Law Firm Operations Manager / Senior Case Manager

We are a growing San Diego law firm handling civil litigation, family law, criminal defense, and other complex matters. We are seeking an experienced Law Firm Operations Manager / Senior Case Manager who can take ownership of the firm’s day-to-day case workflow and help manage a busy and expanding practice.

This is not an entry-level position and is not a traditional administrative assistant role.

We are looking for someone who has significant experience working in a law firm and who is comfortable taking responsibility, managing people and deadlines, solving problems independently, and making sure work actually gets completed without constant attorney supervision.

The right person will become a key operational point person for the firm and work closely with the firm’s owner, associate attorney, paralegals, legal assistants, and contract attorneys.

Primary Responsibilities

Case Management and Workflow

• Maintain oversight of the firm’s active matters and ensure cases continue moving forward.
• Track upcoming deadlines, hearings, discovery obligations, filing dates, client deliverables, and other case requirements.
• Review case-management systems daily for overdue and upcoming tasks.
• Identify issues before they become emergencies.
• Determine what needs to be done next on each matter and ensure appropriate tasks are assigned.
• Follow up with attorneys and staff to ensure assignments are completed on time.
• Maintain organized case plans, task lists, and calendars.
• Make sure completed work is properly finalized, filed, served, or communicated to the client.

Staff and Attorney Coordination

• Coordinate assignments among paralegals, legal assistants, associate attorneys, and contract attorneys.
• Help prioritize workloads and redistribute assignments when necessary.
• Follow up on delegated assignments without requiring the firm’s owner to supervise every step.
• Coordinate substantive projects being handled by outside or contract attorneys.
• Ensure attorneys receive complete and organized materials when substantive attorney review is required.
• Help establish and enforce repeatable office procedures and workflows.

Client Management

• Serve as a primary point of contact for routine client communications and case-status inquiries.
• Proactively update clients regarding the status of their matters when appropriate.
• Determine which client issues require attorney involvement and which can be resolved by staff.
• Coordinate attorney-client calls when substantive legal advice is required.
• Help ensure that clients receive timely responses and do not feel that their matters are being ignored.

Intake and New Matters

• Assist with the transition from prospective client to retained client.
• Coordinate engagement agreements, payment requests, initial documentation, and file opening.
• Ensure newly retained matters are properly entered into the firm’s systems and immediately assigned appropriate next steps.
• Help prevent matters from falling through the cracks during onboarding.

Law Firm Operations

• Assist with employee timekeeping, workflow procedures, internal systems, and administrative processes.
• Help improve the firm’s use of Clio Manage and other technology.
• Develop checklists, procedures, and standardized workflows where appropriate.
• Help the firm identify operational bottlenecks and implement practical solutions.
• Serve as a central point of coordination so that routine operational issues do not unnecessarily require attorney involvement.

What We Are Looking For

The ideal candidate will have substantial prior experience in a law firm and will have demonstrated the ability to manage cases and workflow with limited supervision.

Strong candidates will possess many of the following:

• At least 5 years of significant law firm experience, preferably in litigation, family law, or a similarly deadline-intensive practice.
• Prior experience as a senior paralegal, litigation case manager, law firm office manager, practice manager, or comparable position.
• Strong knowledge of litigation procedures, calendaring, discovery, court filings, and law-office workflow.
• Experience supervising or coordinating the work of other legal professionals.
• Experience with Clio Manage or another sophisticated legal practice-management system.
• Excellent organizational and deadline-management abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong judgment regarding when an issue can be handled independently and when an attorney needs to become involved.
• Comfort learning and using payroll, timekeeping, billing, case-management, document-management, and other law-office technology.
• Ability to manage multiple matters and competing priorities without becoming overwhelmed.
• Strong follow-through and attention to detail.

The Most Important Quality: Ownership

We are specifically looking for someone who takes ownership of problems.

If an assignment is delegated, we want someone who follows it through to completion.

If a deadline is approaching, we want someone who makes sure the responsible person knows about it and that the work gets completed.

If something is not working, we want someone who looks for a solution rather than simply reporting the problem.

When an issue does require attorney involvement, the ideal candidate will be able to present the issue concisely and, whenever possible, say:

“Here is the issue, here are the available options, and this is what I recommend we do.”

This position is ideal for someone who enjoys being the person who keeps a busy law practice organized and operating effectively.

What This Position Is Not

This is not a position for someone who requires detailed instructions for every assignment.

It is not primarily a receptionist, legal secretary, or document-production position.

It is also not a position where the employee waits to be told what to do next.

We are seeking someone with the experience and confidence to recognize what needs to be done, take initiative, coordinate the appropriate people, and close the loop.

Pay: $30.00 - $45.00 per hour

Expected hours: 20.0 – 40.0 per week

Work Location: Hybrid remote in San Diego, CA 92101