Major, Lindsey & Africa’s Interim Legal Talent group is seeking an Interim to Permanent Legal Operations Manager for the next 3 months, with conversion to permanent.
Overview: We are seeking an Interim to Permanent Legal Operations Manager to support all legal, regulatory, and trade compliance functions within a multi-billion-dollar chemical manufacturer in the Chicagoland area.
Company: Publicly traded, global manufacturer of chemical and specialty products.
Experience: 8-10+ years of experience supporting legal teams in a cross-functional capacity, including C-Level, ELT, and Boards
Location: On-site Monday-Thursday in Northbrook, IL.
Responsibilities Include:
Working at the direction and discretion of the Client’s Chief Legal Officer, the Legal Operations Manager shall support and manage all matters related to the legal team, regulatory, and trade compliance functions. Core responsibilities include:
- Act as the point of contact for inbound and outbound matters, organizing and prioritizing activities and meetings for the Chief Legal Officer
- Organize, compile, file, and enter minutes from Board meetings and act in the role of Corporate Secretary
- Work and advance all operations within the legal team, taking a hands-on proactive approach to furthering legal operations systems and functions
- Become embedded within the organization with a proactive, doer mentality and by handling ad-hoc projects and responsibilities
- Accountable for supporting the General Counsel’s executive schedule, materials, communications, stakeholder coordination, and timely follow-up on assigned priorities
- Accountable for accurate, timely, and secure support of assigned board and committee materials, including preparation, coordination, publication support, and follow-up tracking
- Support board portal administration and meeting preparation processes by organizing materials, coordinating publication timing, maintaining version control, and tracking follow-up items
- Prioritize, route, and escalate requests based on urgency, confidentiality, business sensitivity, and direction from the General Counsel
- Identify administrative process gaps and recommend improvements to enhance efficiency, consistency, and executive readiness
- Accountable for supporting Legal Department operations, including outside counsel billing coordination, matter and spend tracking, vendor coordination, and legal technology administration
Additionally, specific responsibilities include:
Legal Operations, Financial and Department Process Support
- Support Legal Department operating processes, including matter intake, matter tracking, outside counsel engagement documentation, billing coordination, invoice review routing, purchase orders, accrual coordination, and budget tracking under the direction of the General Counsel or designated legal leaders
- Maintain Legal Department trackers, matter lists, outside counsel data, spend reports, governance calendars, and project status reports; prepare dashboard inputs and summaries for review by legal leadership
- Coordinate with Finance, Procurement, Compliance, Regulatory, Trade Compliance, and business stakeholders to support timely execution of Legal Department priorities
- Help administer legal technology platforms, board portal tools, e-billing systems, matter management tools, shared workspaces, document repositories, and reporting tools by coordinating access, maintaining records, supporting users, and escalating technical or process issues as needed
- Identify process gaps, document recurring issues, and recommend practical improvements to increase consistency, transparency, efficiency, and accountability across the Legal Department
- Support vendor management processes, including outside counsel onboarding, billing guideline coordination, engagement documentation, invoice status tracking, and documentation of approved arrangements
- Prepare basic operational reports for the General Counsel, including legal spend summaries, matter status updates, outside counsel activity, board calendar deliverables, and department project tracking
Executive Support & Administrative Coordination
- Provide senior administrative support to the General Counsel and Secretary, proactively managing priorities, commitments, calendars, communications, and time-sensitive deliverables
- Anticipate needs, identify gaps, and help ensure the General Counsel and Secretary are prepared for executive, board, and stakeholder interactions
- Prepare, review, and coordinate executive-level materials, presentations, correspondence, and briefing documents for review by the General Counsel, with a focus on accuracy, formatting, organization, and timely completion
Corporate Governance Operations & Board Support
- Provide senior administrative and coordination support for the Office of the Corporate Secretary
- Operate in a board-facing environment requiring discretion, accuracy, responsiveness, and reliability
- Coordinate Board of Directors and committee logistics, including planning calendars, meeting timelines, agendas, materials, logistics, and follow-up items
- Assist with board portal administration, including document organization, access coordination, version control, and timely publication of materials
- Compile, format, quality-check, and assist with secure distribution of board and committee materials
- Handle board-related materials and processes with confidentiality, accuracy, and appropriate urgency
- Support corporate governance operations for the Office of the Corporate Secretary, including annual board and committee calendars, board portal administration, meeting material workflows, minute book coordination, consent tracking, governance records, and director information management
- Maintain governance process trackers, including board and committee action items, annual recurring governance deliverables, Diligent publication status, records retention follow-up, and committee calendar milestones
Department-Wide Coordination
- Serve as a central coordination point across Corporate Legal, Regulatory, Trade Compliance, and related business stakeholders based on evolving priorities and direction from the General Counsel
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, documentation, templates, trackers, and information flow
- Maintain organization, accessibility, and accuracy of key legal, compliance, board, and governance records
Confidential Project & Executive Initiative Support
- Support confidential special projects and executive initiatives on behalf of the General Counsel by coordinating materials, tracking action items, and managing follow-up as directed
- Manage action items, deadlines, stakeholder follow-up, and deliverables for high-visibility matters
- Take ownership of assigned tasks and ensure timely, high-quality completion with limited direction
Qualifications Include:
- Bachelor's from an accredited University or College
- 8-10+ years of experience supporting public company legal teams in a cross-functional capacity, including legal, business units (regulatory, compliance, trade, etc.), Board communications, and operations
- Demonstrated experience supporting a General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, board of directors, board committees, or public company governance processes
- Proven ability to operate in a high-discretion, high-visibility role involving confidential, sensitive, and business-critical matters
- Advanced proficiency with Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and trackers, basic reporting, data organization, formulas, and presentation-ready summaries
- Experience preparing executive-level materials, board materials, correspondence, presentations, and briefing documents
- Experience with legal operations processes, including outside counsel billing, matter tracking, legal spend reporting, vendor coordination, records management, process improvement, or legal technology administration
- Experience with board portals, e-billing platforms, matter management systems, document management tools, or comparable legal department systems; direct experience with Diligent, e-billing, or matter management platforms is preferred
Pay Rate: $50 - $60
Individual compensation offered for this position within the pay range will depend on many factors, including qualifications, skills, relevant experience, job knowledge, geographic location, internal equity, and other pertinent job-related factors.
Information regarding benefits can be found on MLA’s Website on the Consultant Resources Page: https://www.mlaglobal.com/en/consultant-resources
All interested and qualified candidates should apply directly with Major, Lindsey & Africa for review and consideration.
Major, Lindsey & Africa does not discriminate against applications on the basis of age, sex, race or any other protected characteristics pursuant to applicable state or federal laws.
Bullhorn Job ID: 256724
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