Associate Counsel

Position Summary

A publicly traded healthcare REIT based in the Nashville, Tennessee area is seeking an Associate Counsel to report to the SVP, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary. The role will primarily support real estate transactions and will also handle corporate governance, commercial contracts, litigation oversight, and legal operations. It offers an attorney with at least three years of relevant experience broad responsibility and direct exposure to business and executive teams.

Key Responsibilities

Real Estate Transactions

• Provide legal support for acquisitions, dispositions, financings, leases, joint ventures, SHOP/RIDEA transactions, and other real estate matters.
• Draft, review, and negotiate transaction documents, ancillary agreements, closing documents, and related legal instruments, with support from outside counsel as appropriate.
• Manage and coordinate legal, real estate (including title, survey, and environmental), licensing, and other transaction due diligence.
• Analyze transaction structures and legal issues, identify risks and decision points, and provide practical advice and recommendations to internal business teams.
• Manage transaction execution from diligence through closing, including structure charts, transaction checklists, schedules, responsibility matrices, required approvals, executed documents, and closing records.
• Serve as a primary legal liaison among internal business teams, outside counsel, title companies, operators, lenders, consultants, and other transaction participants.

Corporate Governance and Entity Matters

• Support the SVP, Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary on board and committee matters, including governance materials, minutes, approvals, and related records.
• Draft and coordinate corporate resolutions, consents, certificates, organizational documents, and corporate approvals.
• Oversee subsidiary governance and entity maintenance, including formations, qualifications, annual filings, dissolutions, ownership records, and organizational documentation.
• Coordinate with asset management, business development, finance, accounting, compliance, and other functions when corporate or board matters intersect with their areas of responsibility.

Litigation and Legal Matter Management

• Assist in managing litigation, claims, disputes, and other legal matters, including oversight of outside counsel, strategy, deadlines, budgets, and status reporting.
• Review and coordinate responses to subpoenas, discovery requests, demand letters, and other legal or regulatory requests.
• Support document preservation, collection, review, and production in partnership with internal teams and outside counsel.
• Maintain organized matter records and monitor deadlines, expenses, and key developments.

Legal, Operations and Cross-Functional Support

• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial contracts and other legal instruments that support the Company's operations and strategic initiatives, including intracompany agreements.
• Provide practical legal guidance to business teams on day-to-day matters within the attorney's areas of responsibility, escalating significant or specialized issues as appropriate.
• Manage legal forms and workstreams for enterprise and cross-functional projects and coordinate among legal, operations, finance, compliance, IT, and other stakeholders.
• Support department-wide outside counsel and matter management, including scoping, staffing, invoices, expenses, budgets, and reporting.
• Maintain legal document repositories and matter-management records and identify opportunities to improve legal processes, templates, controls, and operational efficiency.

Qualifications

Required

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction and eligibility to serve as in-house counsel in Tennessee, as applicable.
• Approximately 3-7 years of relevant legal experience, preferably with a law firm, in-house legal department, or a combination of both.
• Meaningful experience with transactional, corporate, commercial, or real estate matters, including responsibility for drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and managing legal work product.
• Ability to analyze complex legal and business issues and provide clear, practical, business-oriented advice.
• Strong communication, organizational, and project-management skills, with the judgment and professionalism to manage multiple matters independently and as a productive member of a cohesive team.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with executives, business teams, outside counsel, and other stakeholders.

Preferred

• Law firm experience in Nashville or Middle Tennessee, particularly in a transactional, corporate, commercial real estate, finance, or related practice.
• Experience with commercial or healthcare real estate transactions, REITs, senior housing, RIDEA, joint ventures, or other asset-intensive businesses.
• Additional exposure to public-company corporate governance, subsidiary management, board matters, litigation, discovery, or outside counsel management.