External Counsel Governance Lead

External Counsel Governance Lead

Job Overview This role is responsible for establishing and leading the enterprise framework for external counsel governance, performance management, and legal spend oversight. Leveraging insurance litigation expertise, vendor governance, and data-driven insights, the role drives the quality, consistency, and value of legal services while ensuring alignment between external counsel performance, claims strategies, and business objectives.

As the organization's lead for external counsel management, the role provides strategic oversight of panel counsel relationships, performance standards, legal spend management, and vendor governance practices, supporting effective stewardship of external legal resources and improved claims outcomes across the enterprise.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead the design and implementation of a structured external counsel performance management program, including governance frameworks, processes, tools, and reporting.
• Develop and maintain a claims-wide panel counsel strategy, including firm selection, specialization, and geographic alignment.
• Support vendor selection and onboarding processes, including participation in RFPs and evaluation of external law firms.
• Establish and maintain governance frameworks, including engagement guidelines, service standards, and escalation processes.
• Support the development of formal vendor agreements and contracting approaches, including rate negotiation strategies.
• Ensure alignment between vendor services and claims strategies and business priorities.
• Design and implement a structured performance management framework, including defined KPIs and service expectations.
• Lead ongoing reviews of law firm performance using quantitative and qualitative data.
• Conduct file-level reviews and audits to assess quality and alignment with internal claims strategies.
• Analyze litigation performance and identify opportunities to improve outcomes, consistency, and service quality.
• Partner with Claims and Finance to establish and support legal spend management practices, including cost tracking, reporting, and budgeting insights.
• Establish and oversee billing guidelines and invoice review processes, ensuring compliance and cost discipline.
• Identify and support cost optimization opportunities, including rate benchmarking and alternative fee arrangements.
• Develop and maintain performance dashboards and reporting to support informed decision-making regarding firm selection, file assignment, and continued engagement.
• Translate litigation, spend, and performance data into actionable insights that inform vendor strategy and program improvements.
• Serve as a key point of contact for external law firms, supporting effective and collaborative vendor relationships.

Qualifications

• Law degree and membership in good standing with a Canadian law society (preferred), or a combination of related education and experience.

• 7+ years of litigation experience, preferably within insurance defence, bodily injury, casualty, or complex claims litigation.

• Demonstrated expertise in external counsel management, vendor governance, legal operations, or related legal service delivery models.

• Strong relationship management, communication, and stakeholder influence skills, with the ability to build credibility across all levels of the organization.

• Experience establishing performance measures, evaluating service delivery, and leveraging data and insights to drive business decisions and continuous improvement.

• Experience reviewing, supervising, auditing, or managing external law firms or professional service providers.

• Strong analytical and financial acumen, including experience interpreting legal spend, performance metrics, and outcome data.

• Ability to collaborate effectively across Claims, Finance, Procurement, Vendor Management, and other cross-functional teams.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence, manage competing priorities, and drive strategic initiatives in a complex environment.

• Diversity Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

• At Wawanesa, we are committed to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) and believe that our strength lies in the diversity of our people – this is supported by having a representative workforce.

• We welcome applications from all qualified candidates, including racialized persons, women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, gender-diverse and neurodiverse individuals, and anyone who can contribute to the further diversification of thought and ideas.

• We aim to ensure our recruitment process is accessible to all candidates. If you require accommodations during any stage of the recruitment process, please reach out in confidence to jobs at wawanesa dot com.

• All Wawanesa job applicants are subject to Wawanesa's Privacy Policy.

• Please note that the recruitment process for this position may involve the use of AI tools to screen, assess, or select applicants. All final decisions are taken or reviewed by human recruiters and human hiring leaders in compliance with all applicable legislation.