Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Melone Hatley, P.C. is seeking an experienced, results-driven Chief Operating Officer (COO) to translate high-level firm strategy into disciplined, profitable, and scalable daily execution across all offices and departments.

Reporting directly to the Owner/CEO, you will hold enterprise-wide authority over multi-location legal operations, process standardization, cross-department handoffs, facilities, and capacity management.

Key Responsibilities

• Operational Leadership: Lead and mentor office leaders and department managers, driving a culture of high performance, accountability, and independent problem-solving.
• Process & System Optimization: Centralize, audit, and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs), identifying root-cause friction points and leveraging automation to boost efficiency.
• Legal Production & Utilization: Partner with Managing Attorneys to monitor workflows, track case progression, and maintain target capacity (aiming for 90%+ billable utilization).
• Financial Accountability: Partner with the CEO and CFO to manage annual budgets, monitor Revenue per FTE, optimize Average Case Value, and protect office-level net margins.
• Cross-Functional Alignment: Remove bottlenecks between Legal, Intake/Sales, Marketing, HR, IT, and Finance to ensure clean operational handoffs and minimize executive escalations.
• Infrastructure & Procurement: Oversee facility expansions, physical security, IT resources, and vendor contracts across all regional footprints.

Core Performance Metrics (KPIs)

Your impact is measured through clear, results-oriented benchmarks:

• Firm Growth & Capacity (60%): Revenue per FTE, Average Case Value, legal staff utilization ($?90%), office-level net profitability, and attorney retention (