubleshooting complex configurations, and translating business requirements into working solutions. This role also serves as a technical and practical resource for more junior members of the innovation team.
The Senior Practice Innovation Analyst can be located in our Chicago, New York, Los Angeles or Washington D.C. office. Katten offers a hybrid work model, allowing the flexibility to work both on-site and remotely on a regular basis (KattenFlex).
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include, but may not be limited to, the following. Other duties may be requested and/or assigned. Essential functions are primary job duties that an individual must be able to perform successfully with or without a reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Collaborate with lawyers, clients, firm leadership, and operational teams, including Practice Management, Talent, Information Technology, Marketing and Business Development, and Finance, to grow the firm's culture of innovation.
- Participate in engagements with attorney teams, clients, and practice groups to design and deliver innovative client solutions and legal technologies that support the efficient management of legal matters.
- Maintain a current, in-depth awareness of emerging technology tools (both generally and among law firms and legal departments), and translate that awareness into concrete recommendations to keep the firm ahead of the curve.
- Research, evaluate, and pilot tools and procedures that promote productivity and service quality, including building business cases and basic ROI/benefit analyses to support recommendations.
- Develop and maintain clear and accessible training materials, user guides, and communications that support the firm's innovation initiatives and help attorneys and business professionals adopt emerging technologies and process improvements.
- Partner with our data science team, Katten DataLAB, to scope and deliver solutions to client challenges and needs, contributing hands-on data analysis, building queries, and developing automated reporting where needed.
- Build and maintain relationships with existing and potential vendors; lead coordination of platform updates and the identification/vetting of potential new platforms, including technical evaluation of integration and configuration requirements.
- Participate in implementation of new processes, including configuring, integrating, and customizing software solutions for attorneys and practice groups - working with APIs, data mappings, and platform settings - with minimal oversight.
- Assist team governance and operational efficiency by owning documentation, workflow tracking, project intake, and other processes that ensure smooth and consistent execution of innovation priorities.
- Lead the coordination and execution of software pilot programs - identifying and testing use cases, scheduling trainings, gathering feedback, and conducting gap analysis - and make go/no-go recommendations based on results.
- Serve as an internal and external advocate for the innovation team and new solutions that benefit the firm and our clients, including representing the team in conversations with senior firm leadership and practice group heads.
- Build and maintain relationships with stakeholders within the firm's practice departments to socialize the benefits of emerging technology tools, independently drive projects through to completion, and identify/vet potential new use cases.
- Maintain working-level familiarity with new products and developments in legal innovation and software, and assess their fit for the firm's technology roadmap.
- Be an active participant in the firm's AI and Gen AI efforts, including hands-on prompt engineering, workflow development, output evaluation, and building AI-powered solutions for specific practice needs.
- Independently manage projects under the general direction of the Practice Innovation Advisor, including scoping, timeline management, and stakeholder communication.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities- A Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) is preferred and three (3) or more years of experience working within a large law firm or in the legal technology industry highly preferred; or equivalent combination of education and experience. The ideal candidate will have hands-on technical experience and/or formal training in emerging legal technologies, software implementation, process automation, and/or data science. We are looking for someone who is eager to build and configure solutions - not just evaluate them - and who can work independently and exercise sound technical judgment on ambiguous or complex problems.
- Experience with several of the following, including configuration-, administration-, or power-user-level experience with at least two:
- Legal-focused generative AI tools (such as Harvey, CoCounsel, Legora).
- Document automation tools (such as Avvoka).
- Document analysis tools (such as Draftwise).
- Collaboration platforms (such as SharePoint, HighQ, etc.); and/or Business Intelligence/ETL platforms.
- General AI tools like Claude, OpenAI and Perplexity, with demonstrated experience evaluating output quality and designing effective prompts/workflows.
- Working knowledge of data querying/analysis (e.g., SQL, Excel/Power BI) and/or basic scripting or low-code automation development (e.g., Python, Power Automate, APIs) sufficient to build workflows, manipulate data, integrate platforms, and deliver data-driven solutions.
- Demonstrated experience evaluating, piloting, and recommending new legal technology tools, including building business cases and basic ROI analyses, and presenting recommendations to non-technical stakeholders.
- Displays intelligence, creativity, resilience, and persistence in solving varied, complex, and non-routine problems.
- Displays excellent time management and project management skills to meet objectives and deadlines across multiple concurrent initiatives.
- Able to effectively distill complex information, synthesize, simplify, and present to Firm Management, attorneys, and business professionals.
- Possess excellent reading, writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and formatting skills in order to interpret and analyze source data, prepare correspondence and documentation, and proofread material for grammatical, typographical and spelling errors.
- Able to perform mathematical calculations and apply mathematical concepts when computing, reconciling balances, verifying numerical data, and preparing various reports.
- Able to operate standard office equipment including computers, printers, telephones, photocopiers, scanners, calculators, facsimiles, etc.
- Able to regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
The annualized salary range for this position is $115,000 - $135,000. Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience and other job-related factors permitted by law.
We offer an outstanding benefit package which includes: medical/dental/vision, 401k with employer contribution, parental leave, transportation fringe benefit program, back-up care option, generous paid time off policy and long-term and short-term disability policies.
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