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ABOUT THE POSITION
The Columbia Sportswear Legal Department protects company interests across the globe, advancing company strategy through high quality advice, and support to all brands and regions. Our aim is to safeguard our most valuable assets and assist in the creation of a competitive industry advantage while managing risk and ensuring compliance with global laws and regulations.
As Associate General Counsel, you’ll be a key business partner, responsible for working with the legal team to guide Columbia Sportswear Company’s overall legal strategy. Within this role you’ll report to the Deputy General Counsel and support the company on a wide variety of legal affairs, including commercial transactions, compliance, regulatory matters, legal disputes, and litigation.
Here you’ll elevate the legal organization by implementing legal operations best practices. Together with the Legal team, you’ll ensure management teams understand the risks associated with policies, procedures, and business decisions. You will also assist with the coordination of all legal department activities.
HOW YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Offer counsel on a variety of legal issues for a global, public company, with a focus on commercial, corporate, contracts, and regulatory issues
Collaborate and coordinate business and legal needs with other departments within the company, including Sales, Procurement, HR, Retail, and Marketing
Research and anticipate unique legal issues that could impact the company
Provide training to the company on legal topics as necessary
Negotiate, draft, and review a broad range of contracts supporting the organization’s operations. Create and improve contract templates, playbooks, and processes to support the business teams
Provide legal support for the management and continued development of the company’s four brands, including its customer-facing activities (advertising, marketing, promotions, and social media)
Ensure protection of the organization’s legal rights, utilizing broad familiarity with legal disciplines relevant to the company
Research and provide advice on legal trends, new or proposed legislation, and administrative rules that may affect the Company in areas of responsibility
YOU ARE
Ethical and collaborative, leading others by exhibiting honesty and fairness
A self-starter, comfortable operating in areas outside of usual expertise, and digging in to become familiar with new subject matter
Capable of rational, logical thinking, consistently able to make creative decisions reflective of sound judgment, and an understanding of business and financial considerations
Able to recognize and respond quickly and pragmatically to urgent situations and demanding clients
Adept at establishing trusted relationships with business teams
YOU HAVE
J.D. from an accredited law school, and 5+ years of experience in legal practice – a combination of law firm and in-house experience is preferred
Experience with legal department operations, including assistance across external legal relationships
Excellent communication skills with a demonstrated ability to explain legal issues and related risk-based considerations to business stakeholders and other non-lawyers to enable informed decision making
Ability to work with multidisciplinary groups, coordinating legal support across a range of disparate business functions
Ability to quickly gain an understanding of the company’s risk tolerance and strategic goals, and to balance competing risks and priorities based on the same
Active member in good standing of a U.S. state bar, and the ability to practice law within the state of Oregon
#LI-AD1
#Hybrid
This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company.
Columbia Sportswear is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. The Know Your Rights poster is available here: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster The pay transparency policy is available here: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OFCCP/pdf/pay-transp_%20English_formattedESQA508c.pdf Columbia Sportswear is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please notify your recruiter.At Columbia Sportswear Company, we’re proud to offer regular full-time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding. Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well-being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well-being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community. Benefits that can protect your family’s financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match. Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services). In addition, Columbia offers EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services. We have extensive wellness benefits, employee discounts and a generous time off program available.If you need an accommodation/adjustment to successfully complete and submit your application, please reach out to AskHR@columbia.com with the Subject: Applicant Assistance Requested.
