Senior Legal Operations Expert — AI Consulting Collective

Legal departments are under more pressure than they've ever been — more contracts, more compliance surface area, more regulatory complexity — with headcount that hasn't kept pace. AI is changing what's possible. The question is who shapes how it gets applied. That's the opening we're building toward. I'm the founder of DataStudios, a boutique AI consultancy that builds AI systems that actually work inside real organizations. After 20+ years leading data and AI initiatives at PwC, Publicis Sapient, and boutique firms — working with clients including Capital One, Wells Fargo, AT&T, the CDC, and AARP — I've built a curated collective of senior domain experts who partner with us on engagements where deep industry knowledge makes the difference between a system that gets adopted and one that doesn't. We've already built and delivered an AI-powered legal platform — three specialized agents handling contract review, compliance advisory, and document drafting, unified in a single dashboard — for a client whose legal team was drowning in fragmented workflows and manual document review. That engagement is live. We're looking to do more of this work, and to do it with someone who can bring the legal depth we bring to the engineering. **What we're looking for** A senior legal operations or legal advisory professional with direct experience inside complex legal environments. Specifically, someone who has: - Led or managed legal operations, contract management, compliance programs, or legal technology initiatives at a Fortune 500, major law firm, or top-tier consulting firm - Worked inside BigLaw, Big 4 legal advisory (Deloitte Legal, PwC Legal, KPMG Law, EY Law), or in-house at a significant legal department — not just practiced law, but understood how legal departments actually run - Been responsible for outcomes: reducing cycle times, improving compliance posture, implementing CLM systems, managing outside counsel spend, or transforming workflows — not just providing recommendations - Enough firsthand exposure to where legal work breaks down that you can walk into a client conversation and immediately identify where AI can move the needle This is not a role for someone whose experience is purely theoretical. We're looking for someone who's been embedded in the work. **The model** This is a fractional, non-exclusive collaboration. We bring the AI engineering and build capability. You bring the domain expertise and business context — the ability to translate what a legal department actually needs into a solution that gets adopted. In practice that means: strategy and diagnostic workshops, process mapping, requirements definition, client advisory, and working alongside our AI engineers to shape what gets built. You don't need to know how to build AI systems. You need to know where the problems are and what a good solution looks like from the client's perspective. We structure engagements around the work, not a fixed timeline. Some start with a focused 4–6 week sprint; others grow into long-term advisory relationships from the first client conversation. Scope expands with mutual fit. Remote, flexible. **Compensation** This is a fractional, project-based collaboration. Engagements are compensated at a competitive hourly or project rate based on the scope and your level of involvement — whether that's advisory hours, client-facing work, or both. The full structure of how we work together — including how we handle client relationships you bring to the table and how ongoing accounts are managed — is something we cover in an initial conversation. The model is designed to reward people who are invested in the outcomes, not just the hours. **Why this is worth your attention** AI is going to reshape legal operations significantly over the next few years. The organizations that navigate it well will be the ones with advisors who can bridge domain credibility and technical execution — who can sit in front of a GC or COO and translate what AI can actually do into decisions worth making. That's the position we're building toward, and we're doing it with a small, curated group of people who have the standing to do it credibly. If you've spent your career building expertise inside legal environments and you want to apply it to where the industry is going, this is a conversation worth having. **To apply** Share a brief note with: - Your specific legal operations background and where you've worked - Two or three examples of initiatives you've led — what the problem was, what you built or changed, what it produced - Your current availability and what kind of engagement would work for you If there's alignment, we'll set up a short call.