Staples Inc. seeks a Contract Specialist to support the Legal Team that serves the Staples’ commercial contract (business-to-business) and retail divisions. This Associate will have direct relationships with clients and deal directly with third parties. Day-to-day responsibilities include reviewing, drafting and negotiating legal terms in sale of goods agreements, services agreements, vendor agreements, confidentiality agreements, assignments, and RFPs. The Contract Specialist will also solve problems as needed and respond to questions concerning contract structure, interpretation of contract terms, compliance, and policies. Additionally, this Associate will assist with legal research, matter intake, and project management.
Primary responsibilities:
- Review, revise, restructure and draft contracts (often on third party paper) in compliance with legal and business unit policies
- Review legal terms and conditions in connection with client RFP responses
- Conduct conference call contract negotiations with clients and third parties
- Coordinate resolution of compliance issues with internal clients and company subject matter experts
- Perform legal research, and review and synthesize laws and regulations, as requested by Counsel
- Instruct clients to follow contract intake processes
- Understand and comply with the Company’s Contract Authorization Policy and global Company policies
Project Management functions:
- Maintain databases of client support tools
- Assist with creating training presentations for business groups on process and legal issues
- Assist with modifications to contract templates and written training materials
- Assist with legal research projects
- Assist with general project management tasks
Qualifications:
Basic:
- Bachelor Degree required
- Minimum 4 to 6 years of experience in corporate contracts
Preferred:
- Experience in working directly with third parties in both cooperative and potentially adversarial scenarios. Associate must demonstrate intercultural awareness and sensitivity. Associate must have excellent written and verbal communication skills, and be able to write in a clear and concise manner
- Ability to maintain confidentiality requirements is a key for all positions in the Legal Department
- A solid understanding of legal terms and contract formulation principles is required. Must have the ability to comprehend legal terms, including intellectual property, indemnity, termination, warranties, UCC provisions, and other remedies provisions
- Must be able to thrive in a fast-paced team environment – dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of multiple internal and external customers
- Must be proactive, able to multitask, and possess solid time management skills
- Demonstrate ability in managing projects/ processes, with a focus on proven success achieving project goals despite competing viewpoints and interests
- Ability to conduct legal research and review and understand legislation as well as understand and communicate the implications of legislation to the in-house clients and supervising attorneys
- Highly focused on details and the desired outcome for each work task. This includes being able to understand the business objective and use problem solving skills to overcome obstacles to achieving such objective
- Possess excellent judgment on business and legal matters, including knowing when to escalate issues to the attorney level or a senior business team member
- Must comfortably and easily be able to transfer prior legal and business learning to new variable factual situations
- Must be comfortable with, and highly proficient at making, significant decisions within defined parameters
- Must be capable of understanding the business details of each internal client
- Experience dealing with Sales teams and/or retail industry corporate experience
- Must have highly refined computer skills, including proficiency in Word and Excel. and PowerPoint. Associate must be computer and internet literate and have the ability to work in various databases, both internal and external