Associate General Counsel | Real Estate (Indianapolis)

Overview

The Associate General Counsel serves a dual function at Buckingham Companies: as a senior in-house legal resource and as an embedded co-leader within the company's real estate production activities. This individual does not sit at the periphery of transactions. They are in the work alongside the business team, sharing accountability for outcomes.

On the legal side, the Associate General Counsel works in close partnership with the General Counsel on all tactical and strategic legal matters across the organization, with particular depth in real estate development, construction, acquisitions, dispositions, leasing, investment management, and joint ventures. This includes direct negotiation of complex agreements, management of outside counsel, and serving as the primary legal point of contact for all business units.

On the operational side, the Associate General Counsel is expected to be an active co-leader on transactions not a resource that engages only when matters are reduced to writing. This means working shoulder-to-shoulder with project managers and production leads: understanding the deal's business purpose from the outset, staying accountable and available as the transaction evolves, and ensuring that the legal process serves and advances the business objective rather than operating in a separate lane. The Associate General Counsel does not own the project manager's role but they share ownership of the outcome.

This expectation is intentional. Buckingham Companies values an attorney who engages as a committed participant in the business, not as a consultant who appears at the documentation stage and departs at execution.

Qualifications

Education

• Juris Doctorate Degree
• Bachelor's Degree in business, real estate, or related field
• Good standing with State Bar; current license to practice law
• Coursework, certification, or demonstrated experience in real estate, business, or project/construction management is a plus

Legal Experience & Skills

• Minimum of two years of proven legal experience with emphasis on real estate, business, and/or securities law
• Familiarity with real estate transaction documents: purchase and sale agreements, loan documents, leases, development agreements, AIA construction contracts, joint venture agreements, and related instruments
• Ability to exercise independent legal judgment and provide clear, confident counsel without requiring step-by-step supervision
• Strong drafting skills — clear, concise, and precise under time pressure
• Good working knowledge of development, investment management design and construction processes highly preferred
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including SharePoint

Co-Leadership & Deal Engagement Skills

• Demonstrated ability to work alongside project managers and production leads as a co-accountable participant
• Ability to engage with a deal at the business intent level: understanding what the company is trying to accomplish, not just what the contract needs to say
• Comfort maintaining shared accountability for deal timelines and outcomes, even when the primary driver is a business-side project lead
• Experience managing competing deadlines across multiple active transactions simultaneously without loss of quality or detail
• Ability to step into negotiations with counterparties and represent the company's commercial interests alongside its legal ones
• Capacity to bridge legal language and business intent translating complexity for non-lawyer colleagues and decision-makers in real time
• Consistent availability and responsiveness that matches the pace of an active production environment, not a traditional legal services model

Special Requirements

• Big-picture and strategic thinking combined with disciplined execution at the detail level
• Entrepreneurial approach: takes initiative, moves without being pushed, anticipates what is needed next
• High degree of professionalism, confidentiality, and accountability
• Strong problem-solving instincts, with a bias toward resolution over analysis
• Transparency in reporting and information-sharing across all departments
• Results-oriented and solution-focused: the goal is closed deals and protected company interests, not perfect memos
• Excellent judgment, particularly in situations where legal considerations and business objectives are in tension
• Proven negotiation skills in both legal and commercial contexts

Responsibilities

Legal Responsibilities

• Draft, review, and negotiate contracts across the full spectrum of the company's activities: purchase and sale agreements, development agreements, construction contracts (including AIA forms), leases, loan documents, joint venture agreements, management agreements, vendor contracts, institutional real estate investment fund documents and all ancillary instruments
• Conduct and oversee legal due diligence, including title and survey review, entity formation and governance, and regulatory compliance
• Advise senior management and business unit leaders on legal risk, identify areas of exposure, and provide actionable recommendations
• Select, direct, and manage outside counsel; review and approve outside counsel work product and invoices
• Oversee all legal matters related to acquisitions, dispositions, development, investment management, construction, leasing, property management, and asset management
• Manage and oversee risk mitigation strategies across the organizationMaintain and improve legal templates, form agreements, and internal legal procedures
• Support compliance, corporate governance, and employment law matters in coordination with the General Counsel
• Initiate legal action and defend the company in litigation, in coordination with outside counsel
• Prepare reports and final legal documents as required
• Exercise independent decision-making authority on legal and non-legal matters within parameters delegated by the General Counsel; elevate matters above those parameters appropriately

Co-Leadership & Deal Participation Responsibilities

• Function as a co-leader on assigned transactions alongside the business project manager or production lead sharing accountability for deal progress, timeline, and the successful achievement of the business objective, not just the legal deliverables
• Engage with transactions from the earliest practicable stage, so that legal structuring and business intent are aligned from the outset rather than reconciled at the documentation phase
• Maintain comprehensive, real-time deal knowledge understanding not just what the documents say, but what was negotiated, what was conceded, what remains open, and why so that legal advice is always grounded in the full commercial context
• Be available and responsive at the pace the deal demands: proactively communicating with internal stakeholders on status, open issues, risks, and next steps without waiting to be asked
• Participate actively in negotiations with counterparties and their counsel, bringing both legal precision and an understanding of what the company needs to accomplish commercially
• Serve as a resource and co-accountable partner when deals encounter obstacles — not an escalation point that only engages when a legal question is formally presented
• Coordinate across development, construction, finance, property management, and third-party advisors as a participant in the deal team, not as an external function that reviews their work after the fact
• Ensure continuity of deal knowledge and momentum through documentation and closing — preventing the loss of context, intent, or relationships that can occur when transactions change hands or move between phases
• Manage external relationships with lenders, investors, partners, municipalities, and other counterparties throughout the life of a project, in coordination with the business team