Kawneer General Counsel

In this role, you will:
Executive Leadership and Strategic Counsel

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, executive leadership team, and Board of Directors.
• Provide practical legal guidance that supports the Company’s strategic objectives and profitable growth.
• Assess legal and business risks associated with significant commercial, operational, and strategic decisions.
• Participate in capital allocation, acquisitions, divestitures, and major business initiatives.
• Translate leadership decisions into actionable workstreams and implementation plans
• Advise executive leadership on material legal matters, significant claims, litigation exposure, and emerging business risks.
• Oversee compliance with applicable antitrust and competition laws, anti-corruption regulations, trade and export controls, privacy and cybersecurity requirements, environmental regulations, and employment laws.
• Oversee IP-related legal matters in coordination with the product development/R&D team.

Mergers, Acquisitions & Corporate Transactions

• Lead legal support for acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions.
• Oversee due diligence, transaction structuring, negotiation, and post-closing integration activities.
• Coordinate external legal advisors and specialists as required.
• Advise executive leadership on strategic transactions, investments, and other significant corporate initiatives.

Commercial Contracting & Business Transactions

• Lead legal support for customer contracts, supply agreements, distribution arrangements, sales agent agreements, strategic partnerships, and other commercial transactions.
• Draft, review, negotiate, interpret, and administer commercial agreements.
• Develop and maintain standard contracting processes, templates, negotiation playbooks, and approval procedures.
• Advise business leaders on pricing, warranty obligations, limitations of liability, indemnification, consequential damages, product claims, payment protections, and commercial risk allocation.
• Support procurement and supply chain teams on sourcing agreements and supplier negotiations.
• Advise on contract amendments, renewals, terminations, performance disputes, and enforcement of contractual rights.
• Provide practical day-to-day legal support to Sales, Operations, Procurement, Finance, Credit, Quality, Engineering, and Technical Services.

Claims, Warranty, and Product Matters

• Lead the intake, investigation, assessment, and resolution of warranty claims, product claims, construction-related disputes, customer demands, and other pre-litigation matters.
• Provide counsel on product liability, construction defects, contractor and installer disputes, and architectural and engineering claims.
• Coordinate factual and technical investigations with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Technical Services, Sales, Finance, Credit, and other relevant business functions.
• Prepare or oversee responses to demand letters, warranty claims, customer allegations, and threatened litigation.
• Evaluate contractual defenses, available remedies, settlement options, business considerations, insurance coverage, and potential recovery from responsible third parties.
• Work with Operations, Engineering, Quality, and commercial teams to identify and mitigate product-related risks.
• Establish consistent processes for claim ownership, escalation, documentation, and reporting.

Litigation and Dispute Resolution

• Lead the management of litigation, arbitration, administrative proceedings, claims, and commercial disputes, including early case assessment, preservation and collection of relevant information, identification and preparation of business witnesses, development of strategy, evaluation of settlement opportunities, and reporting to leadership.
• Serve as the principal liaison among Kawneer leadership, business personnel, insurers, and outside counsel.
• Develop dispute resolution strategies that balance business objectives, legal exposure, and cost management.
• Manage outside counsel and legal budgets effectively and review invoices and performance to ensure that strategy, staffing, and legal spend remain proportionate to the matter.
• Coordinate responses to government inquiries, investigations, and subpoenas.

Employment and Labor Matters

• Advise management and Human Resources on employment-related issues.
• Oversee employment litigation, labor relations matters, restrictive covenant issues, and workplace investigations.
• Support executive compensation, incentive plans, and workforce-related strategic initiatives.

Risk Management

• Lead Kawneer’s enterprise risk management strategy, identifying assessing and mitigating legal, regulatory, operational, financial and reputational risks.
• Provide strategic counsel to senior leadership and the Board regarding significant risks, exposures, and mitigation plans.
• Drive a culture of risk awareness and accountability
• Coordinate cross functional response and remediation efforts when material risks or control deficiencies are identified.

Also note:

• Strong business judgment and commercial acumen.
• Ability to balance legal risk with practical business objectives.
• Executive presence and credibility with senior leadership and directors.
• Exceptional negotiation, judgment, and communication skills.
• Strategic, solutions-oriented approach to problem solving.
• Ability to influence across functions and build strong relationships.
• Unquestioned integrity and high ethical standards.
• Strong leadership and team development capabilities.