Director - Paralegal Services - State Farm

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• Get Paid! On top of our competitive pay, you are eligible for an annual raise and bonus.
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Visit our State Farm Careers page for more information on our benefits, locations, and the hiring process of joining the State Farm team!

State Farm’s Corporate Law Division, of the Law Department, is seeking a Director of Paralegal Services to provide leadership to Paralegal Services, including the Paralegal Managers.  This position will report to a Vice President-Counsel and will be responsible for providing strategic guidance in developing, implementing and continuously improving the utilization of paralegals and legal technicians in the department. Competitive candidates will have leadership skills, strong communication, and the ability to effectively collaborate with and influence multiple stakeholders. The selected candidate will be located in our corporate headquarters in Bloomington, IL.  The position is classified as a hybrid role, meaning that the work arrangement calls for hours in the office and virtually. Everyone in a hybrid role is required to spend significant time in the office, and it is essential to effectively lead in this role. Remote applicants will not be considered.  Work arrangements could change over time based on business needs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provides leadership, planning, and direction regarding work and resources to meet established goals by holding others accountable for their contributions through successful administration of the Performance Management process
• Establishes vision, strategies, and goals for paralegal services in alignment with enterprise and department objectives
• Oversees Paralegal Services, including selection, training, counseling, career development, mentoring, direction and performance evaluations and rewards to personnel within Corporate Law Paralegal Services
• Champion and model an environment that fosters diversity of thought, change adoption, innovation, and inclusion as well as a culture of employee engagement, demonstrating Leadership in Action principles
• Identifies and implements increased efficiencies to support the Law Department and guard against potential business interruptions
• Works with stakeholders to analyze needs and converts them into action items or prioritized work efforts
• Helps to ensure compliance with enterprise and department policies, procedures, and practices
• Responsible for the development and control of the operating budget for assigned function(s)
  and management of expenses

• Possesses advanced understanding and knowledge of the Law Department’s structure, paralegal role, processes and resources 
• Possesses strong knowledge of company operations, standards, organizational structure and related industry issues
• Embraces and translates enterprise, Law Department and Corporate Law Division vision into strategies and operational plans maximizing paralegal and legal technician resources
• Proactively collaborates with Counsel leadership in addressing Counsel and Paralegal/Legal Technician opportunities, reviewing work for efficiencies and role clarity
• Addresses and resolves issues that support the department's strategic enterprise direction, considering broad impacts on the department
• Drives strategic direction and management of staffing, onboarding, integration, training and development, performance management and compensation, utilization, and work allocation for the Corporate Law Paralegal Services
• Collaborates with Legal Operations staff, facilitates budget process for Corporate Law Paralegal Services budget for senior leadership review
• Seeks, shares and applies external industry knowledge, including emerging technologies, to improve paralegal/legal technician skills and use of tools to drive efficiencies
• Continuously reviews and introduces strategic and innovative approaches to process improvement focusing on overall operation of the Corporate Law Paralegal Services
• Provides regular reports to senior leadership on assigned responsibilities
• Helps to ensure leaders, within area of responsibility, are managing confidential, and privileged work product information
• Education and/or experience in the legal profession is preferred
• Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work opportunity.

Items of Note:

• May work irregular hours, including weekends/holidays
• Travel via personal or commercial transportation to job related activities may be required
• May be required to attend company sponsored training and education courses, where applicable
• Expected to remain current on industry related trends and issues