General Counsel

OVERVIEW

As General Counsel for Day 1 Academies, you will develop and oversee all legal, regulatory, risk-management, and compliance work for the organization. Reporting directly to the President, you will serve as a key member of the senior leadership team and collaborate across functions. You will draw upon your extensive experience in corporate and nonprofit legal matters to develop and lead Day 1 Academies’ legal strategy. Your responsibilities will include managing outside counsel, advising senior leaders and the board on all legal matters, designing and implementing a comprehensive risk-management approach, negotiating contracts and agreements, managing litigation, handling statutory filings, overseeing copyright and other intellectual property matters, and more. Above all, you must share our passion for bringing high quality Montessori-inspired preschool to underserved communities and be eager to join us at an early phase in our organization’s development, laying all the legal groundwork for future growth in scale and impact.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manage all legal matters, developing and leading Day 1 Academies’ legal strategy to promote and protect the organization’s priorities and interests
• Advise executives, senior management, and board on existing and potential laws and regulations.
• Create and promulgate employment and compliance policies, procedures, and systems.
• Negotiate, draft, and manage employment, vendor, partner, real estate, merger and acquisition, and other contracts.
• Conduct legal, risk management, regulatory, and compliance research.
• Advise on current laws and regulations applicable to private foundations, public charities, and other non-profits, including charitable fundraising restrictions, tax regulations, campaign finance laws, and conflict-of-interest restrictions.
• Handle all statutory filings.
• Manage copyrights, trademarks, patent applications, and any other intellectual property.
• Manage all litigation and regulatory disputes.
• Vet, select, and manage outside counsel.
• Preserve all corporate records and legal documents in accordance with the Day 1 Academies Document Retention Policy.
• Create new corporate entities as necessary.
• Partner with the Day 1 Academies Human Resource (HR) team on Day 1 Academies Employee Handbook and related labor and employment policies and procedures, investigations of alleged employee misconduct, and other HR matters.
• Develop and implement internal audit and corporate compliance programs.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Juris Doctor degree from accredited law school
• Ten or more years of legal experience at law firms, corporate legal departments, and/or relevant state or federal government entities
• Active member in good standing of at least one state bar and willingness to register as in-house counsel in Washington

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Practical legal knowledge and experience with state and federal statutes, rules, and regulations governing 501c3 private foundations, 501c3 public charities, and other non-profit entity types
• Two or more years of experience managing and leading a legal team
• Strong judgement, leadership, integrity, communication, and influencing abilities
• Experience with corporate governance issues and corporate secretarial duties
• Proven ability selecting and managing outside counsel to achieve organizational objectives and results
• Track record of anticipating and mitigating risk effectively across an organization

DESIRED, DEMONSTRABLE QUALITIES

• A positive, child centered mentality
• Ownership philosophy
• Ability to invent new ways to address the needs of children while simplifying at every turn
• Strong judgement and instincts
• Lifelong desire to learn
• Hires and develops bar-raising people
• Standards that are unreasonably high
• Ability to think big, and see things that are not apparent
• A bias to get things done
• Focus on investing time and resources on things that help children
• Ability to operate at all levels
• Fearless pursuit of doing what is right for children
• Character, competence, personal integrity, and actions that build trust
• High level of passion and energy applied to delivering results
• Ability to execute and take action to accomplish goals along an unchartered path
• Willingness to change and adapt when presented with new information or data
• Strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness

FOCUS & DELIVERABLES (FIRST 12 MONTHS)

• Determine and operationalize overarching legal strategy for Day 1 Academies.
• Review and improve existing legal and compliance policies and procedures across the organization.
• Assume ownership of existing relationships with outside counsel and add new outside counsel where necessary; assess, streamline, and evolve current relationships and usage to improve cost efficiency.
• Design, implement, and lead organization-wide risk management approach and systems.
• Develop and facilitate legal and compliance training for staff in partnership with functional leaders (i.e., harassment, training, legal hiring, financial management, handling sensitive student or employee data, etc.).
• Review and revise existing contracts across the organization (employment agreements, leasing agreements, etc.); advise on major new contracts.
• Create clear policies and procedures for employees entering into legal agreements including systems for efficient review of contracts.
• Advise and assist with potential changes or additions to Day 1 Academies legal entities and related corporate governance considerations.
• Ensure Day 1 Academies has appropriate trademark protections in place to support future interests and potential endeavors.
• Devise strategic approach to regulatory issues around school operations in current and prospective sites.