Assistant General Counsel - Agricultural Real Estate Mortgage Lending

In Government & Legal Affairs, you'll be an engaged and trusted partner - empowered to deliver innovative solutions, influence public policy, and achieve results that enable MetLife’s growth and protect its global interests. Applying a commercial and contemporary mindset, you'll advocate for what’s possible, overcome challenges, and embrace different perspectives. If you also pride yourself on acting with accountability, transparency, and respect,

The Opportunity

The Assistant General Counsel will join MetLife Investment Management’s (“MIM”) Investments Law group as Practice Group Lead (PGL) for Agricultural Investments. The PGL will be the central legal contact and accountable lawyer for MIM's $24 billion agricultural mortgage loan platform, covering farm and ranch, agribusiness, and timber assets in the U.S. and Latin America, from origination through servicing, special servicing, and portfolio management. The PGL helps set legal direction and policy for the program, directs matter workflow across the broader legal team, and serves as strategic advisor to senior business leaders at the Overland Park headquarters.

The role also serves as a senior subject matter expert for MIM's residential credit and private asset-based finance (ABF) businesses, including secondary residential whole loan acquisitions, single family rental lending, private structured finance investments, and related fund strategies. The ideal candidate is a versatile attorney with sound judgment and executive presence who can structure and negotiate complex transactions, distill complex legal and regulatory issues into practical recommendations and partner effectively with business, compliance, risk, tax, accounting, and other stakeholders.

Scope and Impact of the Role:

• Platform scale: Legal accountability for a $24 billion agricultural investment portfolio spanning the U.S. and Latin America, with enterprise-wide reach across MIM, its strategies, and its affiliated and non-affiliated clients.
• Business impact: Privately sourced agricultural, residential and ABF investments help MIM meet its investment income objectives. Legal structuring and negotiation directly influence deal terms, pricing, risk allocation, and the competitiveness of MIM's origination platform.
• Single point of accountability: Serves as the recognized subject matter expert and primary legal contact for senior business leaders, with accountability for the quality, speed, and cost of legal support.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as PGL and day-to-day legal contact for senior business leaders on the agricultural mortgage lending platform with accountability for the quality, speed, and cost of legal support.
• Provide strategic counsel and thought leadership to key business decision makers on the structuring, underwriting, origination, and management of agricultural loans, residential whole loans, single family rental loans, and private ABF investments, weighing legal risk against business goals in line with applicable law and MIM policies and risk parameters.
• Lead negotiations on complex, high-value mortgage and asset-based transactions, including loan documents, closing due diligence, loan purchase agreements, participations, intercreditor agreements, servicing, and custodial agreements, indentures, note purchase agreements, and credit agreements.
• Select, direct, and manage to budget outside counsel on loan closings, servicing, special servicing, workouts, restructurings, litigation, special projects, and platform initiatives.
• Set legal direction and policy for the agricultural mortgage loan program, and advise on new product development, fund strategies, and applicable investment management and insurance regulations.
• Monitor legislative, regulatory, and market developments affecting agricultural, residential, and ABF lending, including state lending and licensing laws, and translate them into practical guidance.
• Manage transaction workflow and assign matters across the legal team, and train and mentor junior attorneys, legal staff, and business clients on deal terms, processes, and best practices.
• Identify and implement process improvements and best practices, including responsible use of artificial intelligence and legal technology, to make legal services more efficient and scalable.

Required Qualifications

• A Juris Doctorate and excellent academic credentials from an accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in at least one state and a member in good standing of a bar; admitted to practice before the Kansas state bar, a member of a reciprocal bar, or able to receive a single-employer restricted license to practice law in Kansas (pursuant to Rule 721) within 90 days of employment start date.
• At least 10 years of law firm or in-house experience leading the structuring, negotiation, and closing of complex real estate mortgage loan transactions, including agricultural, farm and ranch, agribusiness, or timber finance.
• Demonstrated expertise across the mortgage loan lifecycle, from origination through workouts and restructurings.
• Knowledge of federal and state mortgage lending laws and regulations, and of the legal and regulatory landscape for institutional investors, including commercial, licensing, and insurance laws.
• Superior leadership and organizational skills, including experience directing legal work, mentoring attorneys, and establishing priorities across multiple complex matters.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with executive presence and a track record of building trusted partnerships with senior business leaders and compliance, risk, tax, and accounting stakeholders.
• Awareness of current economic and market trends affecting institutional investors globally, and the ability to work in an environment that emphasizes collaboration, teamwork, mutual respect, and integrity.
• Experience with or aptitude for leveraging artificial intelligence, legal technology, and data analytics to improve legal workflows and decision-making.