Contracts & Legal Operations Associate

The Contracts & Legal Operations Associate will join our growing legal team to support Legal’s contract workflows and systems. This role will play a key part in managing the contract lifecycle, improving legal operations, and enabling cross-functional efficiencies through our contract lifecycle management (CLM) system.  

This dynamic and evolving role is ideal for a detail-oriented professional with experience as a corporate paralegal, contracts specialist, or legal operations coordinator, who is passionate about legal process improvement, structure, and systems.

The role offers visibility across the business, involvement in strategic legal initiatives, and clear growth pathways within the legal department.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Contract Lifecycle Management:

1. Track contract intake and lifecycle milestones in the CLM system, ensuring complete and accurate metadata entry in alignment with organization standards
2. Collaborate closely with the Sales Contracts Administrator to support sales contract execution and ensure alignment between Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and CLM systems
3. Extract and track key contractual provisions to support legal risk monitoring and compliance efforts

Contract Management Support:

1. Conduct contract abstraction and metadata entry for various agreement types across the organization
2. Manage version control and redline tracking throughout contract negotiations, including reconciliation of internal/external comments

Legal Operations Support:

1. Analyze historical contract data and terms to support template and clause development
2. Log and track legal requests through the matter intake system
3. Assist with the generation of legal metrics to identify critical areas of need to help Legal remain proactive in the provision of legal services
4. Conduct legal and regulatory research to support evolving compliance and legal initiatives, under attorney supervision

Playbook & Clause Library:

1. Assist in developing and implementing legal playbooks for commonly used agreement types
2. Conduct retroactive historical analyses through key terms across contracts to inform ongoing contracting and risk mitigation strategies
3. Build and manage acceptable clause library

Cross-Functional Coordination:

1. Point person between Legal and business contract relationship owners
2. Proactive partner in triaging contracts and flagging issues before Legal review
3. Ownership of final execution prep for contracts: clean-up formatting, internal-facing comment removal, naming conventions, electronic signature coordination, etc.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Conduct periodic audits of contract data for accuracy and compliance
2. Provide general legal operations support, as assigned, including but not limited to compiling research summaries, assisting in policy and SOP updates, and supporting compliance documentation
3. Perform other duties and projects as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree required; paralegal certification or legal studies coursework preferred 
• 1-2+ years experience in contract administration, legal operations, paralegal support (in-house or law firm), or related roles preferred
• Ability to interpret basic contract terms and understand legal risk concepts
• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) processes and tools is a plus
• Familiarity with document management systems and digital signature tools (e.g., DocuSign, Adobe Sign)
• Strong organizational skills with a keen attention to detail
• Independent, critical thinker, with good judgment and problem solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills
• Proficiency in MS Word, Excel, and Power Point, etc.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Ability to work collaboratively and independently to get the job done
• This position resides in the Cleveland SPR office location, with flexibility for hybrid work arrangements as approved by the supervisor.
• Travel will be minimal, and when necessary, can usually be well planned in advance