Strategic Pricing Manager

Department: Practice Administration

About Us:

Ballard Spahr is a renowned national law firm with more than 750 lawyers across 18 offices in the United States. A career at Ballard Spahr offers a diverse group of mentors, colleagues, and friends, and strong leadership that provides support and encouragement for career growth.

The pricing team is made up of business professionals dedicated to assisting our more than 300 matter billing lawyers in developing and implementing value-based fee arrangements that align with both client needs and the firm’s profitability goals. With a strong history of building trusted relationships across the firm, our group plays a pivotal role in driving successful outcomes. As Strategic Pricing Manager, you will play a vital part in this process by providing hands-on support while developing our pricing analyst team to ensure continued excellence. This position is hybrid and offers a work schedule of 3 days a week in the office.

Why Join Us?

• Innovative Work Environment: Become part of a forward-thinking firm that enjoys substantial support and visibility from the firm’s executive leadership.

• Professional Development: Take advantage of continuous learning opportunities and avenues for career growth.

• Inclusion: Join a Business Resource Group and share cultural, experiential, or job-related interests, experiences, and/or backgrounds.

• Impactful Contributions: Play a pivotal role in developing industry-leading solutions that make a significant difference in legal practice and client service.

Your Role:

As a Strategic Pricing Manager within our Pricing Team, your responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Serve as a key resource for pricing-related matters, providing coaching and support to lawyers and other involved in pricing proposals and approvals, and advancing pricing as a strategic tool to build strong client relationships.

• Mentor, coach, and develop members of the Pricing team by offering ongoing feedback, supporting skill development, and facilitating professional growth opportunities.

• Collaborate with Department Management and Practice Group Leaders supporting the development of proposals for billing rates in connection with our annual rate setting process.

• Support the development and maintenance of platforms for evaluating billing rates using competitive benchmarking tools and internal profitability analytics.

• Work closely with our recruiting teams to help determine appropriate salaries and rates for new fee earners.

• Ensure billing rates are established to maximize profitability while aligning with peer firms.

• Develop tools that analyze past investments, create tailored pricing strategies with accurate budgets, and compare actual profitability of alternative pricing arrangements.

• Partner with lawyers to develop staffing plans and budget templates that support value-based fee arrangements for recurring projects.

• Collaborate with lawyers, practice groups, marketing professionals, and financial management to prepare financial analyses and pricing responses for client RFP submissions.

• Deliver training on pricing-related topics to lawyers and business professionals.

What We’re Looking For:

• Growth Mindset: Self-motivated with a passion for continuous learning and problem-solving.

• Communication: Strong communication and interpersonal skills for effective engagement and collaboration.

• Detail-Oriented: Keen attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines independently.

Required Experience:

A bachelor’s degree is required, with preference given to candidates who have studied Accounting, Finance, or Economics. Applicants should have a minimum of seven years’ experience in finance-related disciplines, ideally including analytics within a law firm or professional service industry; prior experience managing a team is preferred. Experience in a legal environment and a strong track record of supporting decision-makers and client-facing professionals on pricing strategy issues are desirable. Candidates must possess working knowledge of legal services pricing and alternative fee arrangements, as well as the ability to analyze financial data and prepare concise management reports. Proficiency in Excel, including v-lookups, pivot tables, and modeling, and other Microsoft Office applications is essential; experience with data visualization tools such as PowerBI is also desired. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are required for effective e