Executive Director, Client Intake & Conflict Management (Americas)

Ankura is a team of excellence founded on innovation and growth.

Practice Overview

The Client Intake & Conflict Management team helps protect the firm, its clients, and its reputation by evaluating and resolving legal and commercial conflicts of interest associated with new matters and business opportunities. The team performs high-level client risk, reputational, high-profile, and strategic assessments; supports the client and matter intake process; and assists with requests for proposals. The function operates at the intersection of risk management, client service, and business growth, requiring sound judgment, responsiveness, and close partnership with senior leaders across the firm.

Role Overview

Ankura is seeking an Executive Director to lead the firm’s Client Intake & Conflict Management function for the Americas. This leader will provide strategic and operational oversight of the end-to-end conflicts and intake process, ensuring that conflict checks are timely, accurate, well documented, and aligned with firm policies and business priorities. The Executive Director will lead, manage and develop the Client Intake & Conflict Management team, establish strong service and quality standards, and serve as the senior escalation point when potential conflicts require judgment, stakeholder alignment, or executive-level resolution.

The successful candidate will be a visible, credible, and pragmatic leader who can operate effectively in a high-volume, fast-paced environment. This individual must be able to balance risk management with commercial realities, communicate difficult decisions with confidence and diplomacy, and build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders. The role requires a strong people leader who can create stability, accountability, engagement, and consistent performance across the team.

Key Responsibilities

· Provide strategic leadership and executive oversight for the firm’s Conflict Management and client/matter intake function, including the operating model, priorities, service standards, controls, and continuous improvement agenda.

· Lead the day-to-day conflict check operation, including oversight and processing of the conflict queue, work in progress, prioritization, escalation management, timely processing, adherence to established procedures, and maintenance of data integrity.

· Serve as the senior escalation and decision-support leader when potential legal, commercial, client, reputational, or relationship conflicts are identified and stakeholder alignment is required.

· Partner with senior business and firm leaders to frame complex issues, facilitate candid discussion, evaluate competing considerations, and drive practical, well-reasoned resolutions consistent with firm policy and strategy.

· Communicate conflict determinations, risks, constraints, and required actions clearly and credibly, including in situations where a business opportunity may need to be delayed, modified, or declined.

· Manage a high-volume and time-sensitive environment in which requests frequently carry significant urgency; establish transparent prioritization and escalation protocols that balance responsiveness, risk, and business needs.

· Review, comment and advise on engagement letter and intake documentation from a conflicts and intake perspective.

· Build, lead, coach, and retain a high-performing team. Establish clear roles, expectations, decision rights, performance standards, development plans, succession coverage, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and service.

· Strengthen team stability and effectiveness by assessing capacity, workflow, capabilities, training needs, and engagement; implement sustainable staffing and development approaches that support retention and consistent execution.

· Ensure high standards of internal client service, including a target 24-48 hour turnaround for initial conflict checks and appropriate coverage for urgent and after-hours matters.

· Maintain a strong quality-control environment, including accurate and complete data, sufficient intake documentation, appropriate audit trails, routine review of conflict checks in process, and timely closure of outdated leads.

· Oversee complex conflict-of-interest and business-relationship analyses using firm policies, procedures, and conflict analytics tools. Ensure the team gathers sufficient information and conducts appropriate internal and external research to support sound analysis.

· Own the effective use and governance of the firm’s conflict and new client intake technology, including Intapp Conflicts or a comparable platform. Partner with relevant stakeholders on system administration, dashboard management, data quality, training, adoption, and process enhancements.

· Develop and monitor meaningful operational metrics and reporting, identify trends and risks, and provide senior leadership with clear insights on service levels, volume, quality, escalations, capacity, and improvement priorities.

· Represent the function in external or cross-functional communications as appropriate and lead other Conflict Management initiatives and responsibilities as business needs evolve.

Leadership Profile

· Executive presence and organizational credibility, with the confidence to engage senior leaders, challenge constructively, and deliver difficult messages while preserving trust and forward momentum.

· Exceptional people leadership, including demonstrated success building, developing, and stabilizing teams in demanding, service-oriented environments.

· Strong stakeholder-management and influence skills, with the ability to align parties who may have competing priorities and guide complex matters toward resolution.

· Sound judgment and high integrity, with the ability to evaluate risk, ambiguity, urgency, and commercial considerations without compromising required standards.

· Composure, adaptability, and decisiveness in a fast-moving environment with significant volume, competing deadlines, and frequent executive visibility.

· A practical, solutions-oriented approach that combines rigor and consistency with responsiveness to the needs of the business.

Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience required; advanced degree or relevant professional credential is a plus.

· Significant progressive leadership experience in conflicts, client/matter intake, business acceptance or a closely related function within a consulting, professional services, or similarly complex organization.

· Demonstrated experience leading a conflicts or intake operation at scale, including team management, executive escalations, stakeholder alignment, service delivery, quality control, and process improvement.

· Deep understanding of conflicts-of-interest and new client/matter intake principles, particularly conflicts relevant to a consulting or professional services environment, including with respect to bankruptcy, restructuring and interim management matters .

· Experience in a peer consulting or professional services firm is strongly preferred.

· Excellent critical-thinking, research, analytical, and issue-spotting capabilities, with the ability to synthesize complex information and formulate clear recommendations.

· Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate with senior executives and facilitate high-stakes discussions.

· Proven ability to lead through change, improve operating processes, and use metrics and technology to enhance quality, transparency, efficiency, and service.

· Experience with Intapp Open or a comparable conflict and intake platform; familiarity with Boolean search logic and relevant external research sources, including PACER, is preferred.

· Strong proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and Adobe Acrobat.

Working Approach

· Collaborative and team-oriented, with a commitment to strong partnerships across business, legal, risk, operations, and technolo