Staff Attorney - Contracts

The Staff Attorney will be responsible for strategic negotiation of a large variety of company agreements and facilitating the lifecycle workflow of contracts processes for a fast-paced and growing company. Contract responsibilities include accurately analyzing business and legal requirements, carefully drafting, effectively negotiating, and efficiently bringing critical agreements to successfully conclusion, initially in partnership with the company’s corporate attorneys and then autonomously. S/he must not only understand the legal impact of specific contract provisions but actively partner with internal stakeholders to understand business impact. This legal department values consistent attention to detail and an exceptional ability to identify contractual risks together with creative solutions. As such, the successful candidate must be collaborative, extremely organized/methodical, results-driven, and have superior verbal and written communication skills, demonstrated interpretation/negotiation experience, and robust time management skills.

Responsibilities

• Negotiation.
• Effectively negotiate contract documents of various types and sizes in keeping with company requirements, with a high degree of autonomy, using both template and custom documents.
• Support long-term contract needs of corporate legal department, including ability to review/ redline contracts, marshal internal resources to establish approvals on key clauses, and lead negotiation calls with vendors of all forms.
• Participate (initially as second chair negotiator, and then autonomously) in merchandising, operations, IT/technology, consulting, HR, and outsourcing agreements with eventual transition of ownership for negotiating all non-lease or franchise agreements.
• Contract Strategy; SOPs.
• Prepare, maintain and update standard contract templates, standard terms and clauses in traditional form and electronically for the template automation system and associated clause bank library (both in-development).
• Update and publish contract workflow(s) and operating model in partnership with Procurement (where applicable) or independently to drive contract efficiencies for high volume contract work.
• Develop any resources needed to further assist department partners in contract submissions, negotiations, and/or finalization of agreements.
• Create and conduct regular contract protocol/process training(s) for various departments, including negotiation tips, FAQs, and any changes to workflow.
• Advisory Support. Provide time-sensitive support to internal clients by responding to inquiries on established legal guidelines, policy inquiries, and contracts and contract-specific questions.
• Audit; Reporting. Oversee the handling of a quarterly contracts audit and end of year contract process along with associated reporting of relevant metrics and trends.
• Invoices review; outside counsel management. Review and approve outside counsel billing (with respect to contract matters) and manage outside counsel for all outsourced agreements (e.g., kickoff calls, redline backfill, and communication/coordination with internal business partners).
• CLE Chair. Serve as CLE sponsor for Legal Team in order to qualify internal presentations for CLE credit (and more easily satisfy attorney CLE requirements) to maximize internal training for department attorneys.
• Team Backup and Support. Learn the roles and duties of other corporate / contract attorneys to provide backup and support for each.
• Special Projects. Serve as lead and general support, as the case may be, for all corporate initiatives and associated projects that may arise from time to time, including any M&A activities, integration efforts, synergies/efficiency efforts and other company initiatives.
  

Qualifications

• JD degree from an accredited law school with strong academic performance. Active and in good standing with at least one state bar (Georgia preferred).
• 3-4 years related experience in house or with a major law firm.
• Advanced knowledge of contract development, negotiation, and management.
• Ability to quickly evaluate complex issues and identify multiple options for resolution.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills to include verbal and written, active listening, critical thinking, persuasiveness, advising and counseling skills.
• Dedication to confidentiality, following-up on commitments on a timely basis, adhering to deadlines, organization, and collaboration.
• Highly motivated, self-starting, and experienced advocate who enjoys working cooperatively on a growing legal team.
• Effective self-starter with a practical approach, a panoramic perspective, and positive attitude
• Extremely well organized, detail-oriented and able to meet deadlines and work in a demanding, fast-paced environment and able to solve, in a practical fashion, problems quickly and effectively.