Director & Counsel, New Business Intake

About Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP

For over a century, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP (Davis Graham) has ranked among the region's most prominent law firms, consistently delivering high-quality legal services to emerging and established businesses across the Mountain West. We are the leading independent law firm in our region, offering AmLaw 50 quality at a distinct value - a true differentiator for sophisticated businesses facing major legal challenges within our recognized specialties.

Davis Graham is recognized as the leading firm for middle-market and lower-middle-market M&A, finance and corporate governance work, with particular depth in the energy, private equity, hospitality, and technology sectors. Our litigators hold a dominant position in high-stakes cases across the region, most notably in complex commercial disputes, environmental and energy litigation, and enforcement and investigations.

While our firm's Denver location and intermediate size allow strong, collaborative relationships with local and regional clients, our broad experience and innovative use of technology enable us to partner effectively with businesses and their investors throughout the country and internationally. We are committed to a culture of professional excellence—attracting top-tier talent, investing in our people, and delivering exceptional results for our clients. Davis Graham is a firm defined by a hardworking partnership, an ownership mentality, and a deep commitment to one another and our clients.

Summary

The Director and Counsel, New Business Intake leads the firm’s Conflicts and New Business Intake department and identifies and manages the ethical and business risks presented by potential new business opportunities for the firm. The person in this role is responsible for conflicts clearance review and analysis for firm-wide legal hires and new business, and for the overall strategy, operation, staffing, and continuous improvement of the conflicts and new business intake function. The Director and Counsel works directly with the Chief Financial Officer and the firm’s General Counsel and Ethics Attorney, as well as with attorneys, Business Acceptance Partners, and the firm’s Risk Management Committee, to identify and resolve potential ethics and business conflict issues. This position directly supervises the firm’s Conflicts Analyst and New Business Intake Specialist. This position requires strong knowledge of the rules of professional responsibility, firm policies, and sound analysis of potential conflict issues. The attorneys and firm management rely upon the Director and Counsel’s information and judgment in making decisions about whether or not to accept new legal hires, clients, and matters.

Essential Functions

• Review and analyze conflict report results, communicating directly with appropriate attorneys and others to obtain clarification and additional detail in order to resolve identified conflict issues and properly document the resolution.
• Research existing engagement documentation, firm financial data, and corporate affiliations as necessary to clear conflicts independently.
• Provide attorneys with concise and complete evaluations of potential conflict or relationship issues and identify possible approaches for resolution.
• Draft and provide conflicts waiver requests in consultation with involved attorneys and the firm’s General Counsel, Ethics Counsel, and/or Chief Financial Officer as appropriate.
• Review and analyze terms of engagement, client-generated engagement documents, and outside counsel guidelines both as part of the new business intake process and subsequent to client engagement.
• Review new matter submissions for compliance with firm policies and ethical standards and completion of all necessary engagement and waiver correspondence.
• Serve as the escalation point for exceptions to the firm’s new matter intake policies, including deviations from the firm’s standard terms of engagement, prior to approval by a Business Acceptance Partner.
• Review and act on high-risk or negative findings from prospective client investigations and other background research circulated by department staff, providing instructions on further diligence or escalation.
• Review and analyze lateral attorney prior work history conflicts reports, working with the firm’s General Counsel, Ethics Counsel, Chief Talent Officer, and/or Chief Financial Officer to resolve any conflicts.
• Supervise implementation of ethical walls when required.
• Oversee the process of closing out clients and matters, including closing correspondence.
• Develop, document, and implement conflicts and new business intake policies, procedures, and technologies, and oversee audits of the conflicts and client matter databases to maintain data integrity.
• Maintain the firm’s engagement, dis-engagement, and waiver letter templates, modifying them from time to time to reflect new ethics and risk management initiatives.
• Oversee process improvements to the firm’s Intapp conflict system, including system upgrades, form modifications, and workflow adjustments as needed.
• Supervise, train, and mentor the firm’s Conflicts Analyst and New Business Intake Specialist, including assigning and prioritizing work, reviewing work product, and acting as a back-up to those positions from time to time.
• Direct the strategy and day-to-day operations of the Conflicts and New Business Intake department, establishing priorities, performance metrics, and service standards to ensure timely and accurate conflicts clearance and matter opening.
• Maintain knowledge of developments in professional responsibility law and regulations, as well as trends and new technologies impacting the new business intake function.
• Serve as a key risk management resource for the firm’s Risk Management Committee.
• Assist with training around new business intake best practices and business acceptance processes.
• Additional duties as assigned by the firm’s Chief Financial Officer.
• Perform other duties as assigned

Required Skills/Abilities

• Superior attention to detail, focused critical thinking, sound judgment and strong decision-making skills to be able to identify the potential issues with bringing on new business and new employees to the firm.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to understand, analyze, interpret, and explain complex reports and to converse informatively with attorneys and staff about conflicts issues.
• Excellent organization skills, including the ability to work collaboratively and provide an accurate work product with minimal supervision in an atmosphere of multiple projects, shifting priorities, and extremely tight deadline pressures.
• Possess a high level of ethical and professional responsibility and superior judgment in handling confidential information.
• Strong ability to learn new technologies, processes, and workflows as necessary.
• Willingness to keep updated on trends and developments in the industry and to continue to develop skills, knowledge, and ability to improve processes and procedures.
• Demonstrated leadership and people-management skills, including the ability to hire, train, motivate, and evaluate staff and to foster a collaborative team environment.

Supervisory Role

This position leads the Conflicts and New Business Intake department and directly supervises the Conflicts Analyst and New Business Intake Specialist. The Director and Counsel is responsible for the hiring, training, performance management, and professional development of the employees within the department.

Work Environment

This job operates in a remote environment and routinely uses standard office equipment. Because this position will be handling client information, employees must work from a home office and not a public location during any remote periods.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work

This is a full-time, benefits-eligible position requiring a minimum of 40 hours per week. Availability via email, Teams, and phone is required during core business hours, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time.

Denver, CO candidates are preferred. Remote considered for candidates in FL, GA, KS, MI, MO, MT, NC, OK, SC, TX, or WY only.

Required Education and Experience

• JD degree and active bar license in Colorado or your state of residence.
• Minimum of five years of experience working in a law firm, law department, or other professional services business.
• Strong knowledge of ethical, legal, and risk management concepts and rules relating to conflicts of interest and new business intake.
• Resourceful internet research skills utilizing various online sources and business databases such as Dun & Bradstreet, Hoovers, Securities & Exchange Commission, Lexis/Nexis, Capital IQ, etc.

Preferred Education and Experience

• 3+ years of experience with law firm conflicts and/or new business department preferred.
• Experience utilizing and overseeing a conflicts database and related conflicts checking software, preferably Intapp Open.
• Prior experience supervising or managing staff in a law firm conflicts, new business intake, or risk management department.

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

None

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

Application Deadline

This position is expected to stay open until November 30, 2026. Please submit your application as soon as possible and no later than November 30, 2026, at midnight to ensure consideration.

Davis Graham offers competitive benefits. For a full list of benefits provided, please select this link: Benefits.

Davis Graham provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, transgender status, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, genetic information, military status or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

Colorado Residents: In any material you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing information.

Davis Graham participates in the E-Verify Program to confirm authorization to work in the United States.