What are the responsibilities and job description for the Legal Operations and Contracts Lead position at The Zebra?
What You'll Do
Legal Operations & Process Management
As we evaluate candidates, we look for folks with a strong sense of ownership, excellent communication and collaboration skills, and a dedication to continuous improvement.
Required Experience & Expertise
Legal Operations & Process Management
- Co-manage legal request intake, triage issues, and provide guidance on legal and compliance questions across the organization.
- Develop and enforce legal processes and policies to improve efficiency, facilitate change, and control costs, including legal billing guidelines and budget optimization.
- Co-manage legal technology solutions, including contract lifecycle management systems, e-signature platforms, AI tools, and vendor relationships.
- Identify and implement process improvements and best practices to enhance operational efficiency and reduce legal risk.
- Co-develop and maintain forms, playbooks, templates, and policies to support scalable legal operations.
- Assist with end-to-end contract lifecycle management, from drafting and negotiation to execution and compliance monitoring.
- Monitor contract and vendor timelines, including renewals and key milestones.
- Collaborate with external vendors and legal service providers to optimize service delivery and cost-effectiveness.
- Manage outside counsel usage and spend across all practice areas.
- Maintain trademark and patent portfolios including renewals and deadlines.
- Draft and send cease and desist letters for brand enforcement.
- Assist with IP litigation support, including evidence gathering, document production, and serving as liaison with outside counsel.
- Review and advise on marketing collateral (digital, print, web, email, video, paid media) for compliance with advertising and consumer protection laws, including insurance-specific regulatory requirements.
- Work closely with marketing teams on advertising claims, ensuring consistency with FTC guidelines, insurance regulatory standards, and prohibition on misleading statements in insurance advertising.
- Contribute to maintaining marketing claims bank, internal guidelines, and review checklists.
- Assist with responding to data subject access and deletion requests, ensuring timely processing and compliance.
- Work with SVP of Legal to ensure company stays current with evolving privacy laws (CCPA/CPRA and other U.S. state privacy laws).
- Support security reviews as needed.
- Provide legal support to cross-functional teams including marketing, sales, agency, customer support, IT/security, finance and other business units, contributing to the achievement of overall business objectives.
- Liaise closely with litigation, IP, employment, corporate, and other outside counsel on case management, scheduling, and records maintenance.
- Assist with M&A, financing, and legal diligence projects as needed.
- Request and maintain corporate records.
- Assist in developing training materials for legal and cross-functional teams on legal processes, corporate compliance, contract management and other relevant legal updates.
As we evaluate candidates, we look for folks with a strong sense of ownership, excellent communication and collaboration skills, and a dedication to continuous improvement.
Required Experience & Expertise
- Paralegal Foundation: Paralegal certificate, associate/bachelor's degree plus paralegal certification, or equivalent legal work experience.
- Proven Track Record: 10 years of paralegal or legal professional experience, ideally combining law firm and in-house environments.
- Privacy Compliance: Familiarity with privacy frameworks (CCPA/CPRA and other U.S. state privacy laws) and experience managing privacy operations including DSAR processing and compliance workflows.
- Contract & Vendor Management: Experience with procurement or vendor management a plus.
- IP Portfolio Management: Hands-on experience maintaining trademark and patent portfolios, coordinating with outside counsel, and supporting brand enforcement actions including C&D letters and litigation support.
- Marketing & Advertising Law: Demonstrable knowledge of U.S. advertising and marketing law and consumer protection principles. Experience reviewing marketing materials and working collaboratively with marketing teams.
- Organization & Time Management: Exceptional organizational skills with proven ability to simultaneously manage high-volume, competing priorities across multiple practice areas with meticulous attention to detail.
- Legal Ops Mindset: Passion for improving workflows, implementing automation, and building scalable processes. Track record of driving efficiency improvements.
- Team Player with Initiative: Proactive self-starter who takes ownership of projects and anticipates needs. Collaborative mindset with ability to work independently and contribute meaningfully to team success.
- Tech Savviness: Proficient with legal technology platforms, contract management systems, and AI tools. Early adopter mentality and excitement about leveraging technology for efficiency.
- Communication Excellence: Clear verbal and written communication skills with ability to explain legal concepts to non-lawyers. Customer-service mindset.
- Sound Judgment: Ability to assess and mitigate legal risk, escalate appropriately, and make practical business-aligned recommendations.
- Collaborative Influencer: Master at building trusted relationships across functional areas and influencing positive outcomes through empathetic, constructive communication.