Managing Counsel – Contracts

AISIN World Corp. of America, Inc. is seeking a Managing Counsel – Contracts to lead its enterprise-wide contract program. The position is based in Northville, MI with a hybrid schedule requiring three days per week on-site.

About the role

The Managing Counsel will lead, oversee, and coordinate contract review, lifecycle management, education, and standardization efforts for the Company and its affiliates and subsidiaries. This includes reviewing and drafting contracts, negotiating with external parties, managing outside counsel, directing legal team members on a dotted-line basis, and reporting to the General Counsel. The role also involves conducting training, maintaining the contract lifecycle management system, and developing contract playbooks and standardized templates.

Responsibilities

Legal

• Legal review of commercial and transactional documents
• Review markups of commercial and transactional documents
• Draft commercial and transactional documents
• Manage employee expectations and communicate effectively regarding review processes and lead times
• Provide legal advice and guidance on commercial documents, negotiations, and contract disputes
• Collaborate closely with Company staff during contract negotiations and transactions
• Negotiate with customers, suppliers, vendors, and other external parties to protect the Company’s legal interests
• Oversee legal vendors and law firms on contract review assignments and legal tasks
• Direct, assign, and review contract work of legal team members on a dotted-line basis; coach on contract best practices
• Report to and advise the General Counsel on ongoing projects, negotiations, review statuses, and dispute support
• Conduct training sessions for employees on contract best practices
• Work with multiple internal teams to support decision-making on contracts and transactions
• Perform all other duties as assigned

Contract Document Review

• Monitor the company’s cloud-based contract queue daily
• Monitor the legal department’s dedicated contract email
• Conduct regular, prompt reviews of contract documents received in the queue
• Evaluate and decide how to handle contracts
• Triage and assign contracts to internal and external counsel for legal review
• Coordinate and facilitate communication of legal reviews between counsel and team members
• Maintain clear expectations and communicate effectively regarding contract reviews and lead times
• Issue legal approvals or denials for contracts
• Update the cloud-based queue daily with contract status
• Oversee and manage outside counsel’s review, including timing, cost, and information facilitation
• Train team members on using the contract document review program
• Perform any other tasks related to the contract document review program as needed

Contract Lifecycle Management

• Monitor the Company’s contract lifecycle management system
• Upload, tag, and organize executed contracts as needed
• Collaborate with team members to assist in uploading all executed contracts
• Work with team members to ensure proper tagging and organization of executed contracts
• Help identify contract champions at each Company location
• Partner with contract champions to train and facilitate correct use of the lifecycle management system
• Work with the Company and team members to locate, obtain, and upload legacy contracts at each location
• Perform any other tasks related to the contract lifecycle program as needed

Standardization

• Manage all of the Company’s standardized contracts
• Identify needs for additional standardized contract documents
• Update and revise standardized contracts in coordination with the General Counsel
• Manage the Company’s standardized eContract system
• Train team members in proper use and application of standardized contracts
• Assist team members with using and implementing standardized contracts
• Develop and maintain contract playbooks regarding the legal department’s stance on various clauses and language
• Perform any other tasks related to standardized contracts as required

Requirements

Essential skills and experience

• At least ten (10) years of verifiable prior experience in an in-house legal department reviewing contracts and providing advice and counsel on contracts and transactions
• Self-directed leader with ability to work independently and show initiative
• Ability to lead, coach, and develop team members without direct reporting authority
• Strong business acumen and proficiency in the automotive industry and supply chain issues
• Outstanding client service mentality
• Ability to manage many contracts simultaneously
• Proficiency with technology and software applications
• Ability to manage client expectations
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Detail-oriented with strong attention to detail and factual/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), including track changes and redlining

Beneficial skills and experience

• Prior experience in the automotive industry
• Prior experience with Japanese companies
• Prior experience with an enterprise-wide contract document review and contract lifecycle management program
• Prior experience with Canadian and Mexican contracts/transactions
• Contract management software proficiency
• Form-building software proficiency

Education

• J.D. from an accredited law school, or LLM with foreign license

Schedule

Hybrid work schedule requiring three (3) days per week on-site at the Northville, MI office (subject to meetings and travel). Attendance in line with this hybrid policy is a key employment requirement; the schedule may be adjusted per Company HR policies.