Senior Director, Claims Legal

CURRENT ROOT EMPLOYEES - Please apply using the career page in Workday. This career site is for external applicants only.

As part of Root's interview process, we kindly ask that all candidates be on camera for virtual interviews. This helps us create a more personal and engaging experience for both you and our interviewers. Being on camera is a standard requirement for our process and part of how we assess fit and communication style, so we do require it to move forward with any applicant's candidacy. If you have any concerns, feel free to let us know once you are contacted. We’re happy to talk it through.

The Opportunity  

The Senior Director of Claims Legal will serve as the senior legal leader for Root’s Claims organization. This role will oversee all legal aspects of claims operations, litigation management, compliance, and risk mitigation, while serving as a strategic advisor to both the General Counsel and Claims Leadership. The Senior Director will oversee our internal claims legal team and be responsible for building and managing a scalable external panel counsel program, ensuring quality, alignment with Root’s litigation philosophy, and cost efficiency. 

Salary Range: $197,634 - $247,043 (Bonus & LTI Eligible)

How You Will Make an Impact

• Claims Legal Oversight

  • Provide day-to-day legal counsel to Root’s Claims organization, including coverage issues, liability assessment, bad faith prevention, and regulatory compliance.

  • Review and guide litigation strategy across all claim types (property damage, bodily injury, PIP, UM/UIM, subrogation) ensuring balancing cost control with risk exposure.  

  • Partner closely with internal Claims Leadership, General Counsel, and Compliance, to ensure compliant practices and documentation standards.

  • Review complex and escalated claim files and settlement postures.

  • Maintain awareness of emerging legal trends and evolving regulatory risks that may impact claims operations.

  • Advise stakeholders on claims trends, legal exposure, and reputational risk.

  • Provide legal insight during audits, quarterly planning, and claims performance reviews.

  • Attract, hire, develop and retain a team of high-performing legal professionals. 

  • Promote legal claims practices that promote the fair and efficient settlement of claims that put the Insured first.

• Panel Counsel Program Leadership

  • Develop and implement Root’s national panel defense counsel program, including onboarding, performance management, process creation, billing oversight, and litigation quality control.

  • Build scalable vendor selection criteria, engagement policies, and evaluation standards.

  • Lead RFPs, negotiate preferred counsel agreements, and establish KPI frameworks to monitor outcomes and legal spend.

  • Serve as the primary relationship manager for all national panel defense counsel, ensuring values alignment and operational fit.

  • Partner with Claims Leadership to continuously refine Root’s litigation approach, outcome expectations, and resolution culture.

  • Evaluate the need for and implement an internal staff counsel legal team to supplement or otherwise augment external panel defence counsel.

What You Will Need to Succeed

• 15+ years of legal experience, including extensive work in insurance litigation, first-chair trial experience, claims legal oversight, and regulatory compliance.

• 10+ years experience in personal passenger and/or commercial auto, or other property and casualty insurance. 

• Significant experience performing complex coverage analysis.

• Proven track record advising on complex claims issues leading litigation strategies at scale. 

• Strong background managing external counsel relationships and driving cost-effective legal outcomes.  

• Strong experience managing an internal internal staff counsel team.

• Ability to participate effectively on the Claims Leadership senior management team.

• Exceptional analytical, strategic, and problem-solving skills.

• Demonstrated success leading and developing high-performing legal teams. 

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and effectively represent Root in litigation and regulatory matters.   

• Deep knowledge of insurance operations and P&C principles, good faith insurance business practices, and claims processes.

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an ABA accredited law school; admission to at least one state bar in good standing required. 

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Root, Inc., we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway!

At Root, we judge people based on the merit of their work, not who they are. If you are passionate about what this role entails and solving real problems, we encourage you to apply. We want to learn about you and what you can add to our team.

We’re harnessing the power of technology to revolutionize insurance. Using machine learning and mobile telematic platforms, we’ve built one of the most innovative FinTech companies in the world. And we’re just getting started.

Our success is in large part due to our unwavering standards in hiring. We recognize that our products are only as good as the people building and promoting them. We want individuals who find solutions by going through the cycle of ideation to implementation with curiosity, rigor, and an analytical lens. Ask anyone who works here and you’ll hear similar reasons for why they joined:

Autonomy—for assertive self-starters, the opportunities to contribute are limitless.

Impact—by challenging the way it’s always been done, we solve problems that have a big impact on our business.

Collaboration—we encourage rich discussion and civil debate at every turn.

People—we are inspired by the collection of crazy-smart people around us.