Lead Compliance Counsel for Lateral Conflicts

Norton Rose Fulbright LLP; San Antonio (TX); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance plans

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Disability insurance

401(k) plan

Fertility benefits

Commuter benefits

Student loan assistance

Job summary

Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP is seeking an experienced Compliance Counsel and Senior Manager to oversee conflicts clearance for lateral attorney recruiting across the U.S. offices. The role partners with Recruiting, General Counsel, and firm leadership to balance legal risk with business needs.

The ideal candidate has a JD with active U.S. license, 4+ years in large-firm conflicts work, and strong leadership, process improvement, and mentoring skills.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) and active license to practice law in a U.S. jurisdiction where the firm has an office (Texas, New York, California, or D.C. strongly preferred).
• 4+ years of experience as a compliance/conflicts lawyer at a large law firm
• Thorough working knowledge of U.S. conflicts rules and ethical obligations.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise risk-based judgment and provide pragmatic, commercially informed advice.
• Strong written and oral communication skills; ability to engage effectively with partners and senior management.
• Leadership experience supervising, coaching, and developing teams.

Responsibilities

• Create and implement policies and procedures for lateral conflicts clearance; translate strategic objectives into actionable plans.
• Provide operational oversight of lateral conflicts workflows and queues to ensure timely handling; allocate resources, delegate work, and authorize overtime as needed.
• Supervise and mentor Compliance Lawyers, Senior Compliance Analysts, Compliance Analysts, Compliance Lateral Admin and related staff; conduct performance evaluations, targeted training, and career development.
• Act as the primary liaison between the Lateral Compliance Team and Recruiting, ensuring request accuracy, defining deadlines, and following up for missing information.
• Collaborate with New Business Intake, Recruiting, BD, Finance, and IT to streamline processes and improve cycle times.
• Analyze trends and bottlenecks; recommend and implement process improvements to enhance accuracy and speed.
• Oversee compliance conflicts for secondments, ensuring compliance with conflict-of-interest policies throughout onboarding and offboarding processes.
• Prepare and deliver training for attorneys, secretaries, and staff on conflicts and compliance topics.
• Stay current on software and process changes (e.g., Intapp) and lead adoption initiatives.
• Advise partners, attorneys, and Recruiting on conflicts of interest for lateral candidates, incorporating legal, ethical, and commercial considerations.
• Assess waiver needs and clearance provisos, draft clearance memoranda and client notices.
• Review client relationship letters to identify contractual obligations impacting conflicts resolution.
• Review and interpret candidate documentation (e.g., client lists, engagement letters, outside roles) and validate data in conflicts systems.
• Interpret and respond to policy questions related to share dealing and other compliance matters.
• Supervise that maintenance of conflicts system integrity by directing the inputting, updating, and retiring of lateral candidate data; lead data clean-up projects.

Skills

Leadership

Conflict of interest

Communication

Risk judgment

Office software

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) and active license

Tools

Intapp

MS Word

Outlook

Excel

Job description

Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP is seeking an experienced Compliance Counsel and Senior Manager to oversee conflicts clearance for lateral attorney recruiting across the U.S. offices. The role partners with Recruiting, General Counsel, and firm leadership to balance legal risk with business needs.

The ideal candidate has a JD with active U.S. license, 4+ years in large-firm conflicts work, and strong leadership, process improvement, and mentoring skills.