Communications Operations Manager Jobs in Illinois

About Blitt and Gaines, P.C.

Blitt and Gaines, P.C. is a leading debt collection law firm with over 30 years of experience representing most of the nation’s largest financial institutions. With nine offices across Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, our attorneys and support teams deliver high-quality, compliant, and ethical legal services.

At the heart of our firm are people—our clients, our employees, and the partnerships we build. Guided by our philosophy—Collect Compliantly. Litigate Ethically. Lead Effectively. Exceed Expectations. Expect Excellence—we uphold integrity, respect, and fairness in every interaction.

Position Summary:

The Legal Operations Manager is responsible for overseeing the daily operations of court-related inboxes, legal document processing, workflow management, reporting, and staff performance. This position ensures that communications received from designated state courts are reviewed, properly triaged, assigned, and handled within established timelines.

The Manager will oversee staff responsible for processing and loading pleadings and other court documents into the appropriate internal systems, with an expectation that documents are accurately processed within 24–48 hours of receipt. This role will also ensure that required departmental reports are reviewed and worked daily, outstanding items are appropriately escalated, and operational risks or workflow concerns are communicated to the appropriate department managers.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, comfortable managing multiple time-sensitive workflows, and capable of identifying and resolving operational issues. This position requires strong collaboration with other managers and departments, as well as the ability to understand, develop, and maintain applications, workflows, and data associated with court inbox operations.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Court Inbox Management:

• Oversee designated state court email inboxes and ensure all incoming communications are reviewed and triaged appropriately
• Ensure court emails are assigned, processed, escalated, or routed to the appropriate team or department
• Monitor inbox volumes, aging, outstanding items, and completion to prevent missed or delayed court communications
• Establish and maintain processes for tracking inbox activity and ensuring appropriate follow-up
• Identify urgent, time-sensitive, or high-risk court communications and ensure immediate escalation when necessary
• Maintain accountability for daily inbox coverage and completion

Pleading and Document Management:

• Oversee the processing and loading of pleadings, notices, orders, and other legal documents into internal systems
• Ensure documents are accurately processed within the established 24–48-hour service-level expectation
• Monitor document inventory and aging to identify potential backlogs or processing delays
• Ensure proper documentation, coding, notation, and routing of pleadings and other court documents
• Develop processes to improve document-processing accuracy, timeliness, and efficiency

Staff Management:

• Manage, coach, and support employees responsible for inbox triage, pleading processing, document loading, and related departmental functions
• Assign and balance workloads based on volume, priorities, deadlines, and staffing availability
• Monitor employee productivity, quality, accuracy, and adherence to departmental procedures
• Identify training and cross-training opportunities to maintain appropriate department coverage
• Provide ongoing feedback, coaching, and performance management as needed
• Promote accountability and ensure employees understand departmental expectations and service-level requirements

Reporting & Operational Oversight:

• Ensure all reports assigned to the department are reviewed and worked daily
• Monitor outstanding inventory, aging, processing trends, and potential areas of risk
• Identify workflow gaps, recurring issues, or bottlenecks and develop solutions to improve operations
• Escalate issues to appropriate managers or leadership when matters require additional support or cross-departmental resolution
• Maintain processes and procedures that allow management to measure workload, completion, quality, and departmental performance

Cross-Department Collaboration:

• Work closely with managers and teams across the organization to resolve court, pleading, system, and workflow-related issues
• Communicate operational concerns that may impact another department's workflow or responsibilities
• Coordinate with other managers when responsibilities overlap between departments
• Build strong working relationships across teams to ensure matters are routed and resolved efficiently

Workflow, Application & Data Management:

• Develop a strong understanding of the applications, systems, and data used to manage court inboxes and document-processing workflows
• Assist with building, configuring, testing, and improving applications or workflows supporting inbox management
• Understand how data is captured, tracked, reported, and utilized to manage departmental operations
• Work with appropriate technical or business partners to troubleshoot system and workflow issues
• Identify opportunities for automation and process improvement
• Assist with developing reporting or tracking mechanisms that provide visibility into inbox volumes, turnaround times, document inventory, aging, and staff productivity
• Participate in testing and implementation of new system enhancements, applications, or workflow changes

Required Skills & Competencies:

• Strong attention to detail with the ability to identify discrepancies, missing information, and potential processing issues
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple workflows and priorities simultaneously
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to investigate issues, determine appropriate next steps, and escalate when necessary
• Effective leadership and staff-management skills, including coaching, workload management, accountability, and employee development
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with employees, peers, managers, attorneys, and other departments
• Ability to prioritize time-sensitive work and manage deadlines in a high-volume environment
• Analytical skills with the ability to interpret operational data, identify trends, and recognize workflow risks
• Technical aptitude and willingness to learn and understand applications, workflow tools, reporting systems, and data structures
• Ability to develop, document, and improve operational processes and procedures
• Ability to remain adaptable as court requirements, business processes, technology, and departmental priorities change

Preferred Qualifications:

• A minimum of 1 – 2 years’ of previous supervisory or management experience in a legal, court, document-processing, or operations environment
• High school diploma or equivalent required
• College degree or coursework preferred
• Experience managing high-volume shared inboxes or work queues
• Familiarity with court pleadings, court notices, orders, and other legal documents
• Experience working with legal case-management or document-management systems
• Experience monitoring service-level expectations, turnaround times, inventory, or production-based workflows
• Experience developing or improving operational workflows and procedures
• Experience working with reporting, data analysis, workflow applications, or automation tools
• Intermediate to advanced proficiency with Microsoft Excel and other Microsoft Office applications

Key Performance Expectations:

• Timely and accurate triage of court inbox communications
• Compliance with the 24–48-hour document-processing expectation
• Minimal aged or unworked inbox and pleading inventory
• Daily completion and review of required departmental reports
• Accuracy and quality of documents loaded into internal systems
• Effective staff productivity, training, accountability, and workload distribution
• Timely identification and escalation of operational risks
• Successful collaboration with other departments and managers
• Continuous improvement of workflows, reporting, applications, and processes
• Reliable data and reporting that provide leadership with visibility into departmental performance

Overall Role Expectation:

This Manager is expected to take ownership of the department's daily operations and maintain visibility into what has been received, what remains outstanding, who is responsible for completing it, when it must be completed, and where potential risks or delays exist.

The position requires an individual who can successfully balance people management, legal operations, technology, data, and process improvement while maintaining the accuracy and urgency required when handling court communications and legal documents.