General Counsel

Position: General Counsel 

Reports to: Chief Financial Officer 

Department: Legal 

Purpose: The General Counsel (GC) is responsible for leading all legal, risk, and compliance activities for Excel Fitness. This includes managing outside counsel, overseeing commercial leases and franchise agreements, handling regulatory inquiries, managing insurance and compliance programs, and supporting M&A. The GC provides strategic legal guidance while directly managing a paralegal/risk coordinator and partnering with executives and internal stakeholders to enable growth while mitigating risk. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Legal Leadership & Strategy 

• Serves as the company’s main legal advisor, counseling the executive leadership team on legal, risk, and compliance matters. 
• Develops and implements scalable legal and risk management frameworks to support company growth and ensure consistency.  
• Supports M&A activity by coordinating with external counsel and conducting legal due diligence, risk assessments, and integration. 
• Leads, coaches, and oversees Paralegal Coordinator. 

Member & Regulatory Disputes 

• Develops and ensures the execution of dispute resolution playbooks and strategies to ensure consistent and cost-effective outcomes. 
• Responds to escalated member disputes and inquiries from Attorneys General, DOJ, and other regulatory agencies. 

Outside Counsel Management 

• Manages and evaluates outside counsel across litigation, arbitration, franchise, M&A, and other specialized matters. 
• Manages legal budgets, cost controls, and matter strategies to balance quality with efficiency. 

Real Estate & Leasing 

• Oversees the drafting and execution of commercial leases and related documents, including amendments, estoppels, SNDAs, landlord waivers, and terminations. 
• Provides legal counsel on new club development, relocations, lease renewals, and landlord disputes. 
• Partners with Real Estate and Development teams to support growth initiatives and ensure lease compliance across the portfolio. 

Franchise Legal 

• Manages and oversees the franchise agreement process, including new franchise agreement review, renewals, and terminations. 
• Coordinates with the franchisor’s legal team and outside franchise counsel to maintain compliance with system standards, ADA, and other requirements. 
• Supports overall company alignment on franchise obligations and risk mitigation.  

Risk Management & Insurance 

• Leads the company’s insurance program strategy and oversees the company’s annual renewal process in collaboration with internal stakeholders and brokers. 
• Ensures comprehensive insurance coverage across general liability, property, D&O, EPLI, and other policies. 
• Manages liability claims and directs the paralegal and risk coordinator in handling insurance matters. 

Compliance, Governance & Privacy 

• Ensures organizational compliance with legal, regulatory, and governance obligations. 
• Oversees annual regulatory filings, corporate registrations, and entity management requirements. 
• Monitors evolving laws and implements policies related to employment, franchise, ADA/OSHA, privacy, and cybersecurity. 
• Partners with IT and operations teams to manage privacy and cybersecurity compliance programs. 
• Reviews, drafts, and negotiates commercial contracts with vendors, landlords, and partners. 

Qualifications: 

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school is required. Active license in at least one U.S. state (Texas strongly preferred; licensing in NC, VA, OK, AR a plus). 
• At least 8 years of legal experience with a strong foundation in commercial real estate; exposure to franchising, risk management, and compliance strongly required. 
• At least 2 years of experience managing, directing, and developing a legal team required. 
• Prior in-house experience in a multi-unit retail, fitness, or franchise organization strongly preferred. 
• Experience managing outside counsel, legal budgets, and insurance programs. 
• Proven ability to establish scalable legal infrastructure (templates, playbooks, compliance policies). 
• Strong leadership skills; experience managing and developing paralegals or risk staff. 
• Business-minded communicator who can simplify legal complexity and influence cross-functionally. 
• Experience advising executive leadership and collaborating cross-functionally with operations, real estate, finance, and HR. 
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to convey information to internal and external customers in a clear, focused, and concise manner.  
• Ability to function effectively and positively within a team environment.  
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.  

Supervisory Responsibility: This position will directly oversee all in the legal department and is responsible for the performance management and hiring of all individual team members.  

Budgetary Responsibility: This position prepares an annual budget and is accountable for all department expenditures and variances. 

Work Environment: This job primarily operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.  

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that a Team Player must meet to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. 

• Regularly required to talk and hear.   
• Frequently required to sit; stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.  
• Occasionally required to climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl.   
• Must frequently lift and move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and move objects up to 25 pounds.   
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.  

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work: This is a full-time, exempt position. Under the Regulations, Part 541, an exempt Team Player is one who is not entitled to the minimum wage or overtime pay protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).   

Standard work days and hours are Monday through Friday, between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. This position may work outside of normal business hours, including evenings and weekends.  

Travel: Approximately 10% of travel is expected for this position. Must be willing to travel based on company need to all locations. Overnight trips may be necessary.  

EEO Statement: Excel Fitness is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to the policy of equal employment opportunity in recruitment, hiring, career advancement, and all other employment practices. 

Other Duties: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the Team Player for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.