Commercial and Legal Counsel

Novaspect, Inc. an Emerson Impact Partner, the global leader of process systems and solutions, is currently offering an opportunity for an in-house business-minded attorney to join our fast-paced, customer-orientated team in our Schaumburg, IL location. This will be an exciting and challenging position, as you'll have a broad range of responsibilities ranging from formal legal support for Novaspect's Board and Executive Team as well as supporting its business units by providing legal guidance along with overseeing the negotiation of distributor and rep agreements, vendor, and sales agreements. You'll make an immediate impact through sound business judgment and the ability to translate legal and business concepts into win-win arrangements to protect the business and achieve business goals. Novaspect is an ESOP and, as such, this role is ideally suited for an individual who is eager to learn, has an ownership mentality, and thrives in a team-focused, fast-paced environment. This position requires providing legal guidance on a variety of corporate-related matters as well as being the primary evaluator and decision maker with respect to various commercial transactions; all while coordinating with relevant company management on key business aspects and taking into account company guidelines, risk management profile, customer concerns and business objectives.

Commercial and Legal Counsel Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

General Legal:

• Provide legal counsel to the Executive Team and Board of Directors, including attending board meetings, and drafting and revising corporate policies, bylaws, minutes, agendas, and resolutions.
• Partner with the HR team on employment practices, employment handbook updates, compliance training, and related legal matters.
• Provide counsel and advice to cross-functional stakeholders and senior leaders to set the company's legal strategy on a broad range of matters related to new initiatives and products and other corporate, transactional, and regulatory matters.
• Provide expert and strategic legal advice to the business on a variety of legal topics, including contracts, litigation risks, business structure, labor laws, intellectual property, and regulatory matters.
• Conduct legal research and analysis to stay current on changes that may impact the company and its subsidiaries.
• Coordinate with external lawyers and advisors.
• Manage federal and state regulatory strategy and compliance, and annual corporate filings.
• Maintain a solid understanding of the company's product and service offerings (and associated risk tolerances) and typical industries and, as applicable, provide guidance on strategic business decisions.
• Provide guidance and support to the company's procurement function.
• Must have a sense of ownership, be self-driven and have the ability to guide the business as an SME on transactional agreements and accompanying risk management.

Contractual Matters:

• Make judgment calls utilizing your strong business acumen to balance between customers' position versus company's risk tolerance while taking into account the nuances of the involved product lines and/or services.
• Comfortable balancing potential legal risks versus anticipated real-world risks.
• Collaborate with BU managers to review, draft and negotiate major and critical contracts, including customer agreements, vendor contracts, distributor and rep agreements, and subcontractor agreements.
• Manage the organization's insurance portfolio (including backup assistance with COI requests), assist with bonds.
• Ensure agreements are negotiated to align with business objectives, and are practical and executable.
• Work collaboratively with other Impact Partners and Emerson contract counsels on common customer issues.
• Support and provide guidance to direct report(s) in the drafting and negotiation of a broad range of agreements, including sales, vendor, NDAs, and distributor and rep agreements.
• Stop work authority (e.g. credit holds, credit line reductions and/or otherwise intervene in the event actions of customers are outside company's risk tolerance).
• Evolve the role of the position as needed to support key company initiatives (e.g., new contractual vehicles, new or expanded responsibilities, new offerings).
• Maintain company approval guidelines.
• Actively support and maintain contract document management platform, including renewal and price management.
• Ensures appropriate leadership is apprised of contracting risks and ways to mitigate the risks.
• Support challenging business and contractual discussions with customers, including follow-up and resolving outstanding issues.
• Maintain company standard terms and conditions in accordance with industry best practices.
• Maintain and update existing templates and contracting processes.
• Create and manage "battle of the forms" procedures and advise company managers as applicable.
• Facilitate completion of vendor qualification and/or other forms required by customers.

Requirements

Commercial and Legal Counsel Qualifications:

• JD from an accredited law school
• Admitted to Illinois bar or have appropriate licensure to practice law in Illinois
• 10+ years of legal and industry experience (minimum of 5 years as an attorney in a law firm and/or legal/contracts department of a medium to large corporation)
• Demonstrated ability to manage a broad range of legal matters
• Prior experience reviewing, drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements (masters, goods, services, projects, vendor, NDA and distributor being the most common)
• Attention to detail, but must also see the big picture
• Strong business acumen
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Highly effective at building long term relationships and working within a sales team environment
• Creative negotiator seeking win-win
• Experience with any of the following is a plus: Cybersecurity concepts and related language, SaaS and/or cloud agreements, Legal risks and mitigations associated with generative AI

Commercial and Legal Counsel Benefits: Recognized with a Top Employee Benefit Plan Award, below you will find our outstanding total rewards package when you join our team including:

• Generous paid time off; starting at 15 vacation days, 10 holidays, and personal time off
• 401K with 6% company match
• Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP)
• Excellent health & wellness benefits
• Student debt & tuition reimbursement
• Referral bonus

Commercial and Legal Counsel Location: Schaumburg, IL

Who We Are: Novaspect, Inc., is an employee-owned company that engineers, sells, and services industrial process controls. Our Core Purpose is to improve our customer's performance through the innovative application of technology. We are passionate about creating effective processes and building customer relationships. We position ourselves to attract the best talent, and ensure we are delivering local services with proven technologies.