Senior Paralegal

About the role

The Senior Paralegal helps mitigate risk to Portico by providing deep expertise in Portico’s status as a church plan. This position leads in delivering legal support for inquiries and requests from various business groups that support the retirement, health, survivor, and disability benefits offered by Portico Benefit Services. The role involves collaborating with internal and external business partners and outside counsel to address legal issues while meeting business objectives. The Senior Paralegal functions independently, exercising sound judgment on discretionary legal matters, and is committed to high standards in work product and strong business acumen.

Responsibilities

• Assist with Corporate Secretary responsibilities.
• Manage appeals, including tracking member appeals, preparing appeal summaries for various plans, holding committee meetings, assisting with adjudication, and ensuring responses are provided within plan deadlines.
• Serve as staff liaison to the Board of Trustees Appeals Committee.
• Review and negotiate agreements using best practice contract management tools, templates, tracking mechanisms, methods, and processes.
• Prepare, draft, negotiate, and execute contracts, consulting agreements, and RFI/RFPs.
• Support litigation management, including responding to inquiries, discovery, and maintaining litigation files.
• Assist with retirement, health, survivor, and disability plan and trust amendments; keep plan and trust documents up to date; respond to questions regarding plans and their ongoing maintenance.
• Oversee the trademark/copyright process, including preparing documents and ensuring correct application filing.
• Administer the records retention program, including identifying appropriate retention periods and ensuring the schedule is up-to-date.
• Prepare and file annual documents as required; prepare and hold appropriate committee meetings.
• Prepare and file class action applications; ensure payments are correctly deposited.
• Manage compliance and coordinate responses to subpoenas and document requests.
• Provide governance oversight for the Augustana Annuity Trust.
• Review member-facing documents, including summary plan descriptions, newsletters, web text, and marketing communications.
• Assist in compliance with disclaimer and disclosure guidelines.
• Periodically review and revise policies, practices, and procedures as necessary.
• Assist with preparation of additional research, data, or correspondence as required by the Chief Legal Officer, business partners, or contract provisions.
• Keep current with new and emerging regulations or best practice standards.
• Act as a liaison between vendors, vendor relationship managers, business units, and the General Counsel to ensure all legal and contractual matters are addressed efficiently and promptly.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the General Counsel, including administrative support as necessary.

Requirements

• 10+ years of paralegal experience in a corporate or law firm environment.
• Prior experience in the retirement, insurance, or financial services industry.
• Prior experience supporting business operations, compliance, and/or regulatory departments in a corporate environment.

Qualifications

• Paralegal certificate required.