General Counsel Canada

Description

General Counsel Canada

FirstService Residential is owned by FirstService Corporation, a proudly Canadian company and one of Canada’s great business success stories.

FirstService Residential transforms the property management landscape by providing professional association management services to over 9,000 residential communities across the United States and Canada.

Our dedication to associate satisfaction and growth is recognized by our Great Place to Work certification, exemplifying our commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive workplace culture. Our 19,000 associates can count on competitive salaries, top-tier medical, dental, career training, and support for continued professional development.

Experience exceptional service with a fulfilling career in property management with FirstService Residential.

Why choose Us

We have a comprehensive benefits program inclusive of a Health Spending Account, Workperks, and more! Most importantly, we are committed to empowering, developing and supporting all our associates.

The General Counsel Canada provides expert & strategic legal advice to support the growth & success of the business. This key leader anticipates issues, assesses risk strategically, and provides hands-on counsel to executives & business teams to address critical legal and business challenges. The Assistant General Counsel understands the tension between business realities and legal protections, effectively navigates the most difficult questions at the strategy level, and guides teams to avoid pitfalls at the operations level. The General Counsel Canada brings a proven ability to contribute to overall profitability.

Essential Duties:

• Guidance & Strategy
  • Analyze all manner of legal & business issues, develop strategy alternatives, recommend effective courses of action, and lead the legal implementation
• Litigation and Claims
  • Effectively manage litigation & claims brought against FirstService, including:
    • Developing and vetting defense strategies
    • Minimizing defense spend & settlement outlays
    • Ensuring the value of insurance defense firms’ and specific attorneys’ billing & deliverables, including case analyses, litigation strategy, status updates, litigation budgets, and well-thought-out discovery, motion practice & settlement approaches
    • Managing discovery, preservation & privilege
  • Advise the business on asserting & resolving disputes
• Insurance
  • Protect the company by leveraging a deep understanding of insurance principles, coverage types, tendering imperatives, triggers to coverage, managing adjusters & third party administrators, and avoiding actions that may jeopardize coverage
• Contracts
  • Expertly draft & edit contracts to protect FirstService while also achieving the company’s business objectives
  • Successfully negotiate agreements to balance protecting FirstService’s interests with obtaining or retaining the business
• Employment Law
  • Leverage a solid working knowledge of employment law to provide sound legal advice related to wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination & other employee matters. Team with outside employment counsel & insurance defense counsel to address such matters as appropriate.
• Operations & Legal Liability
  • Leverage a deep understanding of the business & operating departments as well as in-depth knowledge of Condominium Corporation and Strata Corporation law in order to navigate the legal / operations interface effectively.
  • Train managers, executives and others to minimize legal liability for FirstService.
  • Partner with operating executives & others to develop & adjust company processes as FirstService provides new services and as regulations, laws & case law evolve.
  • Guide the company with regard to compliance matters and public policy advocacy as needed.
• Other responsibilities as assigned

Education & Experience

• Hold a Lawyer’s License or Certification of Qualification
• Member in good standing of the Canadian Bar Association
• Litigation & employment law experience required
• 10+ years licensed legal practice experience

• Proficient in English.
• Excellent general math skills.

Knowledge, Skills & Proficiencies

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Personal qualifications
  • Overall broad legal knowledge (corporate law, litigation, labor law, etc.)
  • Ability to develop legal strategy & objectives
  • Impeccable professional ethics & integrity
  • Ability to anticipate legal issues or risks and to ‘see around the corner’
  • Creative problem-solving ability & excellent analytic skills
  • The ability to apply sound business & legal judgment to a wide variety of legal questions
  • Extraordinary interpersonal and communication skills; ability to communicate information effectively internally and externally – whether on the fly or with prepared communications - and to drive cross-functional alignment and action
  • High degree of initiative; growth-minded & collaborative
  • Execution-oriented mindset with the drive to get things done
  • Able to work under tight deadlines, handle multiple, detailed projects simultaneously and anticipate needs in advance
  • Fluent with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Windows; Ability to learn new applications and skills quickly

• Leadership qualifications
  • A self-aware leader with a growth mindset who seeks to understand, fosters trust, and develops his or her own leadership skills
  • Ability to build talent in the organization through coaching and staff development, giving and receiving feedback, motivating, empowering and leading by serving
• Ability to strengthen the organization by influencing, establishing alignment, and skillfully managing change

Travel and Working Environment

• Travel across Canadian and US geography as required.
• General hours are 8:00 – 5:00 based on business needs. Based on business needs, hours over and above normal office hours will occur. Based on business needs, there may be hours worked on weekends and holidays. Consistent and regular attendance required.

Disclaimer

The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. This is not an all-inclusive job description; therefore, management has the right to assign or reassign schedules, duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.

FirstService Residential is an equal opportunity employer committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex (including pregnancy), age, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, parental status, ancestry, disability, gender identity, veteran status, genetic information, other distinguishing characteristics of diversity and inclusion, or any other protected status.

FirstService Residential welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the hiring and selection process.