Real Estate Legal Assistant/Paralegal

This Sonoma-based company is seeking a Real Estate Legal Assistant / Paralegal to join its dynamic Real Estate Legal team and support the Chief Legal Officer and legal department. The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, able to work under pressure, and bring experience in commercial real estate transactions and leasing, preferably in a retail environment.

This role offers the opportunity to work with an experienced, hard-working team in a fast-paced environment. Day-to-day responsibilities include preparing and processing transactional documents, including estoppel certificates and other retail lease documents, supporting real estate closings, and maintaining organized document management systems and workflows. The ideal candidate is a collegial, dedicated team player with strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.

This position is required to be onsite in the Sonoma office.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Partner with and support the Chief Legal Officer and Associate General Counsel by independently managing assigned matters, prioritizing workflows, and exercising judgment in addressing legal and transactional issues
• Draft, analyze, and revise transactional documents, exercise independent judgment to identify inconsistencies, mitigate risk, and recommend appropriate revisions
• Manage and coordinate real estate closings, including determining document requirements, resolving routine transactional issues, and ensuring alignment with business and legal objectives
• Support the Chief Legal Officer and legal department with document management and entity formation and management across company partnerships, including A&C Ventures, Inc., First Street Development, LLC, Diversified Restaurant Group RSC, LLC
• Direct escrow and transaction timelines, including identifying critical dates and proactively implementing solutions to support timely and successful transaction execution (deposits, due diligence expiration, Closing Dates)
• Prepare, review, and interpret estoppel certificates and SNDA’s, identifying legal and business implications and providing recommendations to attorneys
• Lead or contribute to special projects as assigned related to real estate transactions and legal operations
• Oversee the execution and lifecycle of legal documents, ensuring completeness, accuracy and compliance with company standards and legal requirements
• Prepare and mail tenant executed legal documents and correspondence to landlords
• Monitor and analyze transaction progress, tracking receipt/return of executed documents and storage in information management systems
• Coordinate execution of and scan fully executed legal documents, memos, and various correspondence into matter management systems
• Oversee and prepare weekly reports as needed or assigned

QUALIFICATIONS

• The ideal candidate will have at least 3 years of real estate paralegal/legal assistant experience.
• Associates degree required; bachelor’s degree preferred
• Experience with corporate, acquisition and lease documentation and closing transactions strongly preferred
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work well under pressure and resolve problems quickly
• Ability to respond quickly and accurately to all requests and assignments
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and DocuSign
• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Ability to multi-task and manage time independently
• Ability to perform filing tasks