What are the responsibilities and job description for the Managing Chief Counsel position at Center For Rural Affairs?
The Center for Rural Affairs is seeking a General Counsel to support its growth in community-based lending, clean energy finance, and organizational-wide legal matters. This role will serve as a strategic legal advisor, responsible for contracts, loans, insurance agreements, tax credit, regulatory, and industry compliance at the federal and state levels.
Key Responsibilities:
- Negotiate contracts and procurement agreements
- Ensure contract, forms, and agreement templates are up-to-date and follow current legal and federal requirements
- Advise the Solar for All team on energy law compliance, renewable energy tax credit compliance, negotiations, and contracts with developers and utilities
- Advise the lending team on loan-related documents and advise on legal matters over the full life cycle of loan agreements
- Advise all Center teams on a wide range of agreements, staffing arrangements, vendor/contractor agreements, construction contracts, non-disclosure/confidentiality agreements, and insurance provisions
Requirements:
- Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school
- Active membership in good standing with the Nebraska State Bar or ability to become registered as an in-house counsel in the state of Nebraska
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in practice areas such as corporate defense, legal research and writing, regulatory compliance, clean energy law, secured transactions and lending, real property law and conveyancing, nonprofit law, insurance, and administrative law
- Strong organizational decision-making skills, interpersonal skills to work across all levels of the organization both internally and externally
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience managing multiple projects and keeping tasks from slipping through the cracks
- Commitment to racial equity and social justice, recognizing the role of race, income, age, immigration status, and other identities in addressing disparities
- Ability to think strategically, creatively, and tactically to analyze results and provide practical recommendations to executive and program leadership
About the Organization:
The Center for Rural Affairs is an intermediary lender for the Small Business Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, and hosts an affiliated Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) certified by the Department of Treasury. The organization has $22 million in loans outstanding today and projects that the total loans outstanding will grow to more than $50 million within the next few years.
