Senior Legal Operations Administrator

Description

 Multi-State | Corporate Legal & Finance Support 

About Us

At Swickard Automotive Group, we’re a hospitality company that happens to sell cars. With operations across the West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii, we focus on building systems that scale integrity, consistency, and care—for our guests and for our people.

Our legal and finance teams play a critical role in protecting the business, enabling growth, and supporting leaders with clarity and confidence. We believe hospitality starts internally, and strong operations make that possible.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager of Legal Operations serves as the operational leader of Swickard’s legal department, providing comprehensive management of litigation, outside counsel relationships, and legal support staff across our locations in six states.

This role requires a proactive, highly organized professional who can autonomously manage complex legal matters, implement efficient legal operations systems, and lead the legal team with strategic thinking and strong decision-making.

In addition, this position provides targeted Chief of Staff support to the CFO, supporting key projects and initiatives that intersect legal, finance, and enterprise operations.

Key Responsibilities

Legal Operations & Litigation Management

• Oversee and manage all active litigation matters across Swickard’s multi-state operations
• Maintain comprehensive litigation tracking systems, timelines, and documentation
• Ensure timely resolution of matters while proactively managing risk exposure
• Coordinate responses to subpoenas, discovery requests, regulatory inquiries, and compliance matters across CA, NV, OR, WA, HI, and AK
• Conduct legal research, draft correspondence, prepare legal documents, and coordinate filings as needed

Outside Counsel & Budget Management

• Serve as the primary liaison with outside counsel firms
• Manage relationships, coordinate legal strategies, and negotiate fee arrangements
• Monitor legal budgets and ensure cost-effective delivery of legal services
• Develop and maintain the outside counsel panel, evaluating firm performance and service consistency

Team Leadership & Internal Collaboration

• Lead legal support staff, including paralegals and legal assistants
• Provide direction, training, performance management, and professional development
• Collaborate proactively with HR, dealership leadership, OEM partners, finance, operations, and other departments
• Identify emerging legal issues and develop business-aligned legal strategies

Risk, Reporting & Governance

• Proactively identify legal risks across the organization and escalate appropriately
• Recommend practical, business-focused solutions
• Create and deliver litigation status reports, budget updates, and risk assessments to executive leadership
• Establish and enforce legal department policies, procedures, and best practices

CFO Support & Special Projects

• Provide direct support to the CFO on projects intersecting legal and finance
• Support contract management, vendor negotiations, and compliance matters
• Develop meeting agendas, capture detailed minutes, and drive action-item accountability
• Prepare briefing materials, executive summaries, and decision documents
• Lead special projects requiring legal expertise or cross-functional coordination
• Support ad hoc CFO requests involving research, analysis, or project coordination
   

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Paralegal Certificate strongly preferred
• 7+ years of progressive legal experience
• At least 4 years in litigation management or legal operations
• 3+ years managing teams or leading legal departments/functions

Skills & Capabilities

• Demonstrated success managing multiple complex litigation matters with competing deadlines
• Exceptional organizational and project management skills
• Proven ability to implement systems and drive process improvements
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance legal requirements and operational realities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with executive presence
• Ability to clearly communicate complex legal matters to non-legal audiences
• Proficiency with legal matter management systems, e-discovery platforms, and Microsoft Office Suite
• Ability to work autonomously, make sound decisions under pressure, and drive results

Preferred Experience

• Multi-state or multi-location legal experience
• Experience managing outside counsel relationships and legal budgets
• Automotive, retail, hospitality, or franchise industry experience a plus

Success Profile

This role is ideal for a senior paralegal or legal operations professional who thrives on high-volume litigation management, enjoys building systems and leading teams, and wants to be the operational backbone of a legal department.

Success requires strong attention to detail combined with strategic thinking, the confidence to manage difficult situations and demanding outside counsel, and the judgment to know when to escalate and when to resolve independently.

The ideal candidate brings both “get it done” execution skills and the leadership presence to represent the legal function across the organization.

Why This Role Matters

This role is the operational engine of the legal function—balancing risk, execution, leadership, and partnership with finance.
If you like ownership, structure, and impact, this role delivers all three.