Sr. Manager - Paralegal & Legal Operations

Summary:

The Paralegal and Legal Operations Sr Manager will support the effective and efficient functioning of SkyWater’s Legal team by providing legal support to internal clients, managing legal operations, and identifying and implementing opportunities to optimize the operational and organizational aspects of running a high performance in-house legal department. The Paralegal and Legal Operations Sr Manager will work closely with the Senior Corporate Counsel and broader Legal team, as well as with internal clients at all levels of the organization. The Paralegal and Legal Operations Sr Manager must be able to adapt to changing priorities and business needs and must be proactive in identifying areas of improvement and taking action to address them.

Responsibilities:

Draft and negotiate routine contracts based primarily on SkyWater templates, including:

• Confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with customers, vendors, and other third parties.
• Process design kit (PDK) license agreements for customer access to SkyWater’s standard platforms.
• Order forms, statements of work, and other agreements based on need, complexity, and availability.

Manage select Legal team workstreams and ensure processes work in an efficient, organized manner, while seeking to continuously improve processes and systems.

• Manage contract requests submitted through SkyWater’s contract lifecycle management tool.
• Support implementation and use of technology tools and solutions (Adobe Acrobat Sign, contract lifecycle management, matter management, etc.) to improve Legal team operations.
• Support responses to data requests, subpoenas, or other document requests in relation to litigation, government inquiries, or other areas.
• Organize and manage portfolio of patents and other IP assets as needed.
• Proactively launch and execute plans for operational improvements.
• Generate templates, forms, tools, and guides to create efficiencies and provide opportunities for self-service.

Manage operational projects, budgets, and activities to drive efficiency and effectiveness of Legal team workstreams.

• Manage relationships with select vendors, including outside counsel:
  • Regularly evaluate the success of Legal vendor relationships.
  • Identify opportunities to utilize vendors and outside counsel to expand capacity while maintaining a sustainable budget.
  • Support vendor RFPs as appropriate.
• Manage information governance and knowledge management for the Legal team:
  • Ensure that all Legal team records are stored in secure, organized file systems to support shared knowledge and compliant record-keeping.
  • Oversee implementation of document retention and destruction policy and legal hold process.
  • Create and implement protocols for sharing legal information.
• Budget Management
  • Partner with Finance to lead the Legal team’s budget, accruals, and forecast.
  • Manage invoicing, negotiating rates, adherence to billing guidelines, and budgeting with vendors, including outside counsel.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, paralegal certification a plus.
• Minimum 8-10 years of paralegal experience.
• Ability to be proactive, resourceful, responsive, and efficient.
• Strong collaboration skills to interact across all levels of the organization and with external vendors and clients; client-service orientation.
• Exceptionally organized and detail oriented, strong skill in proofreading and a high-level of accuracy in work.
• Exceptional project planning and management skills.
• Ability to exercise considerable judgment and discretion in dealing with confidential and sensitive issues.
• Ability to demonstrate sound and independent judgment, strategic thinking, and problem-solving.
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.
• Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and prioritize and reprioritize among same.
• Resourcefulness and ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Desire and aptitude for learning new concepts on the job and taking on new responsibilities.

US Citizenship Required: This position will require the holding of or ability to obtain government security clearance which requires U.S Citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience drafting and negotiating NDAs, license agreements, and services/vendor agreements.
• Administration of legal technology software/tools.
• Paralegal experience in a corporate legal department.

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