Research Coordinator - Tampa Oaks - Phelps Dunbar

Description

The Research Coordinator assists in the effective management, use, and control of the firm's online research and subscription tools and services (digital information collections). The Research Coordinator is a product champion for the firm's AI-assisted legal research tools, assists in providing reference and research applications support to all internal customers as needed, and works with others to curate knowledge assets for the firm.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serve as a product champion for the firm's AI-assisted legal research tools, maintaining configuration, access controls, and suggested high-value use cases in partnership with the team.
• Assist with building and maintaining a curated prompt library and playbooks for common research tasks (case law synthesis, cite checking, brief drafting support) including safe-use guardrails and examples tailored for practice areas. Keep these resources current and communicate firm-wide.
• Assist IT team members with curating knowledge assets within the document management system so that AI-assisted research can include answers with firm-specific precedents and templates.
• Administer access for all internal customers to and for all online research subscriptions, e-newsletter services, court websites, eFiling, service websites, CLE services, and other online services and processes.
• Administer electronic routing and subscriptions for all e-newsletters and news sources, ensuring that all contractual guidelines are followed precisely. Work with vendors and IT to identify opportunities to automate high-volume information routing and continuously advance the use of AI enrichment.
• Support and assist with federated credentialing for online services.
• Complete monthly client chargeback processes, invoice processing, and auditing of client chargebacks.
• Assist team with entering all incoming print and digital materials into the library's collection database and routed to legal personnel as appropriate.
• Provide bibliographic and cataloging assistance by properly organizing and labeling new and existing materials in multiple offices and in the library's collection database.
• Provide online training for paralegal and administrative employees during onboarding.
• Assist with the management of long-term and ongoing projects in the areas of auditing, collection management, and other special project assignments.
• Perform general circulation and directional reference duties including locating and checking materials in/out as requested by internal customers.
• Notify internal customers of new materials in relevant practice areas.
• Assist with basic and intermediate level research and reference requests utilizing both print and digital materials.
• Research trends and changes in the practices and technologies used in research and legal services. Summarize and present findings to team members for consideration.
• Provide administrative support to the reference and research team as requested.
• Collect regular electronic monthly invoices, analyze the use of services, and compile client-billable data as applicable for processing by the accounting department.
• Assist new employees with set-up of online services, desk book availability, locating online resources available through the department, and routing of current awareness materials.
• Maintain statistical records of any work performed in multiple standardized categories.
• Operate a variety of equipment which may include computers, copiers, telephones, printers, and work with support team when service and/or repair issues arise.
• Provide excellent service to attorneys, management, staff, and other professionals.
• Work consistently and effectively in a team environment.

Requirements
Education and Experience Required:

• High school diploma with at least 5 years law firm experience.
• College degree preferred but not required.

Qualifications and Skills Required:

• Computer literacy is essential, including Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Copilot, general database experience, applications management, web and online systems experience.
• Experience in prompt engineering for legal research, structured prompting patterns, and iterative refinement.
• Familiarity with AI protocols in legal practice and requirement for human review before any court submission.
• Willingness and ability to learn new technologies quickly and adapt effectively and responsibly to the use of automation and artificial intelligence.
• Professional appearance and demeanor.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Must be thorough with high attention to detail.
• Ability to work in a high volume, service-oriented environment.
• Willingness to function as part of a team.
• Ability to work effectively with professionals, managers, and staff.
• Ability to lift a maximum of 25 pounds.
• Willingness to travel to other offices to assist in collection maintenance.