Associate Director of Client Initiatives

Cooley LLP; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 200,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Excellent benefits package

25 days PTO

10 paid holidays

Firm-paid life insurance

Job summary

Cooley LLP is seeking an Associate Director of Client Initiatives to join the Marketing and Client Development team in Chicago. This role advances client insight, segmentation, and strategic growth initiatives that support business development and elevate the client experience.

The position leads programs across geographies, translates insights into action, and establishes governance and tools to sustain impact. Strong data skills and leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in marketing/business development, with 4+ years in management.
• Experience building executive dashboards and analyzing client insights.
• Strong data manipulation, sentiment analysis, and CRM familiarity.
• Bachelor's degree required; legal/professional services experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead client listening efforts and surface opportunities for growth.
• Scale win/loss and market insight programs across geographies.
• Translate insights into actionable steps for BD, Marketing, and leadership.
• Design national programs and governance for consistent execution.

Skills

Power BI dashboards

CRM analytics

Leadership

Data manipulation

Client insights

Project management

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Power BI

Salesforce

Qualtrics

iManage

Job description

Cooley is seeking an Associate Director of Client Initiatives to join the Marketing and Client Development team.

Position summary:

This role is part of the Client Initiatives Team, which is responsible for advancing client insight, segmentation, and strategic growth initiatives that support business development, strengthen go-to-market efforts, and elevate the client experience. Responsible for designing and leading priority programs, processes, and campaigns to support geographies, sectors, and other parts of the firm.

Specific duties and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Lead Client Listening and Feedback: Lead client listening efforts to gather feedback, identify key themes, and surface new opportunities for the firm.

• Scale Win/Loss and Market Insight: Scale up the win/loss debrief program and develop deep insight into client needs, market trends, and emerging growth areas.

• Translate Insight into Action: Translate findings from client and market research into clear, actionable steps for Business Development, Marketing, and firm leadership.

• Design and Manage Strategic Programs: Design and manage national programs and initiatives, including priority account programs and account development frameworks, that support growth and client development.

• Establish Governance and Focus: Establish the processes, tools, and governance required for consistent execution across the firm, helping to focus effort and investment on the greatest opportunities.

• Create Repeatable Processes and Tools: Create the templates, playbooks, and processes used across regions and teams to bring consistency to how client insight, segmentation, and growth initiatives are executed.

• Optimize Program Deployment: Clarify and manage the balance of strategic programs, determining which elements should be centrally managed versus locally deployed for maximum impact.

• Monitor Impact and Refine Strategy: Track participation, adoption, and outcomes of all initiatives to assess performance and refine tools, processes, and priorities based on feedback and results.

People Leader:

• Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports.

• Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests.

• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities.

• In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events.

• All other duties as assigned or required.

Skills and experience:

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications.

• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required.

• Ability to travel, as required.

• 8+ years of directly relevant exempt-level experience (e.g., marketing or business development, preferably with an emphasis working in a client initiatives function), with 4+ years of management experience in relevant roles.

• Demonstrated experience building executive-ready dashboards in data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI).

• Strong proficiency in data manipulation to evaluate both quantitative metrics and qualitative sentiment analysis.

• Strong working knowledge of enterprise CRM ecosystems (e.g., Salesforce).

• Advanced, hands‑on experience administering enterprise feedback and surveying platforms (e.g., Qualtrics).

• Proven track record of effective leadership.

• Bachelor's degree.

Preferred:

• Previous legal industry or professional services experience.

Competencies:

• Entrepreneurial by nature.

• Excellent attention to detail.

• Approaches tasks through a lens of quality and consistency.

• Approaches tasks through a digital first lens.

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills with ability to facilitate and solve problems.

• Ability to organize, prioritize and coordinate multiple activities often under tight timelines.

• Takes a consultative approach to set goals, drive projects, and achieve outcomes.

• Strong judgment.

• Team‑player with collaborative spirit.

• Unwavering ability to handle and maintain confidentiality regarding firm information, projects, client data.

• High level of professionalism at all times.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and develop talent.

• Proactive, analytical mindset.

• Effective presentation skills.

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full‑time schedule is $200,000 - $240,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre‑tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long‑term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm‑paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 25 days of Paid Time Off ("PTO") and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.