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OVERVIEW??

 

ATTORNEY RECRUITING & DEVELOPMENT

Akin Gump’s Attorney Development Program facilitates learning opportunities to help our attorneys reach their full potential and for the firm to achieve its strategic business goals. Their goal is to develop well-trained attorneys who have a high degree of career satisfaction and add value to the firm.

The Attorney Recruitment team is responsible for all attorney hiring at the firm, including summer associates, entry-level associates, lateral associates and lateral partners.

 

CLIENT VALUE AND PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Akin Gump's Client Value and Practice Management department takes a multidisciplinary approach to legal service delivery, focusing on internal and external needs and promoting overall operational efficiency within the practice groups.

The department encompasses the Client Value and Practice Management teams, as well as the firm's Docketing and Knowledge Management services functions.

With varying areas of specialization across each sub-team, the department's combined platform strives to apply solutions that align client needs with practice group business strategies, from talent management and innovative data analytics, to client / matter financial performance analyses, innovative, targeted pricing and project management strategies and tailored client communication support.

 

CONFERENCE SERVICES

The Conference Services department is dedicated to providing the highest level of service for both client and internal meetings or events. Events range from flagship client development events to smaller client affairs, internal meetings and seminars, and off-site retreats.

 

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

No department overview on portal – took from diversity page:

​From inception, Akin Gump has sought to establish and sustain a diverse work environment where all members of the Akin Gump community can thrive and grow. In order to build upon this longstanding commitment, our Diversity & Inclusion Department and Inclusion Councils are charged with the responsibility of advancing the three pillars of the firm’s diversity and inclusion strategy: (1) recruiting a diverse work force with access to development and growth opportunities, (2) maintaining an inclusive workplace and culture, and (3) nurturing strategic external partnerships with clients and communities where we live and work.

 

DOCKETING

​​​The Docketing team works with U.S. offices to coordinate court filings and calendaring for client matters for advocacy practice groups and Financial Restructuring. The team also collects necessary information to generate calendared events and reports. The New York Docketing team handles court filings for the New York office and is available to all offices.

 

FINANCE

The Finance team is a group of dedicated professionals that works on business planning, profitability and financial operations to track and measure the firm’s financial performance. Our Finance group offers a broad range of support, ranging from accounts payable and receivable, bill processing, and accounting to sophisticated Financial Planning and Analysis. 

 

HUMAN RESOURCES

The Human Resources team is responsible for setting and implementing a human capital strategy that aligns with and enables the business to achieve its goals.  The team provides strategic and tactical oversight for professional staff recruitment, compensation and benefits, employee relations, employee life cycle operations, coaching, performance development, and talent management programs and initiatives. 

 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The IT department at Akin Gump is responsible for the smooth operation of all IT services supporting the business, among which document management, messaging and telecommunications play a prominent role. Continual improvement is a theme, as we navigate the increasingly complex and ever-changing technical environment to give real world solutions to our users.

The department stays close to the business, and​​ through our business analysts, project managers and support staff, we help identify areas of improvement. We design, evaluate, deliver and support systems and services to help our attorneys and business services departments deliver exceptional client service.

In addition, the IT team is responsible for delivering training to all Akin Gump users, allowing end-users to get the best out of our systems and work both efficiently and effectively.

 

​​​KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

The Knowledge Management (KM) team is responsible for collecting, organizing and making available relevant and helpful resources. They contribute to the ongoing development and improvement of attorneys' skills and encourage collaboration and sharing of b​est practices. They assess and provide tools to improve efficiency, accountability and consistency with regards to substantive and operational knowledge sharing.

 

MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Marketing and Business Development helps the firm promote areas of experience and obtain business from new and existing clients. The teams are comprised of: alumni relations advisors who build out our alumni initiative to help with business development, recruiting, referrals, placement and brand reputation; business development professionals who work with practice group leaders to coordinate client development strategies at the practice level; a business intelligence analyst who provides in-depth analysis of clients and prospects; communications professionals who work to build the firm profile through media relations; marketers including creative services professionals who offer design services and maintain our branding; events managers; local marketers who coordinate local marketing initiatives; proposal writers who assist with materials requests; and marketing technology, which manages our systems and related technologies.

 

NEW BUSINESS INTAKE

Akin Gump’s New Business Intake and  Ethics Attorney teams report to the firm’s general counsel, and their work is performed under the general counsel’s direction and supervision.

In addition to performing conflicts checks for new clients, new matters, additional parties and pro bono matters, the NBI team performs due diligence to assist in evaluating new engagements or new matters taken on for existing clients. The NBI team also processes preliminary conflicts checks, handles changes to engagement letters, manages changes to existing client matter records, and processes audit letter requests and lateral hire conflicts checks.

 

OPERATIONS

Operations encompasses the broad range of business services and support functions that keep our firm's offices running smoothly, providing direct support to both lawyers and clients. Those functions, which are typically the responsibility of the local office administrator/manager, include: Conference Services; Office Services – Mail/Courier/Supplies; Duplicating/Reprographics; Administrative/Secretarial; Document Services/Word Processing; Facilities/Office Allocation; Leasing and Construction; and Travel.

 

PARALEGALS 

At Akin Gump Paralegals, at all levels of experience, are offered opportunities to play key roles on our client teams. Paralegals work side-by-side with attorneys to provide high-quality, cost effective legal services on each of our matters. They add value through experience, advising on how to best approach tasks. Paralegals leverage their experience to help attorneys develop innovative ways to approach challenging legal issues. The paralegal management team works closely with each paralegal to understand their career goals and objectives, and helps them achieve those through targeted staffing and training. Our Specialists, Senior Paralegals and Paralegals demonstrate creativity and thought leadership, each having developed expertise in their practice area.

Corporate Paralegals collaborate with attorneys on a wide-variety of projects including real estate transactions, mergers & acquisitions, IPOs, corporate formations and corporate governance.

Litigation Paralegals assist attorneys across practice areas on a wide-variety of litigation matters including Intellectual Property, Regulatory, Labor etc. They collaborate with case teams to help manage the litigation process from inception through trial, leveraging their knowledge to streamline the execution of litigation tasks and create efficiencies.

Entry-level Paralegals with academic credentials are able to contribute to the firm for two years prior to attending law or graduate school, and assist attorneys and senior Paralegals with routine legal tasks. Entry-level Paralegals work “in the trenches” with our legal teams learning about the practice of law first-hand, and help Akin Gump provide value to our clients through the work that they perform.

  

RESEARCH AND INFORMATION SERVICES

The Research and Information Services department is comprised of four teams; ​the Business Intelligence team develops and manages the firm's business and competitive intelligence efforts; the Digitization  team is responsible for the firmwide budget and the digital and print collection of all of the firm’s libraries; the Technical Services  team is responsible for vendor relations and acquisitions; and the Research team is responsible for training and assisting with research requests. 

 

RECORDS AND INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

The Records and Information Government (RIG) Department primarily assists the firm with the maintenance and governance of hard copy, electronic client and administrative records.  

Additional processes that RIG supports include:

• Supporting the digitization of paper documents
• Providing assistance, education and support regarding how to create a client or business record within the firm's document management system
• Educating attorneys and staff on the firm's record retention policy
• Implementing ethical walls in the firm's document management system
• Applying outside counsel guidelines for client records
• Managing onsite storage space for paper documents
• Processing paper documents for offsite storage
• Assisting with paper document destruction projects
• Reviewing onsite and offsite paper documents for possible destruction following guidelines in the firm's record retention policy
• Coordinating the transfer of client electronic and paper records for incoming and departing attorneys.

 

SECRETARIES AND LEGAL SUPPORT

Akin Gump’s legal secretaries provide industry-leading support to our lawyers. Our secretaries and legal support assistants provide a range of services from document creation and management to travel and heavy calendar management. Akini Gump is committed to ensuring that our secretaries receive ongoing training to stay current in the latest technology and help us deliver top client service.