Azelis Americas is seeking a General Counsel to lead the Legal team for our region. In this role you will act as a strategic advisor to the senior executive team in the Americas region. You will support the business objectives in the region with expert advice on a broad range of legal and compliance matters relevant to Azelis’ regional business and operations, with the objective of safeguarding its commercial and financial interests, ensuring that management fully understands and evaluates the legal implications and risks, and helping guide the organization in legal and compliance matters.
About Azelis Americas
Azelis Americas is a leading service provider to the specialty chemicals and food ingredients industries. We play the role of intermediary between suppliers (known as “principals”) of specialty chemicals or food ingredients who have entrusted us with several distribution mandates for their products and our customers across a diverse range of markets from life sciences to industrial chemicals. We provide our principals with expertise in sales, marketing, distribution, and innovation and formulation while offering our customers a “one-stop shop” offering a wide range of production and value-added services.
We currently employ around 1,100 talented individuals across North, South and Central America with an annual global company revenue over $4 billion (2022). People are our key assets – that’s what we believe in. We embrace change as an invaluable opportunity to grow, learn, and become even better at what we do. We are looking for enthusiastic and innovative people who are thirsty for a challenge to join us in making a difference.
Main Accountabilities
- Manage the corporate legal & governance affairs of the Americas entities, including maintaining all legal records.
- Draft and negotiate distribution, agency and various commercial and other agreements (including real estate leases) to achieve the preferred commercial transactions and to protect Azelis’ interests with the objective to ensure that all legal aspects are appropriately covered, and liabilities are minimized.
- Strategic litigation management and legal assistance with third party claims in order to preserve Azelis’ rights.
- Cooperate with the Human Resources Department and advise on various labor law matters, including employment agreement drafting and litigation management.
- Ensure the roll-out and maintenance of the group’s compliance policies and procedures within the Americas.
- Provide and ensure appropriate training on relevant legal and compliance matters to increase knowledge and awareness within the organization.
- Active involvement in the preparation and execution of M&A transactions and special projects to ensure that all legal aspects are properly considered.
- Assist with specific risk management initiatives and insurance obligations for the organization in conjunction with the local and global programs.
- Cooperate globally with the different members of the Azelis legal department on initiatives to standardize and harmonize legal processes and procedures as well as to improve operational efficiencies (including legal tech).
- Lead and develop a team of legal counsels and paralegals across the Americas region in line with Azelis’ business and legal strategy.
- Manage outside counsel and oversee legal costs within the constraints of the approved annual budget.
Qualification & Skills
- Juris Doctor from an accredited US law school.
- Admission to the bar of a state where Azelis conducts business or the ability to obtain in-house counsel status in the State of Connecticut.
- Approximately 10 years' experience as a legal counsel in a corporate legal department or as an attorney in a recognized national or regional law firm. In either or both cases, such experience demonstrates increasing responsibility.
- In depth experience working in the United States, exposure to Canada and Latin America is considered a plus.
- Familiarity with the chemical distribution industry or adjacent sectors.
- Strong contributor to the execution and refinement of corporate strategies.
- Confidence to act autonomously and take responsibility for counseling, negotiating, and resolving legal matters.
- Excellent business acumen with demonstrated success to improve the outcome of commercial negotiations.
- Ability to drive the legal workstream of complex transactions and projects, including M&A.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a results-oriented approach.
- Self-starter and team player who can work independently.
- Sense of ownership and drive: problem solver who shows a bias for action, acts promptly to remove "roadblocks" and ensures accountability to get things done in a timely manner.
- Experience with heading a team of legal professionals and managing a legal budget for both internal and external resources.
- Excellent networking skills, successful relationship builder; able to deal with all levels in the organization.
- Excellent command of the English language, other languages (such as Spanish and Portuguese) are advantages.
- Excellent communication (oral & written) and presentation skills with the ability to convey complex legal concepts to non-legal stakeholders.
The job requirements will develop and change due to the organization's needs, and the employee will be expected to adapt to these changes. This list is not absolute, and the employee will be expected to carry out any tasks and duties for which he/she is trained.
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