Director of Legal Innovation and AI

Requirements

• 15+ years of progre

Benefits

Additional Information

Gibson Dunn is a leading global law firm, advising clients on significant transactions and disputes. Our exceptional teams craft and deploy creative legal strategies that are meticulously tailored to every matter, however complex or high-stakes. The firm's work is distinguished by a unique combination of precision and vision. Based in Los Angeles, New York or Washington, D.C., the Director of Legal Innovation and AI is a new role that reflects the firm's conviction that legal innovation is a strategic imperative that will reshape legal practice, client service, and firm competitiveness for the next decade. The role will serve as a firm legal innovation leader: executing the enterprise legal innovation strategy, governing the responsible deployment of AI across 2,200+ attorneys and all offices, building the firm's internal AI capability, and supporting Gibson Dunn's authoritative voice on AI in legal practice. This role reports to the Chief Legal Operations Officer. Responsibilities include: Execute on Legal Innovation Strategy Execute on the evolving firmwide legal innovation and AI multi-year roadmap, approved by firm leadership, covering practice-group AI deployment, client-facing capabilities, operational AI, and AI talent development. Advise the CLOO on AI's strategic implications for firm competitiveness, pricing strategy, talent markets, and client expectations. Lead Legal Innovation and AI competitive intelligence: maintain awareness of how peer firms are deploying AI, and position Gibson Dunn accordingly. Run the firm's AI Execution Committee, with representation from all business services teams. Legal Tech & AI Vendor Leadership Own the firm's Legal Tech and AI vendor portfolio end-to-end: evaluation, selection, contract negotiation, performance governance, and sunset decisions across all tools, including generative AI platforms, contract analysis, and emerging entrants. Working with IT, maintain a rigorous AI evaluation framework, score vendors on accuracy, security architecture, confidentiality controls, attorney UX, integration capability, and total cost of ownership. Working with Procurement, negotiate enterprise agreements at the executive level, secure preferential terms, security commitments, and roadmap influence with key Legal Tech and AI vendors. Build executive relationships with Legal Tech and AI platform leadership to give Gibson Dunn early access to new capabilities and a voice in product development. Manage the firm's AI tool budget and report to the CLOO on investment, ROI, and portfolio optimization on a quarterly basis. AI Solutions & Custom Development Lead the firm's AI Solutions function: overseeing development of custom tools, GibsonAI practice-group prompts, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, integrations, and API-connected legal workflows. Working with the CLOO, establish and execute development standards for all firm AI development: output validation protocols, hallucination testing, model version control, security review gates, and human-in-the-loop requirements. Partner with the Director of Data Services to ensure tools and solutions have access to clean, governed, AI-ready data infrastructure, including vector databases, embedding pipelines, and retrieval indexes. Evaluate advanced AI capabilities, including fine-tuning, custom model development, multi-agent architectures, and AI-native workflow automation, and provide executive-level recommendations. Legal Tech Governance, Ethics & Risk Enforce the firm's AI Governance Framework. Own the firm's ongoing compliance with bar association guidance on AI across all jurisdictions, maintaining a real-time compliance register and advising partners and associates on their professional responsibility obligations. Adoption, Training & Culture Deliver upon the AI Institute literacy and adoption program, encompassing onboarding modules, practice-group workshops, CLE-eligible training, and ongoing competency development for attorneys at all levels. Sponsor an AI Cohort Program: a network of attorney and staff advocates across practice groups and offices who accelerate peer adoption and surface real-world AI use cases. Partner with Legal Recruiting to position Gibson Dunn's AI program as a market-leading talent differentiator, integrating AI fluency into lateral hiring messaging and associate evaluation frameworks. Partner with Professional Development to embed AI competency into the associate training curriculum, from first-year orientation through partnership-track development. Executive Leadership Build, lead, and develop a high-performing team of professionals across AI solutions, governance, and adoption, with a deep commitment to talent development and succession planning. Maintain a strong peer network with AI leaders at Am Law 100 firms, technology companies, and AI research institutions to ensure the firm's program reflects best-in-class thinking.

Your Match

How well this role fits your profile.

Company Intel

What employees say

Worked at Gibson Dunn? Share your experience