Job DescriptionABOUT THE ROLEThe Ward Law Group is looking for a Settlement Department Manager to lead the team responsible for valuing, negotiating, and resolving our pre-suit personal injury inventory. This is a true management role. You will not be assigned your own pipeline of files - you will be measured by the performance of the negotiators who report to you and by the results your department produces as a whole.
We are a structured firm. Our settlements function runs on documented workflows, defined stages, case-level data, and performance standards that are calibrated to how cases actually move - not on arbitrary monthly quotas applied uniformly regardless of treatment posture, policy limits, or jurisdiction. We invest in our infrastructure because we believe it is what allows a department to scale without burning out the people in it.
If you have spent your career being told to "settle more cases" without being given the systems, the data, or the authority to make that happen, this is the opposite of that environment. We are looking for someone who wants to build and run a department properly, with the tools and the support to do it.
WHAT YOU'LL OWNLead and develop the team- Directly manage a large settlement negotiators and support team, including hiring, onboarding, training, and performance management.
- Manage through your people rather than around them. Your job is to raise the ceiling of every negotiator on the team, not to absorb the hardest files yourself.
- Conduct structured one-on-ones, file reviews, and coaching sessions on a consistent cadence, with documented follow-up.
- Build individual development plans that move each team member measurably forward on valuation accuracy, negotiation skill, and file velocity.
- Address performance and conduct issues early, directly, and in partnership with Human Resources - including documented corrective action when warranted.
Manage through metrics- Own the department's key performance indicators: settlement volume, average settlement value, policy-limits capture rate, net client recovery, time in each pre-suit stage, aged-file exposure, demand turnaround, and negotiator-level productivity.
- Set individual and team performance standards that account for jurisdiction, case type, treatment posture, coverage, and liability profile.
- Review pipeline and performance data weekly. Diagnose the cause when a number moves - process, staffing, training, intake quality, or medical management - and act on it.
- Report department performance, forecasts, and risks to firm leadership on a regular cadence, with analysis rather than raw numbers.
- Manage aged and stalled inventory deliberately so that files are resolved on their merits and not simply on their age.
Oversee valuation and negotiation- Serve as the final internal authority on case valuation and settlement strategy within your approval limits, and escalate appropriately beyond them.
- Review and approve demand packages, settlement authority requests, and counteroffers for quality, accuracy, and strategy.
- Apply and teach sound valuation methodology across the full range of injury types and procedures - including soft tissue, injections, surgical intervention, and traumatic brain injury - and ensure the team is not undervaluing complex or high-exposure claims.
- Identify bad faith setups, policy-limits opportunities, UM/UIM exposure, and coverage issues early, and coordinate strategy with firm leadership.
- Personally handle or co-handle the department's highest-exposure and most sensitive negotiations.
Own the process- Maintain and improve the department's standard operating procedures, checklists, templates, and case-stage definitions so that the work is repeatable and quality does not depend on who is holding the file.
- Partner with medical management on treatment monitoring, records and billing completeness, reductions, and lien resolution so files are demand-ready without unnecessary delay.
- Work closely with intake, case management, and litigation to ensure clean handoffs in both directions and to feed back what the department learns about case quality.
- Make sure every negotiated resolution is documented, compliant, and client-approved, and that disbursement is accurate and timely.
- Bring forward technology, reporting, and workflow improvements - and then implement them, measure them, and keep what works.
Protect the client relationship- Set the standard for how clients are counseled through settlement: clear expectations, realistic valuation conversations, and no surprises at disbursement.
- Ensure the team communicates with clients in their preferred language, with the responsiveness and cultural fluency our client base expects.
- Resolve escalated client concerns personally and use them to identify where the process needs to change.
Qualifications- Seven or more years of progressive experience in personal injury, with substantial time in pre-suit settlement and negotiation.
- Three or more years directly managing a settlements, pre-litigation, or case management team - not managing assistants, and not serving as a senior individual contributor with informal influence. You must have carried responsibility for other people's results.
- Demonstrated experience managing through metrics. You have set performance standards, tracked them, held people accountable to them, coached underperformers, and made the call when someone was not going to get there.
- Command of case valuation. You can defend a number. You understand medical specials, treatment trajectory, procedure-level valuation, comparative fault, coverage layers, and how venue changes the analysis.
- Bilingual. Fluency in English and Spanish, written and spoken. This is essential to serving our clients and leading our team.
- Florida law. Working knowledge of Florida personal injury practice, including PIP, the statutory pre-suit framework, and applicable damages and fee rules.
- Systems and data fluency. Comfort working in a case management system and in reports and spreadsheets. You should be able to build or read a pipeline report and draw the right conclusion from it.
- On-site. This is an in-office role, Monday through Friday. Leading a department well requires being present with the team.
WHAT SETS A CANDIDATE APART- Experience on both the plaintiff and defense side, or exposure to litigation as well as pre-suit.
- A track record of building a department's infrastructure - SOPs, scorecards, training programs, stage definitions - rather than inheriting one.
- Experience managing a department through meaningful growth in headcount or case volume.
- Deep medical management and lien negotiation experience, including letters of protection and health insurance and government liens.
- Formal management training, or a documented history of developing people who were later promoted.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKEFirst 30 days- You know every file in the department's inventory by stage, age, and exposure, and you know every person on your team - their strengths, their gaps, and their numbers.
- You have audited the existing workflow end to end and identified where files stall and why.
First 90 days- Individual performance standards are in place for every negotiator, calibrated to their inventory rather than to a flat quota.
- A consistent cadence of one-on-ones, file reviews, and department reporting is running without prompting.
- Aged inventory has been triaged and has a documented resolution plan.
First year- Department settlement value and velocity have improved measurably against baseline, without a decline in net client recovery.
- Valuation is consistent across the team - two negotiators looking at the same file arrive at substantially the same number.
- You have developed at least one team member into a senior or lead role.
- Turnover on your team is low and the people on it can articulate exactly what is expected of them.
Additional InformationCOMPENSATION & BENEFITS- Competitive salary commensurate with experience
- Professional development and continuing education support
- Collaborative, growth-oriented team environment
- Medical, dental & vision
- Hospital plans
- 401(k) Retirement Plan - Pre-tax and Roth post-tax contributions available
- Life Insurance (Company paid Basic Life and AD&D as well as voluntary Life & AD&D for the employee and dependents)
- Company paid short and long-term disability
- Health & Dependent Care Spending Accounts (HSA & DCFSA)
- Employee Assistance Program
- Tuition Assistance
- Paid time off and paid holidays
