Corporate Counsel - Contracts

Job Title: Corporate Counsel – Contracts

Company: Aisin Holdings of America

Department: AHA Legal Affairs Department

Location: Northville, MI or Seymour, IN

Scope

Aisin Holdings of America, Inc. (AHA or “Company”) is looking for a Corporate Counsel – Contracts (“Contracts Counsel”) with hands-on prior experience with contract review, transactional support, and management of contract document review workflows to assist the legal department with the contract workload. The Contracts Counsel will provide legal advice, support, and counsel relating to contract documents and transactions for the Company. This role will also assist the Company with overseeing and managing its contract document review program and contract lifecycle management program.

The Contracts Counsel will review contracts and provide markups and responsive markups to contracts, draft contracts, and other contractual documents upon request. This position will also routinely participate in negotiating contracts in collaboration with company team members to ensure that the company’s legal position is protected and that it has complete knowledge of the risk involved with the contract/transaction. This position will also collaborate on outsourced contract reviews with the Company’s legal vendors and law firms.

In addition to commercial and transactional support, the Contracts Counsel will oversee and manage the Company’s contract document review program. This will include oversight of workflows, including electronic intake of requests for contract review or assignment of contract reviews to legal vendors, ongoing contract negotiations, assistance with program administration, management of all open contracts, and other administrative tasks related to the contract document review program. Prior experience managing or working within a large organization’s enterprise-wide contract document review program is preferred.

The Contracts Counsel will report directly to the General Counsel. The position will be based out of the Company’s Northville, Michigan, or Seymour, Indiana office. Attendance for this position will be hybrid, with 50% of the time required spent working on-site (subject to required meetings and travel). This attendance provision is a material condition for employment. This hybrid attendance may change in the future, subject to AHA policy decisions.

Position Responsibilities

Legal:

• Legal review of commercial and transactional documents.
• Legal review of markups of commercial and transactional documents.
• Draft commercial and transactional documents.
• Maintain Company employee expectations and communicate effectively with Company employees concerning commercial and transactional document reviews and lead times
• Provide advice and counsel to Company employees on legal issues relating to commercial and transactional documents, negotiations, and contract disputes.
• Work closely and collaborate with Company employees while negotiating contracts and transactions.
• Work to negotiate with customers, suppliers, vendors, and other outside parties, ensuring that the Company’s legal position is protected
• Manage and oversee legal vendors and law firms concerning assignment of contract reviews and legal work.
• Report to General Counsel on all ongoing projects and activities, including contract negotiations and the status of contract review and legal support provided for contract disputes
• Provide training to Company employees regarding contract best practices
• Collaborate with and facilitate cross-team decision-making among the legal team, business teams, and other internal teams
• All other duties as assigned

Contract Document Review:

• Monitor and oversee the Company’s cloud-based contract queue daily.
• Monitor and oversee the legal department’s email address dedicated to contract issues.
• General review of contract documents received in queue on a timely basis.
• Assessment and determination of how to handle contracts.
• Triage and assignment of contracts to internal and external counsel for legal review.
• Coordinate and facilitate communication of legal reviews between internal/external counsel and team members.
• Maintain Company employee expectations and communicate effectively with Company employees concerning contract reviews and lead times.
• Issue legal approvals or denials for contracts.
• Consistently update cloud-based queue daily regarding the status of contracts.
• Supervise and manage outside counsel’s review of contracts (i.e., nonlegal issues like timing, cost, facilitation of needed information, etc..).
• Training team members on using the contract document review program.
• Any other tasks related to the Contract Document Review Program as needed.

Contract Lifecycle Management:

• Monitor and oversee the Company’s contract lifecycle management software.
• Upload, tag, and organize executed contracts as needed.
• Work with team members to assist in uploading of all executed contracts.
• Work with team members to ensure the tagging and organization of all executed contracts.
• Work with the Company in helping to identify contract champions at each of its locations as needed.
• Work with Company contract champions to train and facilitate proper contract lifecycle management system usage.
• Upload, tag, and organize executed contracts as needed.
• Work with the Company and its team members to locate, obtain, and upload legacy contracts at each location.
• Any other tasks related to the Contract Lifecycle Program as needed.

Standardized Contracts:

• Oversee and manage all Company’s standardized contracts.
• Ability to identify needs for additional standardized contract documents.
• Update and revise standardized contracts as directed by internal counsel.
• Oversee and manage the Company’s Standardized eContract System.
• Train team members on the proper use and employment of standardized contracts.
• Assist team members with using and implementing standardized contracts as needed.
• Any other tasks related to standardized contracts as needed

Tracking & Metrics:

• Track key performance metrics concerning the contract document review program.
• Track legal vendor and law firm performance.
• Provide regular reports on contract document review program metrics to the General Counsel, senior management, and Japan headquarters.
• Any other tasks related to tracking and metrics as needed.

Required Skills and Abilities

Essential Skills and Experience:

• At least five years of verifiable prior experience in an in-house legal department reviewing contracts and providing advice and counsel on contracts and transactions.
• Prior experience managing or participating in an organization’s enterprise-wide contract document review program.
• Strong business acumen and proficiency in supply chain issues are essential.
• Outstanding client service mentality.
• Ability to manage many contracts simultaneously (100+).
• Good with technology and software applications
• Ability to manage client expectations
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work independently and show initiative
• Detail oriented
• Strong attention to detail with a factual and legal analytic capability
• Ability to interact effectively with individuals of varied backgrounds and skill levels
• Comfortable with aggressive and proactive defense strategies
• Ability to maintain confidentiality
• Impeccable communication, both written and verbal, with strong negotiation skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.… Including the ability to “track changes” and redline documents

Beneficial Skills and Experience

• Prior experience providing legal advice to manufacturing clients while in-house counsel or in private practice
• Prior experience providing legal advice to automotive supplier clients while in-house counsel or in private practice
• Prior experience with Japanese companies.
• Prior experience with an enterprise-wide contract document review and contract lifecycle management program.
• Prior experience with intellectual property and legal issues relating to trade secrets, cybersecurity, data privacy, and confidentiality.
• Japanese language capabilities
• Contract Management Software
• Form Building Software

Education/Training/Certifications

• J.D. is required
• MBA, or Undergraduate in Business Administration is preferred

Travel Requirements

• Travel, 20% or less
  • Domestic trips to CA, TX, KY, TN, IN, IL, OH, GA
  • International trips to Canada and Mexico
• Must be willing and available to travel to such locations and with such frequency as is necessary and desirable to meet business needs. 

Work Environment Requirements

With reasonable accommodation:

• Must be able to operate a personal computer, telephone, and other office equipment.
• Must perform job duties onsite, when necessary, except those duties that are customarily or by their nature performed offsite (for example, offsite customer visits).
• Must be able to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Must be able to work on multiple assignments at once, and complete assignments within deadline and budget (if applicable) with satisfactory quality.
• Must be able to operate as an effective team member.
• Must be committed to a high standard of safety and be willing and able to comply with all safety laws and all company safety policies.
• Mostly sedentary
• Light work.
• Occasional lifting of between 15lbs – 30lbs.

Attendance/Work Hour Requirements

• Must maintain an acceptable attendance record.
• Must be willing and available to work weekends and holidays as necessary and desirable to meet business needs.