Sr. Counsel - Commercial

Position Summary: 

Serves as a key member of the commercial legal team, supporting, as assigned, the business, manufacturing facilities, and M&A clients.  Further, this position is expected to support other functions as the need arises, e.g., procurement, logistics, accounting, treasury, and litigation. 

This position is located in Houston, Texas

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Reviews, drafts and negotiates complex commercial contracts and ancillary agreements, including product sales contracts, purchasing contracts, non-disclosure agreements, consulting agreements, master services agreements, declarations of force majeure and other third-party vendor agreements.
• Supports product liability issues such as warranty claims and resulting dispute resolution. 
• Reviews, drafts and negotiates complex M&A contract and ancillary agreements, including, plan of merger agreements, binding and non-binding bids, confidential information memorandums, anti-trust filings, and closing contracts. 
• Advise assigned client groups as to when litigation is appropriate and lead litigation efforts, through external counsel.   
• Builds and maintains strong partnerships with the business, manufacturing, other company departments and company management. 
• Provides counsel on commercial matters, legal rights and obligations under contracts, customer disputes and related laws and regulations to ensure legal and business needs are aligned.
• Analyzes risks and strategic opportunities from a legal perspective for the assigned client group with a view toward creating practical long-term solutions.
• Reviews advertising and marketing materials to ensure compliance with legal requirements (e.g., Green Guides) and company policies.
• Develops and provides training to company personnel on substantive legal topics including commercial and antitrust matters.
• Improves standard form agreements and legal processes, as necessary.
• Manages outside counsel as necessary in a budget-minded manner.

Experience:

• Juris Doctor degree and licensed, as a member in good standing, to practice law in Texas, or otherwise eligible to practice as an in-house corporate attorney.
• Strong academic credentials from a top-rated accredited law school.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience, preferably with major law firm and in-house corporate experience, handling a variety of complex commercial and M&A matters with a focus on commercial transactions, corporate, antitrust and general business law.
• Strong writing and verbal skills.
• Strong business acumen with an ability to balance legal and business requirements.