Director, Legal Service Design

Job Description

McCarthy Tétrault is a leading Canadian law firm offering a full suite of legal and business solutions to clients in Canada and around the world. With offices in Toronto, Montréal, Québec City, Calgary and Vancouver, we provide challenging and rewarding career opportunities across the country. Recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers for eleven consecutive years and one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers for fourteen consecutive years, our culture is guided by The McCarthy Way—our shared approach to working with clients and with each other.

The McCarthy Way is built on four core elements: Excellence, through attracting and developing top talent committed to delivering on our Client Commitment; Collaboration, through seamless, integrated teamwork; Inclusion, through eliminating barriers to belonging and success; and Innovation, through delivering maximum value by embracing leading-edge technologies and approaches. Together, these principles shape how we work, lead, and grow—every day.

MT>Forge is McCarthy Tétrault’s AI-enabled managed services division. We deliver high-volume, repeatable legal work through a combination of AI tooling, process design, and lawyer oversight. We don’t just advise clients on how to do legal work differently; we take ownership of the work itself and deliver it better, faster, and more predictably than traditional models allow.

The Director, Legal Service Design is the operational backbone of MT>Forge, responsible for designing and managing the processes, playbooks, and quality frameworks that allow us to deliver legal work at scale. This is not a policy or strategy role. It is hands‑on: building workflows, managing lawyer and client relationships, and ensuring that what we deliver meets the standard our clients expect and the economics our model requires. The role reports directly to the division’s leadership and works closely with lawyers, clients, technologists, and firm stakeholders.

This is a rare chance to build a legal services business from the inside of a national firm, with real clients, real revenue, and direct influence over how the operation is designed and scaled. Instead of advising from the sidelines, you will be shaping how legal work is actually delivered. You will have the backing of one of Canada’s largest law firms as well as the freedom to build something new within it. This is a newly created position.

Base Salary: $188,000 – $198,000 annually

The offered salary may vary based on the candidate’s job‑specific knowledge, skills, and experience.

As a Director, Legal Service Design, you will be:

• Designing and documenting end-to-end delivery processes for managed legal services engagements (contract review, serial transactions, litigation management, infrastructure planning, regulatory compliance, and similar workstreams).
• Building playbooks, checklists, and quality control frameworks that allow junior lawyers and legal professionals to execute complex work consistently.
• Serving as the day-to-day operational lead on client engagements, managing timelines, escalations, and client communications.
• Working with lawyers across practice groups to translate their expertise into structured, repeatable processes, and help them see AI-enabled delivery as an opportunity rather than a threat to their practice.
• Partnering with the technical team to define requirements for AI-powered workflows, test outputs, and to identify where automation adds value versus where human judgment is essential.
• Tracking and reporting on engagement economics: utilization, turnaround times, error rates, margin, and other key metrics.
• Contributing to business development efforts by helping articulate the MT>Forge model to prospective clients and supporting pitch preparation.
• Building, structuring, and leading a team (e.g., process engineers, legal analysts) supporting MT>Forge delivery.
• Setting the standard for service design and quality across engagements, and coaching others to apply it consistently.
• Acting as the primary operational point of escalation for delivery teams, lawyers, and business partners.

As our ideal candidate, you will distinguish yourself by the following profile:

• LL.B. or J.D. from a recognized law school.
• Minimum 7 years of combined legal practice and/or legal operations experience, including demonstrated experience structuring legal work as repeatable processes rather than one-off matters.
• Demonstrated experience in legal operations, legal innovation, legal project management, or managed legal services.
• A completed degree in a relevant field; an advanced degree or business education (e.g., M.B.A.) is considered an asset.
• Process design: proven ability to design and document end-to-end delivery processes, playbooks, checklists, and quality-control frameworks that others can execute consistently.
• AI fluency: ability to understand what an AI model is doing at a conceptual level, evaluate its output critically, articulate where it falls short, and define requirements for AI-enabled workflows; able to point to concrete examples of real outcomes achieved using AI.
• Commercial acumen: ability to manage engagement economics (utilization, turnaround times, error rates, margin) and to balance both “is this good legal work?” and “does this make financial sense?” at the same time.
• Stakeholder and client management: clear, low-ego communication with senior partners, junior associates, clients, and paralegals, adjusting register without losing credibility with any audience.
• Change leadership: demonstrated experience driving adoption of new ways of working in environments where people are skeptical, anxious, or protective of existing practices.
• Comfort operating in an early‑stage environment inside a large firm, where scope shifts and ambiguity is expected.
• Technical or software development background, or hands‑on experience building with legal‑tech tools is an asset.
• Experience in a managed services, ALSP, or legal-technology vendor environment is an asset.
• Bilingual (English/French) is an asset.

As a member of the McCarthy team, you will have access to:

• Outstanding benefits from day one, including insurance premiums paid by the Firm and wellness and technology reimbursements.
• Competitive compensation and generous time off, including a day off to volunteer and a day off for your birthday.
• A commitment to professional development and growth opportunities for our people at all levels, supported by a culture that fully embraces and encourages two‑way feedback.
• Strong community involvement and a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• A collaborative, cohesive culture that connects lawyers and business teams through collective purpose.

How to Apply:

We encourage external candidates to apply online and internal applicants must apply directly through our internal careers portal on Espresso. We look forward to receiving your application.

McCarthy Tétrault utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) technology as part of our application screening process to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our recruitment efforts by analyzing applications to identify candidates whose qualifications and experiences align with the requirements of the position.

We thank all applicants for their interest in McCarthy Tétrault; however, only chosen applicants will be contacted. We regret that we are unable to respond to individual inquiries about application status. McCarthy Tétrault is an equal opportunity employer that fosters an inclusive, equitable, and accessible environment. Please notify us if you require accommodation at any time during the recruitment process.

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