Vice President, Legal, Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Reston, VA
Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) -
Reston, VA,
US
Vice President, Legal
Date Posted: 2024-06-12
Job description
Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is a mission-driven organization, with a vision to be the global leader in ensuring every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them. The organization's priority is to heighten its impact in promoting graduate management education and attracting a qualified and diverse candidate pool from around the world.
The Vice President, Legal is responsible for managing all legal affairs of GMAC and its corporate subsidiaries, providing oversight, responsibility, and advice for a wide range of legal matters, including those related to corporate compliance, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, contracts, labor and employment, and risk management. This position serves as the chief legal advisor to GMAC's Senior Leadership Team, including the CEO.
Key Responsibilities:
Minimum Requirements:
The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Desired Skills/Experience:
At GMAC, we offer:
Envision yourself joining GMAC, a team of smart thinkers that are resilient, adaptive and who take our values to heart. We work as a team and are committed to delivering high-quality products and services to work for a world where every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them.
FLSA Status:
Exempt
Report to:
Chief Financial Officer & Head, Corporate Development
GMAC's value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.
As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
Additionally, to ensure a safe office environment, recognizing the tremendous contributions that vaccinations play in ensuring our mutual wellbeing, GMAC has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy. All employees must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. GMAC may make accommodations or allow for exemption from this requirement for medical or religious reasons.
The Vice President, Legal is responsible for managing all legal affairs of GMAC and its corporate subsidiaries, providing oversight, responsibility, and advice for a wide range of legal matters, including those related to corporate compliance, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, contracts, labor and employment, and risk management. This position serves as the chief legal advisor to GMAC's Senior Leadership Team, including the CEO.
Key Responsibilities:
- Oversee and manage the legal department, its staff and outside counsel, as necessary, in supporting the global legal affairs of GMAC, including the areas of corporate compliance, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, contracts, tax-exemption, subsidiary compliance, labor and employment, legislative affairs, and litigation, and risk management.
- Serve as Chief Privacy Official in oversight role for GMAC data protection and privacy compliance program.
- Serve as a strategic partner with GMAC's business units to enable the execution of organizational strategies and priorities in compliance with US and international laws.
- Lead enterprise legal initiatives in strategic areas, including privacy, enterprise risk management, contract management, tax-exemption, and multinational corporate structure.
- Provide guiding counsel in the areas of test security and accommodations. Convene with members of the operational test security, psychometrics, and accommodations teams and provide guidance and feedback on appropriate risk management approaches. Handle test taker disputes, utilizing outside counsel for litigation matters if/when necessary.
- Supervise a team of professional staff responsible for contracting, data protection and privacy, compliance policy development, subsidiary governance, intellectual property, test security, and enterprise risk management.
- Provide legal advice and management of investigations, complaints, and litigation, including labor and employment, customer service, contracts, data protection matters, test accommodations, test security, and intellectual property matters.
- Understand GMAC's business operations and proactively, as appropriate, offer legal advice to business clients on risks and ways to mitigate risks while achieving business objectives.
- Enhance and/or develop, implement, and enforce policies and procedures of the organization by way of systems that will improve the overall operation and effectiveness of the corporation.
- Efficiently and effectively manage the Legal department budget.
- Other responsibilities and duties, as assigned.
Minimum Requirements:
- Juris doctorate degree from an accredited law school; Admission to the bar and able to practice law in at least one U.S. state; good standing in that bar.
- 10 years' legal experience, preferably 2+ years advising companies as in-house counsel capacity.
- 10 years' experience providing legal advice on ethics and compliance and data protection/privacy matters and handling such matters in a corporate environment.
- 5 years' progressive supervisory experience. Actively participating in the growth and development of the Legal department members to encourage high-performing and innovative legal team.
- Exposure to and/or familiarity with the following areas of law: 501(c)(3) organizations, buy-side and supply-side transactions, multinational corporate structures, global M&A, accommodations compliance.
- Pragmatic problem solving for unique legal issues with no established precedent.
- Legal analysis training and experience to understand the analysis of existing and emerging legislation and regulation and the translation into appropriate compliance programs.
- Excellent negotiating, drafting, and counseling skills.
- Adept at evaluating risk; comfortable with risk and making pragmatic decisions.
- Outstanding oral and written communication skills with ability to communicate effectively with customers/clients, support staff and employees of all levels of the company to help them understand key legal issues.
- Experience exercising high level of discretion in handling sensitive and highly confidential information.
- Professional demeanor including loyalty, poise, confidence, tact and diplomacy.
- Demonstrated ability to work under pressure, meet difficult deadlines and set priorities.
- Demonstrated ability to provide risk-based guidance for key decision-making across GMAC's activities and to guide others in resolving complex issues of significance to the organization.
- Strong project management skills.
- Comfortable in a multi-cultural environment, with a global workforce.
- Ability to travel globally, when required.
- Ability to work in-office and remotely according to GMAC's hybrid work environment.
The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Desired Skills/Experience:
- Knowledge of and/or experience working in the graduate management education industry.
- Knowledge of the educational testing market.
- Global experience in handling complicated corporate structure, tax, compliance and entity matters.
At GMAC, we offer:
- Comprehensive and locally competitive benefits (medical, dental, vision, 403b retirement program, and more!)
- Generous Paid-time Off
- Holiday Leave
- Hybrid Work Environment
- Free parking
- Work for a mission-driven organization helping to develop the next generation of responsible leaders and change makers
- Opportunity to utilize your skills and professionally grow and develop
Envision yourself joining GMAC, a team of smart thinkers that are resilient, adaptive and who take our values to heart. We work as a team and are committed to delivering high-quality products and services to work for a world where every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them.
FLSA Status:
Exempt
Report to:
Chief Financial Officer & Head, Corporate Development
GMAC's value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.
As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
Additionally, to ensure a safe office environment, recognizing the tremendous contributions that vaccinations play in ensuring our mutual wellbeing, GMAC has implemented a mandatory vaccination policy. All employees must be fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. GMAC may make accommodations or allow for exemption from this requirement for medical or religious reasons.