Vice President, Legal Counsel

Overview

The organization is seeking a Vice President, Legal Counsel to establish and lead the in-house legal function. This role will serve as a practical, business-minded advisor to the executive team and cross-functional leaders, bringing routine legal work in-house, creating scalable legal operations, and managing outside counsel for specialized matters to improve speed, control costs, and strengthen legal and regulatory risk management.

This is an individual contributor role reporting initially to the Chief Customer Officer, with the expectation to transition to the Chief Operating Officer once hired.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic legal advisor to executive and business leaders on corporate governance, compliance, risk management, employment matters, contracts, and key business decisions.
• Draft, review, and negotiate sponsorship, supplier, vendor, service, partnership, licensing, media-rights, and other commercial agreements.
• Own the full contract lifecycle, including intake, prioritization, templates and playbooks, approval workflows, execution, central repository, renewals, and obligations tracking.
• Partner with functional owners and department heads to assign accountability, monitor fulfillment, review obligations regularly, and address gaps that may create business risk.
• Build and implement a legal intake and prioritization process with clear service levels and transparent tracking of open legal matters.
• Develop and execute the legal department’s operating plan, annual budget, and reporting cadence.
• Manage outside counsel relationships, including matter scoping, panel selection, rate negotiation, budgets, spend reporting, and decisions about when specialized external support is required.
• Provide legal advisory support to the Foundation on nonprofit governance, program grants, agreements, and owned and operated league activities that expand access to youth sports.
• Create and maintain a company policy library with assigned owners and an annual review cycle, starting with youth protection, data privacy, and employee policies.
• Lead and document investigations involving alleged violations of youth protection policies and support broader safeguarding compliance, including background-check requirements, participant waivers, and league standards.
• Design and execute a risk-based compliance audit program; track findings through remediation or closure.
• Advise on data collection, processing, privacy, and security matters, including data involving minors, in partnership with InfoSec and operational teams.
• Manage trademark and copyright portfolio, including prosecution, maintenance, enforcement, and related calendars.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory developments across the states where the organization operates and provide practical recommendations and regular updates to leadership.
• Advise on professional-league partner requirements, including brand and license terms, approvals, reporting obligations, and other contractual standards.
• Support People Operations on employment-law matters, including policies, handbooks, employment agreements, and workplace claims.
• Oversee litigation, disputes, insurance and claims matters—coordinating with insurance providers and outside counsel on claims-related diligence, documentation, and response; manage records retention, legal holds, corporate entity maintenance, and other corporate housekeeping.
• Advise on and negotiate leases, real estate agreements, and contracts supporting capital expenditures and physical assets, in partnership with Finance and relevant operational leaders.
• Review terms of service, participant agreements, privacy notices, marketing promotions, sweepstakes, endorsements, and content involving minors.
• Develop and deliver employee training on contracting, compliance, corporate governance, risk management, and related legal topics.
• Establish meaningful legal metrics and provide proactive updates to leadership on risk, service levels, outside counsel spend, contracts, compliance, and open priorities.

Requirements

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school; active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar; and eligibility to practice as in-house counsel in the employee’s work jurisdiction.
• 10+ years of relevant commercial and corporate legal experience in a law firm, an in-house legal department, or a combination of both.
• Significant experience drafting and negotiating complex commercial agreements, with sound judgment and a practical, business-oriented approach to risk.
• Demonstrated success working directly with executives and cross-functional stakeholders in an in-house or similarly operational environment, including the ability to influence senior leaders, build consensus, and drive accountability without direct authority.
• Hands-on experience implementing contract lifecycle management, legal intake, matter tracking, document repositories, templates, playbooks, service levels, or comparable legal-operations systems in a growing or evolving organization.
• Ability to independently prioritize a broad portfolio of matters and distinguish between work that can be handled internally and matters requiring outside counsel.
• Experience managing outside counsel, legal budgets, matter scopes, and spend reporting.
• Demonstrated experience conducting sensitive internal investigations and developing or administering compliance programs.
• Strong analytical, communication, and decision-making skills, including the discretion to handle sensitive and confidential matters.
• Experience advising a multi-state organization and interpreting evolving federal, state, and local regulatory requirements.
• Ability to translate complex legal requirements into clear, actionable guidance for non-legal partners.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in sports, youth programming, sponsorship, licensing, media rights, technology, supply chain, or consumer-facing organizations.
• Working knowledge of youth safety and child-protection compliance, data privacy, intellectual property, employment law, and multi-state regulatory requirements.
• Experience operating within a sports team, league, club, or other sports-related organization.
• Familiarity with professional-league relationships, brand standards, and contractual reporting obligations.
• Experience creating a legal function or formalizing legal operations in a high-growth environment.
• Experience advising nonprofit organizations or supporting holding companies and organizations with multiple legal entities.

Compensation & Benefits

• Full-Time Salaried position (OT-Exempt), paid semi-monthly.
• Eligible for an annual discretionary bonus.
• Benefits including:
  • Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Life Insurance, Disability
  • 401(k)
  • Paid Parental Leave
  • Unlimited PTO
  • Monthly Wellness Expense Reimbursement
  • Additional voluntary benefits
• Expense and wellness details:
  • Expense up to $65 per month for health & wellness
  • 401(k) company matching
• Work equipment and expense:
  • Work equipment (laptop and monitor) provided
  • Expense up to $350 towards the purchase of a personal use laptop, tablet, or computer
• Dress code: relaxed casual.

Location & Schedule

• Location: Remote
• Travel: Less than 10%
• Work Schedule: Full-Time 40 hours/week (Monday-Friday) with occasional nights and weekends as business needs require.

Equal Employment Opportunity

The organization is an equal opportunity employer and provides equal employment opportunities to qualified applicants and team members without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, citizenship, veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. Reasonable accommodations are provided when necessary for applicants and team members with disabilities or handicaps, if the individual is otherwise qualified to perform essential functions.

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.