Counsel – Settlement Team

Barnes & Thornburg LLP; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Chicago seeks a highly qualified Counsel to lead complex product liability and mass tort settlements from negotiation through closure. The attorney will oversee settlements, manage claims administration, and coordinate across internal teams and plaintiffs’ counsel.

The role requires JD, active bar status, 8+ years in mass torts, experience with drug, medical device or consumer products, and strong contract drafting, data management, and governance skills.

Qualifications

• JD degree from an accredited law school.
• Active Bar in good standing or eligible to waive in.
• 8+ years of substantive mass tort experience, incl. 3+ years in litigation at a law firm.
• Experience in claims resolution, pharmaceutical/medical device or consumer products.
• Detail-oriented with ability to manage multiple teams and work streams.
• Familiarity with matter management systems and claims platforms.
• Experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating settlement documents.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support settlement negotiations in product liability, mass tort, toxic tort, and consumer product matters.
• Develop settlement structures and eligibility criteria.
• Serve as primary legal and operations lead to ensure settlements are executed efficiently and compliantly.
• Draft, review, and finalize settlement documents with plaintiffs’ counsel.
• Manage nurse paralegals and attorneys to review and categorize claims.
• Analyze data across claims to monitor values and trends.
• Oversee settlements implementation and claims administration quality.

Skills

Negotiation

Leadership

Project management

Communication

Stakeholder management

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Tools

Case Manager Pro

Claims administration platforms

AI-enabled claim review platforms

Job description

Office: Any BT Office Location

We are seeking a highly qualified Counsel attorney to work with firm Partners as part of the firm’s product liability and mass torts resolution team. This attorney will be responsible for leading and managing all aspects of complex product liability, toxic tort, and mass tort settlements from initial negotiations through final claim resolution and program closure.

The ideal candidate possesses extensive experience negotiating and implementing large-scale settlements involving thousands of claimants and has a deep understanding of contract drafting principles, claims administration, settlement allocation methodologies, lien resolution, data management, reporting obligations and compliance issues, and settlement fund governance.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead and support settlement negotiations in complex product liability, mass tort, toxic tort, and consumer product litigation matters.
• Help develop settlement structures and eligibility criteria.
• Serve as primary legal and operations lead, ensuring settlements are executed efficiently, accurately, and in accordance with all legal requirements.
• Work directly with plaintiffs’ counsel to negotiate, draft, review, and finalize all settlement-related documents, and to resolve any claimant disputes or appeals.
• Manage teams of nurse paralegals and other attorneys to review and assess the qualification and categorization of incoming claims.
• Perform data analysis across claims, such as monitoring values and identifying trends within a tort (e.g., for individual firms and claim groups) and across a settlement.
• Oversee all aspects of settlement implementation and claims administration, including workflow and quality assurance.

EXPERIENCE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school.
• Candidate must be active and in good standing with the local state Bar, or be eligible to waive in.
• Minimum of 8 years of significant and substantive experience practicing law, with a focus on mass torts in the drug, medical device and/or consumer products area(s), including at least three years of litigation practice at a law firm.
• Claims resolution experience, preferably with a focus on pharmaceutical products, medical devices, or consumer health or consumer-facing products.
• Detail-oriented with ability to simultaneously manage multiple teams and work streams.
• Familiarity with matter management systems (e.g., Case Manager Pro), claims administration platforms, and AI-enabled claim review platforms preferred.
• Experience drafting, reviewing and/or directly negotiating settlement documents, and a deep understanding of contracting principles generally.
• Strong problem-solving, project management, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• The ideal candidate will also be highly motivated to be part of an active settlement practice, demonstrate initiative, an ability to assume responsibility for client matters, as well as the interpersonal skills to work well as part of a large, collaborative team.

WORKING CONDITIONS

1. Normal law office environment with little exposure to excessive noise, dust, temperature, and the like.
2. Must have the ability to work under pressure and multi-task.

The Counsel must be able to perform all essential job duties and responsibilities of this position with minimal supervision, satisfactorily and as outlined, with or without reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodation requests may be accommodated, absent undue firm hardship.

This job description is intended to describe the general requirements of this position. As such, it is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of job duties or responsibilities required in this job. Subject to firm needs, duties and responsibilities of this position may change at any time, on a temporary or permanent basis, and with or without notice.

We will not consider resumes submitted by external agencies or recruiters for this position. Recruiters and agencies will not be compensated for assisting Barnes & Thornburg LLP in recruiting for this position, regardless of whether such party has a recruiting contract with us.

Equal Employment and Opportunity Statement:

Barnes & Thornburg is committed to equal employment opportunity in both principle and as a matter of policy. We will recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate and provide benefits to all applicants and employees without regard to ancestry, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, religion, religious creed, mental and/or physical disability, medical condition, military and/or veteran’s status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws. This policy applies to all recruiting, hiring, promotions, upgrades, layoffs, compensation, benefits, terminations and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. The firm complies fully with all federal, state and local equal employment opportunity laws.