Corporate General Counsel & Secretary

CLARK Material Handling Company a global leader in the forklift and material handling industry, located in Lexington, KY is seeking a qualified Corporate General Counsel to function as our Company's chief attorney.

Responsibilities include reviewing and/ or drawing up significant contracts involving leases, licenses, purchases, sales, real estate, employment, insurance and other matters; studying proposed and existing legislation affecting the Company and counsels with departments concerned; provides legal advice with respect to corporate administration and corporate resolutions, reviewing and approving advertising copy, public statements, and forms as applicable in order to anticipate and guard against legal risks involving the company; guarding the trademark good will and intellectual property of the Company. Participates in any transaction of legal nature. Serve as the Corporate Secretary.

Essential Functions:

• Provides legal advice and direction on a variety of corporate legal matters with an emphasis in product liability, trademarks, patents, agreements, contracts and finance transactional areas, risk management, equal employment and affirmative action program, and compliance programs.
• Manages outside legal counsel on litigation matters.
• Draft and negotiation of agreements and contracts including patent and product liability transactions
• Primary responsibility for managing CLARK product liability program. Represents the company and other agencies relative to product liability issues and federal and state taxing agencies.
• Advises management on the impact of liability laws and develops damage claims saving plans most beneficial to the company.
• Provides support on employment law matters-coordinates representation of the company in cases arising out of employment laws, benefits, labor contracts and workers compensation.
• Monitors legislation and trade movements affecting the industrial lift truck industry and reports and recommends courses of action for the company.
• Represents the company in industry wide counsels to protect the U.S. lift truck industry from fair trade violations.
• Prepares and responds to requests from various federal agencies.
• Provides legal servicing of all matters pertaining to dealer principals, leasing operations, international contracts, brokerage firm’s insurance companies, and bonding firms.
• Provides legal advice & service on patent matters; reviews patent material and literature to determine the possibility of grants of patents on inventions and trademarks.
• Studies reports on possible infringement by competitor’s products and conducts prosecution of infringements of the company’s patents.
• Work with outside counsel on corporate transactions including mergers & acquisitions
• Conduct legal due diligence related to mergers & acquisitions
• Remain current in applicable regulatory environment
• Provide training on a wide variety of compliance and regulating matters, including antitrust, export regulations, discrimination matters, etc.
• Monitor Product Liability cases
• Work with senior business management to identify and resolve legal issues
• Serve as the subject matter expert in areas of product liability, agreements, contracts, trademarks, and patents
• Handle a variety of general corporate matters including contracts, document review, and counseling on a variety of issues in support of the employee benefits, product research, and other activities
• Draft, review, edit and negotiate a variety of agreements to support the business
• Assist with the handling of miscellaneous general real estate matters.
• Assist in avoidance of and resolution of disputes.
• Respond to subpoenas and attorney correspondence.
• Oversees the Human Resources department and all responsibilities related.
  Basic Qualifications:

• Licensed Attorney with at least 7 years’ experience as an in-house corporate attorney
• Top of class; graduate of major law school

• Experience with major law firm would be desirable
• Must have trademark, patents, and contract transactional experience with a strong understanding of industry related laws and regulations.
• Experience negotiating and closing significant enterprise transactions
• Experience in mergers & acquisitions also highly desirable with ability to manage transaction and outside counsel
• Industry background in the material handling industry would be desirable

Environmental/Physical Conditions:

The incumbent will be located onsite in the corporate office, in an office environment with regulated heating and cooling. Work involves using the telephone, computer equipment, viewing a monitor, using a printer, and all other types of office and video conference and virtual meeting equipment etc.

Disclaimer:

This position description is not intended and should not be construed to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, efforts or working conditions associated with the job; it is intended to be an accurate reflection of those principal job elements essential to the job. Incumbents may be required to perform other duties as assigned or as required by the needs of the business. CLARK Material Handling Company retains the discretion to change or add to the duties of the position at any time.