Overview
This role is a volunteer, executive leadership position with the organization’s legal division. The organization is seeking an experienced attorney and operational leader to serve as Deputy General Counsel & Chief of Legal Operations.
The position combines two complementary responsibilities:
- Deputy General Counsel: Support substantive legal matters within areas delegated by the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel.
- Chief of Legal Operations: Build the systems, workflows, technology, knowledge infrastructure, matter-management practices, and operating discipline needed for the legal division to function as a modern legal department.
This is a senior leadership role that requires strong legal judgment alongside practical execution.
Responsibilities
Relationship with the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel
Within delegated authority, the Deputy may:
- Lead legal matters, provide legal analysis, coordinate outside counsel, and review agreements
- Supervise designated legal work
- Represent the legal division in organizational discussions
Legal Department Leadership
- Support day-to-day leadership of the legal division
- Translate Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel priorities into workstreams with owners, deadlines, and deliverables
- Coordinate legal matters across the organization
- Supervise designated attorneys, legal professionals, volunteers, and interns
- Identify matters requiring Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel attention or specialized outside counsel
- Establish operating expectations and accountability across the division
- Support recruitment, onboarding, development, and retention of legal professionals
- Maintain visibility across major legal priorities
- Serve as acting legal leader when expressly delegated
Legal Operations
Lead the operational infrastructure supporting the organization’s legal function, including:
- Establish legal intake and triage procedures
- Develop matter-management workflows
- Track priorities, deadlines, and commitments
- Establish escalation pathways
- Develop standardized legal processes to improve responsiveness and visibility
- Identify recurring matters that can be handled more efficiently
- Create reporting for the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel
- Strengthen coordination between the legal division and other divisions
Contracts & Agreements
Strengthen the organization’s contract lifecycle in partnership with the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and appropriate organizational leaders across:
- Request → Review → Negotiation → Approval → Signature → Repository → Obligation Tracking → Renewal / Expiration
Responsibilities may include:
- Review and negotiate agreements within delegated authority
- Develop contract templates and playbooks
- Coordinate legal and business-owner review
- Clarify appropriate approval pathways
- Support signature processes
- Maintain executed-agreement repositories
- Track material obligations, renewals, and expirations
- Identify recurring contractual risks
- Coordinate specialized matters with outside counsel
Legal Technology & Innovation
Help develop an appropriate legal-technology ecosystem, including:
- Contract management, matter management, e-signatures
- Legal intake, document management, knowledge management
- Deadline tracking, legal research, workflow automation, reporting
- Appropriate AI-enabled legal tools
Partner with relevant internal functions when technology involves sensitive, confidential, privileged, or organizational information.
Knowledge Management
Build systems that preserve institutional legal knowledge, including:
- Contract templates and clause libraries
- Legal playbooks, governance resources, and legal memoranda
- Corporate records, policies and procedures, training resources
- Frequently requested guidance and matter documentation
- Outside counsel work product where appropriate
Outside Counsel Management
Coordinate external legal resources, including pro bono counsel, law firms, and specialized attorneys across areas such as employment, intellectual property, tax-exempt organizations, real estate/housing, privacy/technology, and other advisors. Responsibilities may include:
- Develop scopes of work
- Coordinate engagement documentation
- Prepare teams for counsel meetings
- Track deliverables and deadlines
- Coordinate document requests
- Maintain communication and monitor expenses where applicable
- Preserve work product and ensure organizational follow-through
Legal Budget & Resource Management
Partner with the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and finance leadership to:
- Develop and monitor legal budgets
- Forecast anticipated expenses
- Track outside counsel costs
- Monitor legal technology and vendor expenses
- Identify opportunities for pro bono support
- Support responsible allocation of legal resources
Governance Legal Support
Support governance-related matters involving:
- Corporate records; board and committee documentation
- Resolutions; bylaws and governing documents
- Conflict-of-interest processes
- Governance policies and corporate authorizations
- Regulatory filings; governance calendars
This role provides legal and operational support to governance processes and does not assume authority belonging to the Board of Directors or other duly authorized governance bodies.
Legal Project Management
Lead complex legal initiatives using disciplined project-management practices. For significant matters, establish:
- Objective → Legal Owner → Organizational Owner → Dependencies → Milestones → Decision Authority → Deadline → Escalation → Completion
Projects may involve contracts, policies, organizational changes, intellectual property, new programs, technology, governance, regulatory matters, legal audits, or risk remediation.
Cross-Divisional Legal Partnership
Work collaboratively across the organization while respecting established functional authority, partnering with:
- People on employment and volunteer matters
- Finance on financial, tax, commercial, and contracting matters
- Privacy/security and information risk leadership
- Governance on governance frameworks and institutional accountability
- Operations on implementation of approved legal requirements
- Product/technology and related functions on technology and product matters
- Public-facing/advocacy leadership on public-facing legal considerations
- Housing on real estate and housing matters
- Creative divisions on intellectual property, licensing, releases, and creative rights
Risk, Confidentiality & Escalation
Help establish clear processes for identifying and escalating significant legal matters, considering legal exposure, financial consequences, safeguarding, regulatory obligations, contractual commitments, privacy, cybersecurity, governance, urgency, precedent, and organizational impact.
Maintain disciplined practices involving:
- Attorney-client privilege and confidential legal communications
- Sensitive investigations
- Legal document access and legal repositories
- Outside counsel communications
- Matter documentation
Team Leadership & Development
Build a sustainable legal organization by:
- Recruiting qualified attorneys and legal professionals
- Establishing clear responsibilities and reporting relationships
- Mentoring emerging legal leaders
- Reviewing legal work appropriately
- Establishing supervision and accountability
- Developing team workflows
- Building succession and continuity
- Strengthening collaboration across legal specialties
- Creating a culture of rigor, service, discretion, professional independence, and follow-through
Qualifications
Required
- Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school or equivalent qualifying legal education
- Active and good-standing admission to at least one U.S. state, territory, or District of Columbia bar
- Meaningful legal experience in an in-house, nonprofit, law-firm, government, corporate, or comparable environment
- Experience reviewing, drafting, or negotiating legal agreements
- Strong legal research, writing, and analytical capabilities
- Strong understanding of legal operations and organizational systems
- Experience coordinating complex legal matters or projects
- Exceptional judgment, organization, discretion, and communication
- Ability to collaborate effectively with executives and multidisciplinary leaders
- Commitment to the organization’s mission and organizational values
Preferred
Experience involving several of the following:
- Nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations
- Legal operations
- Corporate governance
- Contracts
- Employment law
- Intellectual property
- Privacy and technology
- Compliance
- Risk management
- Legal technology
- Outside counsel management
- Project management
- Real estate or affordable housing
- Youth-serving organizations
Prior experience as Deputy General Counsel, Associate General Counsel, senior in-house counsel, senior nonprofit attorney, or comparable legal leader is particularly valuable.
First-Year Priorities
During the first year, this leader will help:
- Establish centralized legal intake and matter management
- Implement contract tracking and lifecycle processes
- Develop a legal knowledge repository
- Strengthen templates and legal playbooks
- Improve outside counsel management
- Establish legal project-management practices
- Develop meaningful legal operations reporting
- Strengthen governance documentation workflows
- Establish service and escalation standards
- Improve visibility into legal deadlines and obligations
- Recruit and develop legal division talent
- Reduce dependence on institutional memory
Commitment
- Approximately 5–10 hours per week
- Minimum 6-month commitment
- Fully remote, with NYC collaboration as needed
- Regular coordination with the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel
- Participation in appropriate legal, executive, and governance meetings
- Timely responsiveness on significant legal matters
- Strict confidentiality and professional discretion
- Compliance with applicable professional-responsibility obligations and organizational standards
Location
Fully Remote — United States, with NYC collaboration as needed
At this time, volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.
Compensation & Benefits
- Unpaid volunteer executive leadership position
How Success Is Measured
- Legal matters have clear owners
- Requests are tracked
- Deadlines are visible
- Contracts do not disappear after signature
- Legal knowledge is preserved
- Outside counsel engagements have clear objectives
- Sensitive information is appropriately protected
- The Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel has meaningful visibility across the legal portfolio
- Organizational leaders understand when and how to engage the legal function
- Routine matters become more efficient
- Complex matters receive appropriate attention
Who You’ll Work With
This role reports to the Chief Legal Officer & General Counsel and works closely with the CEO, executive leadership team, board of directors, division chiefs, outside counsel, and internal operational and governance partners.