Legal Operations Specialist

About the role

Location: San Diego, CA. Employment Type: Full-Time, Hourly. Help Build the Future of Soapy Joe's Soapy Joe's is more than a car wash—we're one of San Diego's fastest-growing companies and a recognized leader in the customer experience industry. As we continue to expand, we're building the legal infrastructure needed to support a high-growth, multi-site organization. We're looking for a highly organized, proactive, and detail-oriented Legal Operations Specialist to join our team. This is a unique opportunity to become one of the foundational members of our legal function and work directly with our General Counsel on a broad range of legal, governance, compliance, employment, litigation, and operational matters. If you enjoy solving problems, building processes, managing multiple priorities, and making a meaningful impact across an organization, we'd love to meet you.

Responsibilities

• Legal & Contract Support: Draft, revise, organize, and maintain legal documents including NDAs, vendor agreements, commercial contracts, policies, demand letters, and other business documents; support contract administration, document management, and legal recordkeeping; coordinate document collection, organization, and review for various legal matters; maintain legal templates, trackers, and operational workflows.
• Litigation & Claims Management: Assist with litigation, claims, and dispute-related matters; track deadlines, maintain matter files, and organize legal correspondence; coordinate with outside counsel, insurance providers, and internal stakeholders; support document preservation, legal holds, and information requests.
• Corporate Governance: Assist with board and committee materials, corporate resolutions, annual filings, and governance-related documentation; maintain corporate records, minute books, and entity-management files; support governance compliance and reporting activities.
• Employment & Compliance: Support employment-related legal matters including handbook updates, policy reviews, investigations, accommodation processes, and regulatory compliance initiatives; assist with compliance audits and risk-management projects; help monitor legal and regulatory developments impacting the business.
• Real Estate & Development Support: Organize lease files, development documentation, diligence materials, and property-related records; assist with title reports, surveys, term sheets, and construction-related documentation.
• Legal Operations & Process Improvement: Support matter management, legal intake, document management, and knowledge-management systems; assist in managing outside counsel engagements, budgets, invoices, and reporting; identify opportunities to streamline processes and improve efficiency; support special projects and strategic initiatives led by the General Counsel.

Requirements

• Minimum 5 years of experience in a legal operations, paralegal, legal specialist, or similar role.
• Experience supporting some combination of: corporate law, commercial contracting, employment law, litigation, compliance, real estate transactions, legal operations.
• Strong organizational, analytical, and project-management skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook).

Qualifications

• In-house legal department experience.
• Paralegal Certificate, Bachelor's Degree, law degree, foreign law degree, or equivalent legal training.
• Experience supporting board governance, entity management, or corporate secretarial functions.
• Experience with legal billing systems, contract management software, or matter-management platforms.
• Experience managing outside counsel relationships and legal budgets.

Skills

• Loves creating structure and organization.
• Exceptional attention to detail.
• Thrives in a fast-p