Associate Creative Director

Associate Creative Director

Cooley is seeking an Associate Creative Director to join the Marketing & Business Development team.

Position summary:  Working closely with the Director of Brand Experience, the Associate Creative Director plays a lead role in developing and enhancing the firm’s global brand. This individual is responsible for ideation and execution on broad creative concepts for various firm initiatives, provides art direction and mentoring to in-house design staff, helps develop and manage relationships with outside branding, design and production agencies serves as a primary champion of the Cooley brand and works to inspire internal clients with its potential. Specific duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

Position responsibilities: In conjunction with the Creative team, the Associate Creative Director will:

• Develop creative concepts to express the firm’s brand as an extension of strategy. Help explain concepts and strategies to internal stakeholders
• Establish and maintain brand standards. Propose enhancements to the firm’s brand center and available resources
• Work closely with internal clients to understand campaign and project needs and lead development of branded materials across various media including print, digital and video. Ensure that materials developed meet criteria for visual interest, clarity, and usability
• Develop and maintain design processes and service level agreements for all creative team work product
• Monitor ongoing projects to ensure tasks are completed on deadline. Adjust resourcing and balance workloads, as needed
• Manage and mentor in-house creative personnel for efficient operations and meaningful professional growth
• Advise on the evolving need for external creative resources. Maintain a close working relationship with any outside vendors to develop and implement appropriate solutions
• Monitor current designs and suggest new approaches to ensure Cooley’s brand system stands out in the market and remains engaging for key audiences
• Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports
• Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies. Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
• Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
• In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
• All other duties as assigned or required

Skills and experience:   

Required:

• After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, Workfront, WorkSite and other firm applications
• Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
• Ability to travel, as required

• 8+ years direct relevant experience (e.g., experience in branding, design, advertising or any creative marketing field) to include 4 years of management experience (some at the senior level preferred) with experience leading others

• Bachelor’s degree in design or a related field
• Thorough working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, HTML/CSS or similar tools
• Experience managing and motivating design teams
• Advanced understanding of branding, design, copywriting and video production principles

Preferred:

• General familiarity with cross-platform issues and file formats
• Experience in a law firm or professional services environment, with a working knowledge of professional services sectors

Competencies:

• Ability to work with little direction, in a highly collaborative environment
• Ability to prioritize multiple projects and balance workloads across a team
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal
• Comprehensive, accurate note-taking and excellent proofreading skills
• Ability to multi-task, problem solve, work well under pressure and coordinate sophisticated campaigns with good results
• Ability to consistently meet deadlines, including self-set and multi-tasked
• Assertive, but flexible as to style; must be able to handle stressful situations and interact with various personalities and communication styles at all levels in the firm
• Strong analytic and research skills
• Exhibit high energy and genuine enthusiasm for law firm branding activities and goals while maintaining a healthy, competitive spirit
• Experience in earning the trust and respect of high-performing senior professionals in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to develop professional relationships both internally (with department members, attorneys and professional staff) and externally (with industry/regional associations, etc.)
• Ability to professionally manage utmost sensitivity in terms of reputation management, crisis management, personnel changes, and other events
• Reliable and punctual

Cooley offers a competitive compensation and excellent benefits package and is committed to fair and equitable employment practices. EOE.

The expected annual pay range for this position with a full-time schedule is $195,000 - $220,000. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience and skillset of the candidate.

We offer a full range of elective benefits including medical, health savings account (with applicable medical plan), dental, vision, health and/or dependent care flexible spending accounts, pre-tax commuter benefits, life insurance, AD&D, long-term care coverage, backup care for children and/or adults and other parental support benefits. In addition to elective benefit options, benefited employees receive firm-paid life insurance, AD&D, LTD, short term medical benefits as well as 25 days of Paid Time Off (“PTO”) and 10 paid holidays each year. We provide generous parental leave and fertility benefits. New employees will attend a detailed benefit orientation to learn more about our many benefits and resources.