Legal Counsel - Legal Operations & Commercial Contract Management

About the Role

UNACEM North America seeks a Corporate Legal Counsel to establish and lead its Legal Operations and Commercial Contract Management initiatives. The position is dedicated to standardizing legal processes, enhancing contract governance, managing external legal expenditures effectively, and improving the Legal Department's efficiency, scalability, and transparency. The role functions as a strategic business partner, delivering practical legal advice on commercial affairs and crafting operational processes to ensure prompt, uniform, and business-aligned legal support.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish and oversee the Legal Operations function within the organization.
• Manage commercial contract life cycle and contract management procedures.
• Create and maintain standardized contract templates, negotiation guides, and approval workflows.
• Streamline use of external legal counsel and optimize associated costs.
• Set up legal intake protocols and manage legal workloads efficiently.
• Develop key performance indicators, dashboards, and comprehensive reporting for the Legal Department.
• Advance the deployment of legal technology and contract management solutions.
• Offer sound legal counsel concerning commercial agreements and business transactions.

Critical Tasks

• Design and implement consistent legal intake and matter management processes.
• Develop contract templates, clause libraries, negotiation playbooks, and approval frameworks.
• Compose, analyze, negotiate, and manage various commercial contracts including those related to vendors, procurement, consulting, confidentiality, services, and customers.
• Collaborate with business leaders to provide prompt legal support balancing commercial targets with legal risk.
• Oversee engagement with external legal counsel, including invoicing, budgeting, and performance monitoring.
• Prepare detailed Legal Department analytics, dashboards, and reports for executive leadership evaluation.
• Spot opportunities to internalize legal work to enhance operational efficiency.
• Assess and propose legal technology platforms to improve contract management and automate workflows.
• Conduct training sessions for business teams on contracting standards, approval processes, and legal procedures.
• Continuously refine Legal Operations processes to boost efficiency and uniformity.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an accredited law school.
• Active law license in Arizona; license in California is advantageous.
• Five to seven years of professional legal experience, preferably involving commercial contracts, legal operations, corporate law, or related areas.
• Prior experience supporting corporate legal or in-house legal teams is preferred.
• Familiarity with developing legal processes, governance models, and operational enhancements is advantageous.
• Fluency in both English and Spanish is strongly preferred.

Technical Expertise

• Drafting and negotiation of commercial contracts.
• Management of contract lifecycles (CLM).
• Legal operations management.
• Utilization of legal technology platforms.
• Contract governance protocols.
• Handling vendor and procurement agreements.
• Understanding of corporate governance principles.
• Management of budgets and external legal counsel.
• Legal data analytics and reporting.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and document management systems.

Leadership and Behavioral Skills

• Ability to build strong business partnerships.
• Focus on continuous process improvement.
• Strategic and analytical thinking capability.
• Strong organizational and executive communication skills.
• Proven collaboration and problem-solving abilities.
• Capacity to influence decisions and drive impact.
• Conducting legal research and analysis to support business and legal strategies.
• Driven towards results with high ethical standards.

Key Internal and External Relationships

• Collaborate internally with Operations, Executive Leadership, Planning and Supply Chain, Compliance, Finance, Human Resources, Commercial, IT, and Health & Safety teams.
• Maintain external relationships with outside legal counsel, government bodies, vendors, customers, legal technology providers, and industry associations.

Success Metrics

• Efficiency of contract turnaround times.
• Use of standardized templates for executed agreements.
• Adoption rate of Legal Operations procedures.
• Level of internal client satisfaction with legal services.
• Responsiveness of legal intake management.
• Accuracy and transparency of legal department reporting.
• Successful deployment of legal technologies and process improvements.
• Growth in the share of legal work managed internally.