Innovation Analyst

We are seeking an Innovation Analyst to support our team in the Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Denver, Detroit, Indianapolis or Minneapolis office. All Taft employees operate under a "Client First" philosophy-in all things, we seek to provide exceptional services to our clients. This is an entry-level position.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Collaborates with lawyers and operations colleagues to help identify innovative solutions that support client services and solutions, including, but not limited to, increasing efficiency, transparency, and access to information.
• Evaluates and understands various legal, client, and business process and innovation needs and opportunities and, along with Client & Innovation Office colleagues, recommend approaches, improvements, and/or solutions.
• Scopes, coordinates, and schedules meetings and demonstrations with vendors, manages the vendor assessment process, and provides clear communication and directions to participants and stakeholders.
• Oversees and supports pilot programs and proof of concepts, including managing internal communications, expectation-setting, scheduling, encouraging adoption, soliciting and documenting feedback, and providing necessary follow-ups and support.
• Onboards new and existing platforms, including user support and coordinates with IT, Training and other key stakeholders to ensure user access, integration, and utilization.
• Collects, consolidates, and keeps updated a list of practice support and client facing applications and tools, including describing (at a high level) the function of the tools and monitoring usage, as well as any Gen AI features they have and how they work.
• Manages Client & Innovation Office's intranet (Insider) pages and keep updated with helpful and accessible information.
• Manages the Client & Innovation Office-led collaboration portals (e.g., HighQ), including creating new sites and site features and providing training and support to internal and external clients.
• Provides Client & Innovation Office team with additional and ongoing support on education and awareness initiatives and user engagement.
• Contributes to documentation recording business problems, anticipated solutions, requirements, constraints, and progress related to innovation initiatives.
• Creates prototypes using low-code or no-code platforms, including Smartsheet, PowerBI, the Microsoft suite, and more.
• Utilizes a variety of information-gathering and sharing techniques such as flow charts, process maps, decision trees, and wireframes. Plan resources, time, and budgets using the same.
• In conjunction with the other members of the Client & Innovation Office and IT, builds and maintains relationships with vendors to maximize existing platforms and to identify new platforms.
• Collaborates and works closely with members of Taft's Client & Innovation Office, General Counsel's Office, IT, Procurement Department, Information Governance, Training, KaRS, and other operations departments on various projects and initiatives.
• Serves as a liaison between legal colleagues and operations colleagues.
• Brings creative energy to discovering, developing, and sharing ideas and solutions with internal stakeholders and socialize the benefits of various tools, platforms, approaches, etc.
• Participates in the assessment and selection of legal technology.
• Stays informed of the state of the legal industry and opportunities for innovation, including major changes coming to the Microsoft Office suite.
• Other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Abilities, Skills, Interpersonal and Other Requirements:

• Ability to effectively simplify and summarize complex information for written or oral presentation to executives, lawyers, and clients.
• Ability to operate standard office equipment including computers, printers, telephones, photocopiers, scanners, calculators, facsimiles, etc.
• Ability to regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
• Comfortable working both independently and on cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated time management and project management skills to meet objectives. Ability to prioritize work and manage time.
• Expertise with:
• Collaboration platforms (such as SharePoint, HighQ, MS Teams etc.)
• Business Intelligence/ETL platforms (MS Power BI)
• NLP/ML contract analysis tools (such as Kira, Luminance, ContraxSuite, etc.)
• Smartsheet, Excel, and the Microsoft Office suite
• Gen AI Tools
• Possesses excellent reading, writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, proofreading, and formatting skills. Both for analyzing information and also for creating communications.
• Ability to perform mathematical calculations and apply mathematical concepts. Including summary-knowledge of basic statistics such as variance, z-scores, and regression.
• Commitment to solving problems, and persistence and patience in working with internal and external clients to continuously improve solutions.
• Prioritizes customer-service, listens to client and makes them feel welcome and respected.

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in related field
• Five or more years of experience working within a large law firm is highly preferred, but not required.
• The ideal candidate would also have one or more years of work experience and/or formal training in emerging legal technologies, process improvement, design thinking, and/or data science
• 5 years' experience working in a law firm
• Familiarity with attorney work product

Candidates interested in Chicago should apply here.

Candidates interested in Cincinnati should apply here.

Candidates interested in the Cleveland office should apply here.

Candidates interested in Columbus should apply here.

Candidates interested in Dayton should apply here.

Candidates interested in Denver should apply here.

Candidates interested in Detroit (Southfield) should apply here.

Candidates interested in Indianapolis should apply here.

Candidates interested in Minneapolis should apply here.