What are the responsibilities and job description for the General Counsel position at Kanaka Partners?
General Counsel — Legal and Financial Strategy
Job Overview
We are seeking a highly skilled General Counsel with a strong financial and business background to serve as the organization’s primary legal advisor and a key member of the executive leadership team. This role combines oversight of legal matters with strategic guidance on financing, transactions, risk management, and corporate governance.
The ideal candidate will understand both the legal structure and financial implications of business decisions, including the ability to interpret financial statements, evaluate financing terms, and negotiate complex commercial transactions. Experience in real estate development, construction, healthcare, or businesses with multiple affiliated entities is particularly valuable.
Working closely with ownership, executive leadership, and accounting professionals, the General Counsel will protect organizational interests, strengthen compliance, and support growth through sound legal and financial judgment.
Duties
- Provide legal advice on corporate governance, contracts, employment matters, real estate, regulatory compliance, environmental issues, and intellectual property.
- Draft, review, and negotiate contracts with vendors, partners, clients, contractors, lenders, and other stakeholders.
- Lead the legal review and negotiation of financing transactions, including construction loans, commercial mortgages, refinancing, credit facilities, guarantees, security agreements, and investor agreements.
- Analyze financial statements, budgets, cash-flow projections, and project pro formas in collaboration with the finance team to identify risks and inform business decisions.
- Evaluate the financial implications of contractual provisions, including payment obligations, debt covenants, collateral requirements, personal guarantees, indemnification, default remedies, and termination rights.
- Support acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, and development projects through legal and financial due diligence, transaction structuring, and closing coordination.
- Partner with accounting professionals, lenders, and outside advisors on capital structure, liquidity planning, tax considerations, and financial reporting obligations.
- Monitor contractual and financing requirements, including covenant compliance, reporting deadlines, lender approvals, and obligations across affiliated entities.
- Advise on construction contracts, payment disputes, change orders, bonding, insurance, and allocation of project risks.
- Manage litigation, disputes, settlement negotiations, and outside counsel, balancing legal exposure with the cost and business impact of each matter.
- Develop policies and internal controls that support legal compliance, appropriate financial oversight, and ethical conduct.
- Oversee employment matters, internal investigations, and organizational risk management.
- Maintain organized legal and transaction records and provide executive leadership with clear assessments of risks, financial exposure, and recommended actions.
- Manage outside legal budgets and ensure specialized counsel delivers effective, cost-conscious support.
Experience and Qualifications
- Juris Doctor degree and active membership in the applicable state bar.
- Extensive legal experience in a corporate, in-house, or transactional practice, with demonstrated ability to advise executive leadership.
- A strong financial background is required, including the ability to interpret balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, budgets, and financial projections.
- Demonstrated experience with commercial lending, real estate finance, corporate finance, or complex business transactions, including negotiating loan documents and evaluating financing structures.
- Working knowledge of debt-service coverage, leverage, liquidity, loan-to-value ratios, and the practical impact of financial covenants.
- Experience evaluating guarantees, collateral arrangements, cross-default provisions, and financial exposure across multiple entities.
- Strong contract drafting and negotiation skills, with the ability to translate complex legal and financial terms into clear business recommendations.
- Experience in real estate development, construction, healthcare, or management of affiliated businesses strongly preferred.
- Experience with public funding, affordable housing finance, tax-credit transactions, or public-private partnerships is a plus.
- An MBA, accounting or finance degree, CPA credential, or comparable financial experience is preferred.
- Proven ability to manage litigation, outside counsel, legal budgets, and competing priorities.
- Strong legal research, writing, communication, and leadership skills.
- Sound judgment, discretion, and a practical approach to protecting the organization while advancing business objectives.
Join our leadership team and help shape the organization’s future through strong legal counsel, financial insight, and strategic business judgment.
Pay: $85,000.00 - $120,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
Salary : $85,000 - $120,000