Chief Legal Officer - North Mississippi Health Services

The Company
North Mississippi Health Services provides acute, diagnostic, therapeutic and emergency services through North Mississippi Medical Center hospitals, primary and specialty care clinics, nursing homes and telehealth services. NMMC-Tupelo, our flagship hospital, is home to the only Level 2 trauma center in north Mississippi.

North Mississippi Health Services is dedicated to being the provider of the best patient and family-centered care that is convenient, cost efficient and of the highest quality.

• 24 counties served by North Mississippi Health Services hospitals and clinics
• 8 NMMC hospitals in Tupelo, Amory, Eupora, Iuka, Pontotoc and West Point, Mississippi & Hamilton and Winfield, Alabama
• 70+ primary and specialty care clinics
• 4 nursing homes in Baldwyn, Pontotoc and Eupora, Mississippi, and Hamilton, Alabama

Mission & Vision

Why We Exist

To continuously improve the health of the people of our region.

What We Want to Be

The provider of the best patient- and family-centered care and health services in America.

At NMHS, vision and innovation are woven into the very fabric of our organizational culture. Our mission, vision, and organizational values are the result of work by forward-thinking people in this community in the early 1930s. NMHS continues that tradition and upholds the intentions of our community's founding leaders to address current needs and anticipate the future state of health care.

We do this through a carefully crafted and continuously refined process of strategic planning that correlates current and future health care needs with the current capability and the future promise of the art and science of medicine. Our mission, vision, and organizational values are not just words but messages that inspire diverse workforce to achieve our full potential in caring for the people of our community.

CARES Values

We work hard to fulfill our mission and vision each and every day through our commitment to our CARES Values:

• Compassion: Show sincere care and kindness for those we serve
• Accountability: Take responsibility for our actions
• Respect: Treat everyone with dignity
• Excellence: Achieve excellence through innovation, teamwork and doing our best
• Smile: Always be friendly

Market Growth:

NMHS's strong market presence is evidenced by a market share of 77% in its primary service area and 52% within the twenty Mississippi county total service area served by NMHS as of September 30, 2025. NMHS's current market share reflects significant ten -year growth over its fiscal year 2015 market share position, which was 62% in its primary service area and 41% within the twenty Mississippi county total service area.

NMHS remans the market leader and was recently affirmed with Standard and Poor's A+ bond rating and Fitch as AA due to its market share, strong balance sheet and year over year financial performance.

Redesigning Healthcare

Like many other industries and businesses in today's world, health care is experiencing vast change at lightning speed. North Mississippi Health Services is no exception. The health care industry is shifting, and it's time to do something different.

Why?

Costs for labor and supplies continue to increase. At the same time, what health systems are paid to care for patients is not increasing at the same pace, which leads to financial losses.

What are we going to do?

To fulfill our mission - our responsibility to the community to continuously improve their health - we must "redesign" health care so we can continue to provide excellent (or A. G.R.E.A.T.) care to our patients and communities.

How is NMHS going to continue to be A. G.R.E.A.T. in the ever-changing world of health care?

A: Access to the right provider and right service at the right time is the start to all great outcomes. Access is defined as the patient's ability to use or attain health care information, resources and/or services and products.

G: We are growing key services. That includes expanding health care services to new markets and aligning with physicians in those markets.

R: We are changing how we are reimbursed (paid) by insurance companies. Simply by doing what we have continued to do best - providing high-quality, lower-cost care - we will be rewarded with better payment arrangements with insurers.

E: We are evolving how we perform the work. This includes empowering our frontline teammates to simplify the "work" by automating processes and eliminating duplication and hassles. We're also creating our own talent pipeline of future healthcare workers.

A: We are looking for alternative business opportunities. Those opportunities could be partnerships with technology companies that are innovating how medicines are made or developing new products with insurance companies.

T: We are expanding our tools to help us innovate and streamline how we deliver care. This includes technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual care and new digital tools for patients to interact with us.

Just as we always have, we will meet these challenges head-on by reimagining and redesigning what we do best - continuously improving the health of the people of our region.

The Opportunity

Position: Chief Legal Officer

Location: Tupelo, Mississippi


Reporting Relationship: The Chief Legal Officer will report to Shane Spees, President and Chief Executive Officer of North Mississippi Health Services (NMHS).

Website:

Position Summary

The Chief Legal Officer serves as the senior legal advisor for the healthcare system, providing strategic and operational leadership for all legal and compliance matters. This role ensures compliance with federal and state healthcare regulations, mitigates risk, and supports organizational governance and business objectives. The CLO is a key member of NMHS's Executive Leadership team and is responsible for managing and guiding the strategic direction of legal services and providing counsel to the CEO and leadership team on overall legal strategy and organization of legal services.

Reporting to the CEO and President of NMHS, the CLO will be responsible for compliance, regulatory, enterprise risk, and the legal services provided to all of NMHS. This CLO will participate as a member of the executive leadership team in identifying and addressing strategic issues and attend to/or oversee a myriad of issues involving strategic business transactions (including mergers & acquisitions), commercial transactions and contracts, real estate matters, enterprise risk management, insurance, local, state and federal regulations, compliance matters, physician alignment strategies, financings, litigation, research and intellectual property matters, health information technology policy and systems, labor and employment (professional and staff), medical staff matters, patient care matters, and outside counsel management.

Key Responsibilities

The Chief Legal Officer will be responsible for:

Strategic Leadership

• Advise CEO, executive team, and Board on legal, regulatory, and governance issues. Ensure effective operations and future success by formulating, recommending, and implementing sound legal practices, procedures, and objectives to address legal issues faced by the system. Consult with and advise the CEO and other executives regarding legal implications of overall strategic direction. Advance NHMS's legal agenda and strategy in conjunction with the Board and the executive leadership team.
• Develop and articulate a clear vision for the legal services department's direction, align to the strategic goals, imperatives, and operating objectives of NMHS. Develop short- and long-term legal services strategies that support the strategic plans, operating objectives, processes, systems, and policies of NMHS.
• Lead enterprise-wide legal strategy, including mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.
• Develop and implement risk management frameworks and compliance programs.

Operational Legal Management

• Oversee contract drafting, review, and negotiation for clinical, vendor, and payer agreements.
• Assume direct involvement as appropriate in complex legal issues and in overseeing and negotiating critical contracts and developing effective solutions.
• Manage litigation, investigations, and dispute resolution.
• Provide legal oversight for other operational areas including intellectual property matters, labor and employment, medical staff matters, and patient care matters.
• Manage NMHS's enterprise risk management activities to minimize liability and proactively address issues. Manage the resolution of all legal claims against NMHS. Partner with other senior functional leaders to develop and implement integrated cross functional legal plans to ensure protection against legal risks.
• Ensure adherence to healthcare laws, HIPAA, Stark, Anti-Kickback, and other regulatory requirements.

Governance & Compliance

• Support Board governance, bylaws, and corporate policies.
• Monitor legislative and regulatory changes impacting healthcare operations.
• Coordinate with compliance, privacy, and risk management teams.
• Oversee and direct the internal audit program, functions and personnel.

Team Leadership

• Direct in-house legal department and manage external counsel relationships.
• Guide and support in-house compliance officer and related functions.
• Foster a culture of ethical conduct and legal integrity across the organization.

The Candidate

Experience and Professional Qualifications

The Chief Legal Officer will possess the following:

• Minimum 10 years of legal experience, with significant healthcare law expertise. Candidates should have experience providing legal services to a health care institution.
• Strong leadership experience serving as a trusted and proactive advisor to an organization of comparable size and complexity, working closely with the Board, the CEO and senior leadership.
• A record of accomplishment developing a strong, service-oriented legal department that brings value to strategic decision-making and helps further the organization's business goals.Deep healthcare legal experience with knowledge of state and federal laws and regulations impacting health care systems.Experience working with managed care services organizations and/or working with departments of insurance.
• Transactional experience, including M&A and real estate.
• Experience with litigation and commercial transactions.
• Previous management responsibility for a legal department with similar budget and staff.
• Establishing or maintaining systems, processes, policies, and procedures to run a large and highly professional department.
• Ability to interact with government officials and other stakeholders.
• Ability to establish credibility internally and externally and instill a high-level of confidence while ensuring legal compliance.
• Ability to innovate and think strategically; able to instill confidence across broad constituencies.
• Strong negotiation capabilities and persuasion skills.
• Demonstrate a poised, credible, and confident demeaner that reassures othersby demonstrating respect; convey an image that is consistent with the organization's vision and values.
• Strong understanding of and demonstrated skills in leadership, strategic management, change management, communications, team building, continuous quality improvement, problem solving, decision-making, innovation, financial management of operations and stewardship of resources.
• Translates strategic priorities into operational reality; align communication, accountabilities, resource capabilities, internal processes, and ongoing measurement systems to ensure that strategic priorities yield measurable and sustainable results.
• Clearly and succinctly convey information and ideas to individuals and groups; communicate in a focused and compelling way that captures and holds others' attention.
• Communicates an inspired vision or sense of core purpose; talks beyond today; talks about possibilities; is optimistic; able to rally support behind the vision; makes the vision shareable by everyone; can inspire and motivate entire units or organizations.
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills with an ability to understand, simplify and clearly articulate complex issues in both written and verbal communications.
• Strong judgment, with an understanding of, and ability to articulate issues at the intersection of legal, regulatory, and business.
• Collaborative leadership style; team-builder.
• Excellent interpersonal, listening and relationship-building skills.
• Flexibility and openness to new ideas.
• Ability to respect consensus but make independent decisions.

Year One - Critical Success Factors

• Establishes an early leadership foundation by using a structured onboarding approach consistent with "The First 90 Days" framework and quickly building credibility, relationships and organizational understanding.
• Develops a strong understanding of the organization by gaining a firm grasp of NMHS's "systemness" model, including the hub-and-spoke structure and strategic plan, and incorporating this knowledge into decision making.
• Aligns legal and compliance with enterprise priorities by actively engaging in major organizational initiatives and ensuring both functions support NMHS's strategic priorities.
• Improves responsiveness and collaboration across legal and compliance by enhancing timeliness, clarity and coordination of support, while setting clear expectations, deadlines and standards for internal work and cross-functional deliverables.
• Demonstrates a solutions-oriented mindset by approaching issues with a focus on enabling progress and offering legally grounded guidance without directing operational leaders on how to run their departments.
• Defines the allocation of in-house and outside counsel work by partnering with the CEO to establish criteria for which matters remain internal versus external, and creating a consistent system to track work, ensure accountability and manage deadlines.
• Implements standardized protocols and workflows by developing and operationalizing clear processes for M&A support, integration activities, contract review and risk management, and ensuring these protocols are transparent and well understood by senior leadership.

Education / Credentials

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in Mississippi or from state with reciprocal bar admission.

Compensation

Salary will be competitive and commensurate with the skills and experience of the selected candidate.

Korn Ferry shall provide equal employment opportunity to all qualified candidates, and will refer candidates without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected basis. Artificial Intelligence tools may be used in connection with the recruitment process for this position.