Director of Knowledge & Innovation

Build your big career with the firm that does Big Law, Better. McDermott Will & Schulte is a leading global law firm that brings together more than 1,700+ lawyers and 1,400 business professionals. We celebrate excellence, collaboration, and community and have been recognized as a top workplace by USA Today, Fortune, The American Lawyer, Vault and others. We are also certified by Great Place to Work. 

At McDermott, we don’t just invest in your future, we accelerate your career – wherever it may lead. That includes supporting you both in and outside of the office. 

With us, you’ll find: 

• A firm where everyone belongs: Our award-winning culture prioritizes warmth and authenticity — we encourage you to be yourself!  

• Enthusiasm for all perspectives: We’re smarter and stronger when everyone has a voice and a seat at the table. We welcome unique viewpoints and ideas, and we make opportunities for you and your career to thrive.  

• Support to feel your best and do your best: Wellness is integral to building a successful career and a rich life. That’s why our benefits program supports your physical, emotional, mental, and financial health, with an emphasis on work-life balance.  

  

• Real rewards for real work: We offer generous compensation packages that recognize hard work and excellence.   

Job Description:

Position Summary:
The Director of Knowledge & Innovation leads the firm’s modern knowledge function, overseeing the people, structure, and standards needed to deliver consistent knowledge management and AI enablement across every practice group and office. This is a strategic leadership role: The Director helps set and execute on the firm strategy and roadmap for knowledge management and legal AI, ensuring the team’s day-to-day work aligns with that broader vision. This position combines strong team leadership and strategic planning with deep expertise in modern knowledge management in the age of AI, ensuring institutional knowledge is captured, structured, and put to active use through AI, consistently firmwide.
The Director of Knowledge & Innovation reports to the Chief Innovation Officer and directly leads the firm’s Knowledge & Innovation Attorneys, Counsel, and Senior Counsel across all practice groups, setting shared standards and priorities so the team operates as one cohesive function. The Director will be a key member of the Innovation Department leadership team and will work closely with Practice Technology, Information Technology, Information Security, Information Governance, the Office of General Counsel, practice group leaders, and other relevant stakeholders to advance the firm’s knowledge and AI enablement objectives.
This position operates with full autonomy and final decision-making authority over the Knowledge & Innovation function, drawing on extensive experience and executive judgment to build, manage, and develop a high-performing, consistent Knowledge & Innovation team — spanning Attorneys, Counsel, and Senior Counsel — across the firm.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Build, lead, and grow the firm’s knowledge function, including the Knowledge & Innovation Attorneys, Counsel, and Senior Counsel embedded across all practice groups, by hiring, onboarding, and developing the team to support firmwide knowledge and AI enablement initiatives.
• Help develop and execute on the firm’s knowledge and AI strategy and roadmap, aligning priorities with the firm’s broader business and innovation goals and ensuring consistent standards, quality, and knowledge-sharing practices firmwide, regardless of practice area or office
• Set clear goals, priorities, and workload expectations for the Knowledge & Innovation team (Attorneys, Counsel, and Senior Counsel), and conduct regular performance management, coaching, and career development, including final ownership of leveling and promotion decisions across the Attorney, Counsel, and Senior Counsel track.
• Define and enforce governance standards for how legal content and precedent are captured, tagged, validated, and retired across the team, keeping knowledge assets current, consistent, and defensible.
• Direct the team’s ownership of the firm’s knowledge management strategy, including the curation of past briefs, contracts, precedents, and templates so attorneys are not reinventing work already done.
• Direct the team’s design and maintenance of data taxonomies and knowledge structures that prepare firm content for legal AI, search, and retrieval tools, and oversee the prompts, agents, and workflows the Knowledge & Innovation team builds with the firm’s Practice Technology and AI team to put that content to active use.
• Foster a firmwide culture of knowledge sharing, resolving conflicting practices or standards across offices and practice groups so the team operates as one cohesive function.
• Partner with the leaders of the firm’s Practice Technology and AI team, along with other firm stakeholders, to align the knowledge team’s output with firmwide AI and technology initiatives.
• Serve as a key member of the Innovation Department leadership team, representing the knowledge function
• Manage knowledge-related risk across the team in partnership with Information Security, Information Governance, and the Office of General Counsel, covering data handling, confidentiality, and responsible-use guidelines.
• Track and report on team performance, knowledge asset usage, and adoption, using metrics to guide resourcing and staffing decisions and demonstrate the team’s value to firm leadership.
• Monitor developments in AI and legal technology, identifying opportunities to improve legal service delivery and client service.

Job Specifications:

• Juris Doctor (JD) required
• At least twelve (12) years of experience in knowledge management and/or legal practice roles, including significant experience directly managing and developing teams
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing strategic roadmaps for knowledge management and innovation, including setting priorities and measuring progress against them
• Proven track record leading distributed or embedded teams across multiple offices or practice groups
• Knowledge of legal practice workflows and the matter lifecycle across practice groups
• Working knowledge of how legal content and data should be organized and structured to support effective use by AI and search tools
• Familiarity with legal AI platforms and related concepts
• General familiarity with how prompts, AI agents, and workflows are used to apply legal knowledge, sufficient to guide the work of embedded Knowledge & Innovation Attorneys, Counsel, and Senior Counsel
• Demonstrated interest in and working familiarity with the firm’s AI platforms (e.g., Harvey, Claude, ChatGPT, CoCounsel, Copilot) and how they apply to legal work in the practice area
• Experience working with other practice technology and knowledge platforms (e.g., Practical Law and Practical Guidance, litigation analytics tools, brief analyzers, deal closing tools, document automation tools, data extraction tools, etc.)
• Strong leadership, coaching, and team-development skills
• Prior experience managing global or cross-office knowledge teams is preferred
• Ability to build consensus and drive consistent standards across a matrixed, multi-office organization
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills
• Ability to work effectively with partners, practice group leaders, and firm leadership
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent initiatives in a fast-paced environment
   

Successful candidates will be provided with outstanding career opportunities and will receive a competitive total rewards package with the opportunity to earn performance-based bonuses.

     Target Hiring Range $297,000 - $467,000

Please note that quoted salary ranges are not guarantees of what final salary offers may be. Base pay is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and geographic location. Base pay is only one part of the Total Rewards that MWE provides to compensate and recognize our staff professionals for their work. Full time positions are eligible for a discretionary bonus and a comprehensive benefits package. 

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

#LI-Hybrid

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical Demands:

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to sit, use hands, reach with hands and arms, stoop, talk and hear

• Employee must occasionally lift up to twenty (20) pounds

Work Environment:

Typical indoor office environment

Disclaimer:

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of the work being performed by people within this classification. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of employees assigned to this job.