eDiscovery and Outside Counsel Management Manager

About the teamZillow’s Legal & Compliance (L&C) organization is a team of skilled, collaborative professionals dedicated to supporting Zillow’s mission with integrity, innovation, and excellence.

About the role

Zillow is seeking an eDiscovery and Outside Counsel Management Manager to lead, manage and optimize the Legal and Compliance Team’s ediscovery, outside counsel management, and third-party subpoena operations programs. This role is critical to the operational integrity of the company’s legal and compliance teams helping to ensure the company is managing risk, cost, and data effectively at scale.

Reporting to the head of litigation, you will collaborate closely with legal stakeholders, external counsel, vendors, and internal partners to oversee and optimize the company’s relationships with external law firm partners and ediscovery vendors, manage budgets, negotiate rates, ensure compliance with outside counsel guidelines and evaluate performance.  This role will also include managing legal holds, developing and implementing retention policies, optimizing legal technology tools, and overseeing third-party subpoena responses. 

You Will Get To:

• Outside Counsel Management 

  • Serve as the primary point of contact for law firm relationship management. 

  • Partner with Legal and Compliance stakeholders to interview and select outside counsel based upon matter specifics to match risk profile and desired outcome, establishing budgets, negotiating rates and optimizing law firm use of legal technology tools, including AI, to drive efficiency and cost saving. 

  • Regularly review the panel of preferred firms based on performance, diversity, expertise, and cost competitiveness, making updates as needed.

  • Monitor outside counsel performance on active matters, conducting periodic reviews and performance evaluations of legal outcomes, service quality and rates. 

  • Support outside counsel CLE presentations to in-house counsel. 

  • Partner with Zillow’s legal operations team to set strategy and establish internal guidelines around the use of external counsel, analyze legal spend to identify cost-saving opportunities and budgeting trends, and enforce legal department billing policies and guidelines and matter management protocols.

• E-Discovery and Technology 

  • Oversee the company’s internal e-discovery program and collaborate with outside counsel and vendors to provide company-wide e-discovery support, serving as the company’s primary point of contact for e-discovery technology tools. 

  • Own the end-to-end e-discovery lifecycle, from legal hold through collection, processing, review and production. 

  • Oversee the company’s legal hold platforms and partner with internal stakeholders on legal data preservation across systems.

  • Support and implement the development of e-discovery policies, workflows and best practices in collaboration with Legal, IT, Security and Compliance teams.

  • Provide guidance on data minimization, defensibility, and early case assessment to reduce review volume and legal risk. 

  • Develop and lead internal training programs on legal holds, data preservation obligations, and best practices for cross-functional teams.

  • Act as a thought leader on e-discovery trends, compliance requirements, and litigation technology.

  • Make recommendations with respect to litigation, e-discovery and subpoena-related technology tools and vendors to improve process and mitigate risk and cost (e.g., subpoena related work, legal hold and document collection tools).

• Subpoena Response Management 

  • Primary point of contact for intake, tracking and management of third-party subpoenas to ensure timely and adequate responses.

  • Review and analyze subpoena requests for legal sufficiency, scope and appropriate response strategy. 

  • Communicate with requesting counsel and/or government agencies to clarify or negotiate scope. 

  • Work with internal business units to collect and preserve responsive documents and data.

  • Draft subpoena responses, including conducting review and production of records.

  • Generate regular reports and metrics to track volume and trends.

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $105,900.00 - $169,100.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location.

Who you are

We’re looking for a strategic thinker and systems-savvy operator with a strong foundation in legal operations, litigation management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience in legal or litigation operations, managing e-discovery, third-party subpoena responses, and overseeing outside counsel management in-house or at law firm. 

• Deep experience in outside counsel management, including pricing models and law firm pricing and billing practices, budgeting, and negotiation and evaluation of rates, including alternative fee arrangements.

• Extensive experience in legal data preservation practices, including managing legal holds and document collections and productions.

• Experience managing and overseeing all phases of responses to third-party subpoenas.

• In-depth experience with legal tech platforms (Logikcull or equivalent), subpoena management tools, and dashboard/reporting tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Excel, Smartsheet).

• Strong financial acumen, experience with fiscal and budget management.

• Familiarity with Brightflag or other comparable legal e-billing systems and technological tools. 

• Strong project management skills; highly organized, accountable, and responsive.

• Excellent communication skills and ability to distill complexity for executive audiences.

• Preferred experience supporting legal, regulatory, or federal agency investigations at a technology company or highly regulated environment.

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their home search, and now they can rely on Zillow to help make it easier to move. The work we do helps people get home and no matter what job you're in, you will play a critical role in making home a reality for more and more people.

Our efforts to streamline the real estate transaction are supported by a deep-rooted culture of innovation, our passion to redefine the employee experience, a fundamental commitment to Equity and Belonging, and world-class benefits. These benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages as well as parental leave, family benefits, retirement contributions, and paid time off. We’re also setting the standard for work experiences of the future, where our employees are supported in doing their best work and living a flexible, well-balanced life. But don’t just take our word for it. Read recent reviews on Glassdoor and recent recognition from multiple organizations, including: the 100 Best Companies to Work For, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Corporate Equity Index, and TIME 100 Most Influential Companies list.

Zillow Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please contact your recruiter directly.

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Applicants who receive job offers from Zillow Group will be asked to sign a Proprietary Rights Agreement which includes confidentiality, intellectual property assignment, customer and employee non-solicitation, and non-competition provisions. If you are contacted for a role at Zillow Group and wish to review a copy of the Proprietary Rights Agreement prior to receiving an offer, you may request a copy from your Recruiter.