Senior Legal Advisor

Overview

The Senior Legal Advisor serves a key role on the Authority’s Legal and Compliance team.  Reporting to the Chief Counsel, the Senior Legal Advisor will lead and manage high-impact, cross-functional special projects initiated by the Chief Counsel and will also serve as a critical resource to the broader legal management team, ensuring alignment of legal strategy with programmatic objectives across the Authority.

Success in this role will require an ability to translate complex legal concepts into clean, actionable strategies that support executive decision-making across a broad spectrum of legal issues. An ability to problem-solve and to quickly grasp new and sometimes novel legal issues, while supporting time-sensitive Authority-wide or division initiatives are critical to success.

This position is ideally suited to an attorney with experience advising senior leadership, whether in a state agency, corporate legal department, or in-house counseling in a complex organization, on cross-functional, high-priority projects and Authority-wide initiatives, with a strong working knowledge of New Jersey specific law governing NJEDA’s operations and strategic initiatives.

Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

 

• Provide dedicated legal analysis, advice, and project management directly to the Chief Counsel on priority matters, ensuring their initiatives are effectively supported and executed;
• Manage and drive high-priority, cross-functional special projects that may not fall neatly into any one department within the division, but that require the Chief Counsel’s immediate attention and input;
• Research, draft, and prepare briefing materials, legal memoranda, and recommendations tailored for the Chief Counsel’s strategic decision-making and communication with the board or senior executives;
• Handle sensitive, confidential legal matters or investigations on behalf of the Chief Counsel that require discretion and direct reporting;
• Act swiftly on urgent legal matters escalated directly to the Chief Counsel, facilitating rapid legal analysis and response;
• Performs legal research and monitors and tracks changes in applicable law, ensuring management and staff are informed of relevant changes;
• Works closely with all the departments’ legal management team within the division to ensure cross-departmental support for NJEDA’s projects, policies, and initiatives;
• Support legal innovation efforts, including legal tech adoption and legal operations improvements, within the division;
• Provides written and/or verbal briefings to NJEDA’s leadership and Board, as well as other state stakeholders such as the Office of the Governor and Department of the Treasury;
• Works with the division’s legal management team to set division-wide goals and objectives;
• Promotes teamwork and communication to encourage an interactive, cooperative, collaborative and customer focused work environment among division, NJEDA staff and external customers;
• Performs other duties and special projects, as assigned; and
• Must complete annual and semiannual self-assessment as required.

 

Skills and Abilities

 

• Ability to provide timely and effective legal support to Authority programs and leadership on a wide range of legal topics;
• An ability to quickly acquire an understanding of NJEDA’s broader programmatic portfolio and and related industry dynamics;
• An ability to manage the preparation of legal documents, memoranda, and reports;
• Commitment to fostering a collaborative, innovative, and ethical work environment.
• Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex legal information into actionable recommendations.
• A proven ability to communicate at senior levels, including at a Board level;
• Capacity to prioritize workload, must be highly organized, detail-oriented, handle various tasks simultaneously and work independently within limited time constraints with minimal supervision;
• Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing; proficient in grammar, spelling and editing; and foster communications with business professionals and EDA staff;
• Must be able to maintain confidentiality and deal effectively and diplomatically with business professionals and Authority staff;
• Demonstrates respectful behavior and promotes teamwork and communication to encourage an interactive, cooperative, collaborative and customer focused work environment among division, Authority staff and external customers; and
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and online legal research applications (such as LexisNexis and Westlaw), with the ability to learn new software packages.

 

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