Regional General Counsel - North America

At Mott MacDonald, we trust our brilliant people to do brilliant things in engineering, management, and development services, supporting multisector project work in over 150 countries. As one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world, we pride ourselves on our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes through our network of 20,000+ talented consultants. With sustainability and innovation at the heart of all our market in North America, including, Buildings, Energy, Transportation, and Water.

We believe in empowering our people to excel, learn, and grow, offering diverse opportunities to contribute to career-defining work. Join us and be part of a collaborative environment where your ambitions are united with ours, and you can truly shape your story.

We are looking to appoint a Regional General Counsel for North America. You will report directly to, and work closely with, the Group General Counsel, to align the regional legal strategy with the Group’s strategy. You will lead the provision of a full in-house legal service in the US and Canada. Although you will be supported by several very experienced lawyers, given the complexity of the role, and number of territories involved, you will have the full support of the Group Legal Department, based in the United Kingdom. Exercising your independent judgement, you will be responsible for communicating key challenges and significant risks from the region, back to the Group General Counsel.

You will leverage your wealth of experience in dealing with complex legal matters in North America to proactively address legal matters in your region. This includes being personally involved in significant legal matters of a strategic nature. You will also use your experience to provide input into the regional leadership team on strategic legal matters that might impact the current and future performance of the region.

Responsibilities of the role include, but are not limited to, the following:

Experienced Senior Legal Advisor

• Personally undertaking the review and negotiation of strategically important contracts.
• Leading on the resolution of strategically important disputes.
• Overseeing critical contracts with Design-Build contractors, including assisting the business to mitigate risks associated with such contracts.
• Advising the business on fee claims and disputes, including insurance matters, which may include liaising with external counsel and technical experts.
• Responsible for consistent, high quality legal advice in the region.
• Delivery of ethics and compliance programs to the region.
• Leading on investigations in the region.
• Managing the insurance program at a local level.
• Leading on legal training in the region.
• Being the “go to” person to whom matters are escalated by the legal team.
• Interfacing with the Region’s Privacy and Data Protection Manager (who is also a member of the Mott MacDonald Legal Department).

Managing the Legal Team

• Ensuring consistency of advice between the region and the Group.
• Managing the continuous learning of the legal team to ensure they are equipped to deliver a legal service to the highest possible standard.
• Managing a team of lawyers, including being responsible for their work product, development, productivity and wellbeing.
• Keeping external legal spend to a minimum, by ensuring that work is outsourced to a law firm on an exception only basis.
• Regularly reporting on the Group General Counsel on all key legal matters.

 Interfacing with Regional Management

• Advisor to the regional leadership team and interfacing with the unit leadership team.
• Advising the regional leadership team on all legal issues pertaining to the region.
• Influencing the unit senior leadership team on regional decisions that touch upon the units.

We are looking for a technically excellent, confident, assertive, and experienced senior lawyer, ideally already operating at a head of legal or general counsel level (within a business unit or otherwise) within an international organization, to join our legal team.

We invite applications from candidates with the following experience:

• A Juris Doctorate from an accredited law school and membership in at least one State Bar is required.
• Fifteen (15) years or more experience in matters directly relating to:
  • Contracts, with a particular focus on personally negotiating with Design Build contractors
  • Major disputes, particularly with Design Build contractors
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • General commercial matters such as licensing, property, employment disputes
  • Professional liability defense of engineers and architects
  • Ethics and compliance investigations
  • Insurance
  • Company secretarial duties    
• Experience within the engineering and construction industry and a combination of in-house and private practice experience including drafting, reviewing and negotiating contracts and resolving disputes
• Able to identify, assess and develop strategies to manage risk inherent to projects in the engineering and construction industry.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively, concisely and confidently with all levels of management.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines with various stakeholders.
• Leadership of a team of experienced lawyers and ability to develop team members.
• Operating effectively in a high-pressure environment, juggling and managing competing priorities to very short deadlines.

Some travel will be required for this role. It will primarily consist of travel to other Mott MacDonald offices in the US, Canada and the UK.

At Mott MacDonald, we provide a comprehensive benefit package that includes 401k, medical, dental and vision insurance, short-term/long-term disability, paid holidays, PTO, parental leave and company paid life insurance. 

The expected salary for this position is $275,000-350,000.

Individual pay is determined based on several factors such as work location, education, experience, and unique skills. 

Equal opportunity is the law. 

We seek to promote fair employment procedures and practices to ensure equal opportunities for all. We encourage individual expression in our workplace and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they have the opportunity to contribute.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, creed, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship status or disability status.