VP - Legal

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary senior legal partner for regional portfolios, with responsibility for timely, practical, and consistent legal support.
• Lead complex transactions. Structure, negotiate, draft, and close sophisticated retail real estate matters, including grocery, anchor and junior anchor leases, ground leases, amendments, renewals, assignments, estoppels, exclusivity arrangements, reciprocal easement agreements, and related multi-party agreements.
• Advise the business. Counsel Investment Management, Development, Leasing, Tenant Construction, Property Management, Finance, and Transaction Coordination on deal economics, tenant credit, construction and delivery obligations, rent commencement, lease enforcement, operational litigation risk, and other material business issues.
• Support strategic decisions. Provide risk-calibrated advice on major transactions, acquisitions, dispositions, portfolio strategy, tenant relationships, market positioning, and other high-stakes decisions.
• Lead legal resources. Direct and coordinate department attorneys, paralegals, and outside counsel; set matter strategy and quality expectations; allocate work effectively; and manage outside-counsel performance and cost.
• Advance legal operations. Improve templates, playbooks, workflows, technology adoption, knowledge management, and processes to increase quality, consistency, scalability, and turnaround time.
• Develop talent. Mentor legal team members in complex leasing, negotiation, legal strategy, executive communication, and professional development.
• Represent the Legal function. Participate in regional leadership meetings, cross-functional working groups, strategic planning sessions, and relevant industry or legal forums.
• Support enterprise priorities. Provide targeted support for high-priority matters and assume defined subject-matter responsibilities when requested by the General Counsel and consistent with workload priorities.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an ABA-accredited law school
• Active bar admission in at least one U.S. jurisdiction (CA, TX, FL, DC preferred, or ability to obtain DC admission)
• At least 8-10+ years of progressive legal experience, including substantial retail leasing experience
• Demonstrated leadership of complex retail leasing, including grocery, anchor, junior anchor, ground lease, development, and redevelopment transactions
• Experience operating as a senior in-house attorney or in a comparable role requiring independent judgment, business partnership, and strategic impact
• Demonstrated expertise in:
  • Complex retail leasing, anchor negotiations, and multi-party real estate transactions
  • Legal operations, process optimization, and adoption of contract lifecycle management, workflow, knowledge management, and other legal technology platforms
  • Outside counsel management, cost control, and strategic vendor relationships
  • Strong executive presence and ability to partner effectively with senior business leaders on legal and business matters
  • Proven track record of driving results, managing complexity, and operating independently with minimal supervision