Associate General Counsel | Real Estate

Overview

The Associate General Counsel serves a dual function at Buckingham Companies: as a senior in-house legal resource and as an embedded co-leader within the company's real estate production activities. This individual does not sit at the periphery of transactions.  They are in the work alongside the business team, sharing accountability for outcomes.

On the legal side, the Associate General Counsel works in close partnership with the General Counsel on all tactical and strategic legal matters across the organization, with particular depth in real estate development, construction, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, investment management, and joint ventures. This includes direct negotiation of complex agreements, management of outside counsel, and serving as the primary legal point of contact for all business units.

 

On the operational side, the Associate General Counsel is expected to be an active co-leader on transactions not a resource that engages only when matters are reduced to writing. This means working shoulder-to-shoulder with project managers and production leads: understanding the deal's business purpose from the outset, staying accountable and available as the transaction evolves, and ensuring that the legal process serves and advances the business objective rather than operating in a separate lane. The Associate General Counsel does not own the project manager's role but they share ownership of the outcome.

 

This expectation is intentional. Buckingham Companies values an attorney who engages as a committed participant in the business, not as a consultant who appears at the documentation stage and departs at execution.

Qualifications

Education

• Juris Doctorate Degree
• Bachelor's Degree in business, real estate, or related field
• Good standing with State Bar; current license to practice law
• Coursework, certification, or demonstrated experience in real estate, business, or project/construction management is a plus

Legal Experience & Skills

• Minimum of two years of proven legal experience with emphasis on real estate, business, and/or securities law
• Familiarity with real estate transaction documents: purchase and sale agreements, loan documents, leases, development agreements, AIA construction contracts, joint venture agreements, and related instruments
• Ability to exercise independent legal judgment and provide clear, confident counsel without requiring step-by-step supervision
• Strong drafting skills — clear, concise, and precise under time pressure
• Good working knowledge of development, investment management design and construction processes highly preferred
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including SharePoint

Co-Leadership & Deal Engagement Skills

• Demonstrated ability to work alongside project managers and production leads as a co-accountable participant
• Ability to engage with a deal at the business intent level: understanding what the company is trying to accomplish, not just what the contract needs to say
• Comfort maintaining shared accountability for deal timelines and outcomes, even when the primary driver is a business-side project lead
• Experience managing competing deadlines across multiple active transactions simultaneously without loss of quality or detail
• Ability to step into negotiations with counterparties and represent the company's commercial interests alongside its legal ones
• Capacity to bridge legal language and business intent translating complexity for non-lawyer colleagues and decision-makers in real time
• Consistent availability and responsiveness that matches the pace of an active production environment, not a traditional legal services model

Special Requirements

• Big-picture and strategic thinking combined with disciplined execution at the detail level
• Entrepreneurial approach: takes initiative, moves without being pushed, anticipates what is needed next
• High degree of professionalism, confidentiality, and accountability
• Strong problem-solving instincts, with a bias toward resolution over analysis
• Transparency in reporting and information-sharing across all departments
• Results-oriented and solution-focused: the goal is closed deals and protected company interests, not perfect memos
• Excellent judgment, particularly in situations where legal considerations and business objectives are in tension
• Proven negotiation skills in both legal and commercial contexts

Responsibilities

Legal Responsibilities

• Draft, review, and negotiate contracts across the full spectrum of the company's activities: purchase and