Staff Attorney - Contracts

A Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Company

  • Northville, MI
  • 3 - 5 Years
  • Full Time
  • AWA-1560
  • Not Specified
  • Commercial Contracts
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Description:

Position Summary:
Build your in-house career at a global automotive supplier. AISIN World Corp of America, Inc. (“Company”) is hiring a Staff Attorney - Contracts for its Legal Affairs Department in Northville, Michigan. This is a hands-on commercial practice role with real responsibility, direct access to the General Counsel, and exposure to business leadership across North America and Japan. You will review, mark up, draft, and negotiate the commercial agreements that keep the business running. You will also stand in front of the business: building and delivering contract training, presenting to teams across the Company, and supporting the network of Contract Managers appointed at Company entities. You will work with modern legal technology every day and contribute input on how the Company uses it.

This is a visible role. The Staff Attorney builds training materials and presents them to employees at every level, from plant teams to senior management. Most training and presentations are delivered remotely over Microsoft Teams, with occasional in-person sessions. Proficiency in PowerPoint and comfort presenting to a live audience, on camera or in a room, are essential requirements of this position, not preferences. This role runs on technology. The Company's contract program is delivered through software, and the Staff Attorney works in those systems daily. Proficiency with legal and business technology is an essential requirement of this position, not a preference. A candidate who is not confident learning and using new software will not succeed in this role.

The Company is a subsidiary of AISIN Corporation of Kariya, Japan. The Staff Attorney works alongside Japanese colleagues and must work effectively within a Japanese corporate structure, including consensus-based decision making.

Position Responsibilities:
The incumbent is expected to perform the following functions that the company has determined are essential to this position:

Legal Review, Drafting, and Negotiation
  • Review, mark up, and draft commercial and transactional documents.
  • Negotiate with customers, suppliers, vendors, and other external parties on assigned matters, with General Counsel support on significant matters.
  • Advise Company employees on contract terms and negotiations in plain, practical language, and escalate contract disputes to the General Counsel.
  • Work with outside counsel on assigned matters.
  • Report to the General Counsel on assigned matters and raise questions early.
  • Support departments across the Company, including Purchasing, Sales, Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Engineering, and Quality.

Contract Review Program
  • Monitor the Company's contract review queue and the Legal Affairs contract email daily.
  • Review incoming contracts promptly and keep their status current.
  • Triage contracts and assign them for legal review as directed.
  • Set and maintain clear expectations with employees on review scope and timing.
  • Apply the Department's standard legal positions consistently, and propose updates to the General Counsel as law or practice changes.

Contract Manager Network
  • Support and train the network of Contract Managers appointed at Company entities.
  • Serve as a primary legal contact for Contract Managers on contract program questions.
  • Help maintain program standards and guidance materials for the network.
  • Administer the Legal Affairs Department's access and settings in the Company's contract system, and serve as the Department's point of contact for system support and upgrades.
  • Report on program participation and system use as directed.

Standardized Contracts and Templates
  • Draft and revise standardized contracts and templates as directed by internal counsel.
  • Identify gaps and propose new standard forms to the General Counsel.
  • Maintain the standardized contract library and the Company's form-building tools under the direction of internal counsel.
  • Help team members use standardized contracts correctly.

Technology and Legal Systems
  • Use Microsoft Word at an advanced level, including track changes, redlining, document comparison, styles, and automatic numbering.
  • Build professional presentation and training materials in PowerPoint without design support.
  • Use Microsoft Teams to host and deliver training sessions and meetings, including screen sharing, recording, and managing participants.
  • Use Outlook, SharePoint, and Excel for collaboration, reporting, and document storage.
  • Use Company-approved artificial intelligence and automation tools in daily legal work. Attorney judgment is applied in every case.
  • Learn new legal and enterprise systems quickly, including any successor platform the Company adopts.
  • Participate in testing, configuration input, and user acceptance review for legal systems.
  • Maintain data accuracy and confidentiality in all legal systems.

Training, Presentation, and Business Support
  • Build clear, professional training materials in PowerPoint from scratch.
  • Deliver contract training to Purchasing, Sales, plant teams, and other business groups, primarily over Microsoft Teams and occasionally in person.
  • Train team members on how to submit contracts for review and what to expect from the process.
  • Present to senior management and to groups of varying size and technical background, and answer questions on the spot.
  • Run an engaging remote session, including holding attention on camera, managing chat and questions, and confirming participation.
  • Adapt delivery for audiences that include colleagues whose first language is not English.
  • Contribute content to contract program communications.
  • Perform all other duties as assigned.

Required Skills and Abilities:
Essential Skills and Experience:
  • Three (3) to five (5) years drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial contracts, in a law firm, an in-house legal department, or both.
  • Hands-on daily use of contract, document management, or other legal software.
  • Demonstrate proficiency with legal and business software. This is an essential function of the role and will be evaluated during the interview process.
  • Advanced Microsoft Word skills, including track changes, redlining, and document comparison.
  • Ability to learn and administer new software with limited formal training.
  • Willingness to use artificial intelligence tools, with sound judgment about where they help and where they do not.
  • Sound legal judgment, with the willingness to ask questions and escalate.
  • Ability to manage a high volume of contracts and keep commitments on timing.
  • Proficiency in PowerPoint, including the ability to build training and presentation materials without design support. This is an essential function of the role and will be evaluated during the interview process.
  • Comfort presenting and training live, primarily over Microsoft Teams and occasionally in person, including to senior management, and answering questions on the spot.
  • Clear writing and speaking, including explaining legal risk to non-lawyers and to colleagues whose first language is not English.
  • Strong attention to detail and sound factual and legal analysis.
  • Strong client service mentality, and the ability to manage internal client expectations.
  • Ability to work effectively with people of varied backgrounds, cultures, and skill levels.
  • Ability to maintain confidentiality.
  • Ability to receive direction and constructive feedback and apply it.

Beneficial Skills and Experience
  • Automotive or other manufacturing industry.
  • Japanese companies or Japanese colleagues.
  • Supporting an enterprise contract review or contract lifecycle program.
  • Artificial intelligence tools used in legal work.
  • Building and delivering training or presentations to non-lawyer audiences, including remote delivery.
  • Contract lifecycle management or contract intake platforms.
  • Form-building or document automation software.
  • Enterprise resource planning systems.
  • Reporting or dashboard building.
  • Spanish or Japanese language ability.

Education/Training/Certifications
  • J.D. from an accredited law school, or LLM with foreign license.
  • Member in good standing of one (1) U.S. state bar. Michigan admission is not required.
  • Undergraduate degree in business administration or a related field is preferred.

Requirements:
Travel Requirements:
  • Approximately 5% or less
  • Domestic trips to CA, TX, KY, TN, IN, IL, OH, GA
  • Passport required for possible international trips to Canada and Mexico.
  • Must be willing and available to travel to such locations and with such frequency as is necessary and desirable to meet business needs.

Work Environment Requirements
With reasonable accommodation: