Eckert Seamans is a full-service national law firm with a strong reputation and history of success that spans more than 65 years. With approximately 300 lawyers across a network of 14 offices, we provide clients with proactive, solution-oriented business and litigation counsel. We are seeking an experienced Knowledge Management and Library Services Manager for our Pittsburgh, PA or Philadelphia, PA office.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
- Participates in the selection process and decision for positions within the department
- Responsible for the training of new department staff
- Manage the daily workflow within the team
- Provides constructive and timely performance evaluations
- Manage and approve timecards and time off as necessary
- Provide first level discipline and conflict resolution
- Support professional development and continued educational opportunities
- Foster an inclusive environment
- Enforce firm policies and procedures
Primary Responsibilities:
Knowledge Management Leadership
- Develop and implement a firm-wide knowledge management strategy that captures, organizes, governs, and shares institutional knowledge across practice groups.
- Establish and maintain precedent, forms, brief, memorandum, and work-product repositories, including governance standards for metadata, taxonomy, content organization, retention, and accessibility.
- Partner with attorneys, practice groups, Records Management, Information Governance, and other stakeholders to improve knowledge sharing, reuse, internal communication, and information access.
- Support AI, search, and document automation initiatives through curated knowledge collections and reusable legal work product.
Law Library Administration
- Manage library and research services firmwide, including daily operations, procedures, service delivery, digital and physical collections, and access to authoritative legal and business information.
- Oversee legal research platforms, databases, treatises, docket monitoring tools, print and electronic subscriptions, legal news, and niche information services that support attorneys, clients, and practice groups.
- Manage the departmental budget, evaluate usage metrics and return on investment, negotiate vendor contracts and subscription renewals, and recommend cost-effective research resources while maintaining service excellence.
Legal and Business Research Services
- Provide advanced legal, legislative, regulatory, business, and competitive intelligence research for attorneys, practice groups, marketing, business development, management, and other firm departments.
- Develop current-awareness and monitoring services for legal developments, clients, industries, practice areas, and emerging business trends; assemble and distribute relevant materials to appropriate attorneys and business professionals.
- Prepare research memoranda, resource guides, curated content collections, and other research deliverables, including handling research assignments when the Research Librarian is unavailable.
Training and User Support
- Deliver and coordinate training programs for attorneys and staff on legal research tools, knowledge repositories, AI-enhanced research platforms, firm information resources, and research best practices.
- Develop user guides, instructional materials, self-service resources, and onboarding support for new attorneys and paralegals.
- Promote adoption of knowledge management systems and advise attorneys, paralegals, and practice groups on information management, research strategies, and best practices.
Technology and Innovation
- Collaborate with Information Technology, Business Development & Marketing, Conflicts, and other departments to support strategic growth, knowledge management technologies, search platforms, and enhanced information access.
- Keep abreast of industry trends and evaluate emerging legal technology, research platforms, artificial intelligence solutions, print and electronic resources, and other tools that support legal research and reference services.
- Support integration of knowledge resources into Microsoft 365, document management, intranet, AI systems, and other platforms that improve attorney productivity and access to information.
- Foster a service-oriented and collaborative team culture and ensure continuity of research, and library, and knowledge management services across firm offices.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Skills/Abilities
- Strong supervisory, leadership, staff development, and change management skills.
- Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation communication skills.
- Strong organizational, project management, prioritization, delegation, and attention-to-detail skills.
- Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving, strategic thinking, and sound judgment abilities.
- Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with attorneys, executives, administrative professionals, vendors, and cross-functional teams.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, service-oriented professional environment.
- Knowledge of legal terminology, the U.S. legal system, legal research methodologies, and authoritative legal, business, public records, docket, and competitive intelligence resources.
- Advanced proficiency with legal research and knowledge platforms, including Westlaw, Bloomberg Law, Practical Law, Dun & Bradstreet, Thomson Reuters CoCounsel, DeepResearch, and similar tools.
- Experience with document management systems, particularly iManage, knowledge repositories, enterprise search technologies, and Microsoft 365 tools, including Teams, SharePoint, Copilot, and related collaboration platforms.
- Working knowledge of records management, information governance, taxonomy, metadata, knowledge sharing, and content lifecycle principles.
- Ability to assess, recommend, and support adoption of emerging legal technology, AI-powered research tools, and knowledge management solutions.
Education and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree and minimum four years of experience as a research librarian and two years with supervisory experience
- MLS or MLIS from an ALA-accredited library school preferred
- Law firm experience preferred
Physical Requirements:
- Remain stationary for extended periods while performing repetitive tasks such as working at a computer.
- Ability to move throughout the office to attend meetings, access files, collaborate with colleagues, and use standard office equipment, including but not limited to; printers, copiers, scanners.
- Ability to move files, documents, supplies, or materials up to 10 pounds
- Ability to transport materials using carts, dollies, or other appropriate equipment
Travel expectation:
Less than 10% Eckert Seamans is committed to providing equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, national origin, age, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, disability or any protected military or veteran status. Eckert Seamans will not consider resumes submitted by external agencies or recruiters unless specifically requested and approved by an HR/Recruiting representative for this position. Prior approval is required even if the agency or recruiter has an agreement in place with Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. An external agency or recruiter will not be compensated in any way for the submission of a candidate for this position if prior approval is not obtained.