General Counsel

IFF•Chicago, IL

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The General Counsel & Enterprise Compliance Lead (General Counsel) provides practical, strategic legal guidance while ensuring the organization matures our enterprise compliance and governance capabilities. The General Counsel serves as the organization’s chief legal officer and principal advisor to executive leadership on legal, governance, enterprise risk, regulatory, reputational, and strategic matters; owns the development and execution of IFF’s legal, governance, and enterprise compliance strategy and ensures these functions support long-term organizational objectives; participates directly in enterprise strategic planning and major organizational initiatives, ensuring leadership evaluates legal, regulatory, governance, and reputational implications before significant decisions are made; and ensures legal and compliance considerations are incorporated early into planning, decision-making, and enterprise initiatives rather than addressed reactively after issues arise. The General Counsel is a leader who can balance legal rigor and risk management with operational partnership and practicality. This role is intentionally designed to operate as a strategic legal partner rather than a purely transactional legal function and is structured as both a legal leadership role and an enterprise coordination role within Enterprise Operations. The role requires strong legal expertise alongside emotional intelligence, operational awareness, and enterprise-level thinking. IFF is looking for candidates with a commitment to the work we do who can demonstrate their creativity, diligence, enthusiasm, growth-mindset, thoughtfulness, and passion to make meaningful change in the areas of economic and racial justice.

Requirements

Juris doctorate (JD) degree from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with the state bar required.
Minimum of fifteen years of experience in legal counsel, compliance, governance, enterprise risk, or operational law with a focus on commercial real estate finance, community development lending, or a related field.
Experience as a General Counsel preferred.
Experience with negotiations, LLC formation and structuring, bond, incentive, and real estate development financing, and development partnership structures.
Knowledge of tax-exempt organizational law and federal and state laws and regulations relevant to CDFIs preferred.
Strong understanding of organizational governance, contracts, regulatory environments, and enterprise operations.
Reputation for integrity and ability to balance business partnership needs with the need to exercise good independent judgment to raise potentially sensitive issues in a timely and constructive manner.
Demonstrated success advising CEOs, executive leadership teams, and governing boards on enterprise strategy, organizational risk, governance, and major institutional decisions.
Demonstrated experience serving as General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, or comparable executive-level role.
Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives and governing boards.
Experience leading organizations through significant change, crises, restructurings, litigation, or regulatory matters.
Experience balancing legal judgment with organizational strategy and mission objectives.
Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and evolving organizational environments.
Strong judgment balancing legal protection with operational practicality.
Experience coordinating cross-functional initiatives involving legal and compliance considerations.
Ability to communicate complex legal concepts clearly to non-legal stakeholders.
Strong relationship management and organizational influence skills.
Experience supporting policy development, governance structures, or enterprise accountability frameworks preferred.
Collaborative, team player who possesses interpersonal skills to work across all levels of the organization.
Possesses humility and a willingness to learn about all areas of the organization.
A strong team contributor, effective and comfortable in leading as well as playing a supporting role within teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience as a General Counsel preferred.
Knowledge of tax-exempt organizational law and federal and state laws and regulations relevant to CDFIs preferred.
Experience supporting policy development, governance structures, or enterprise accountability frameworks preferred.

Responsibilities

Serves as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team and provides forward-looking strategic counsel concerning organizational risk, governance, growth initiatives, external partnerships, and enterprise decision-making.
Advising the CEO, President & COO, Executive Leadership Team, and Board of Directors regarding material strategic, regulatory, governance, legal, and reputational risks.
Anticipating emerging legal, regulatory, political, market, and reputational developments that may affect organizational objectives.
Identifying second-order and long-term risks associated with strategic initiatives and major organizational decisions.
Contributing to enterprise strategic planning and organizational design discussions.
Supporting leadership through significant organizational changes, restructurings, crises, investigations, and other sensitive matters.
Presenting recommendations and tradeoffs to executive leadership and the Board regarding complex organizational decisions.
Steers leadership through ambiguity, risk, and organizational change with sound judgment by providing legal guidance and strategic counsel across organizational operations and initiatives.
Advising executive leadership on legal implications of strategic and operational decisions.
Supporting interpretation of laws, regulations, and contractual obligations affecting the organization.
Providing legal review and guidance related to partnerships, contracted services agreements, enterprise initiatives, and organizational risk.
Advising executive leadership on strategic alternatives, associated risks, and recommended courses of action for complex organizational decisions.
Ensuring legal, governance, compliance, and enterprise-risk considerations are integrated into all major organizational initiatives.
Serving as a confidential advisor to executive leadership concerning sensitive organizational matters, executive issues, significant disputes, regulatory exposures, and reputational concerns.
Supporting escalation and resolution of sensitive organizational matters requiring legal judgment.
Strengthens enterprise-wide compliance and governance maturity.
Directing organizational understanding of regulatory and compliance obligations, including overseeing adherence to CDFI Fund rules, federal lending laws, grant agreements, and tax-exempt/non-profit requirements.
Overseeing compliance considerations across departments and enterprise initiatives.
Establishing consistent approaches to policy management and governance documentation.
Advising the development and maintenance of enterprise policy frameworks and meta-policy structures.
Leading the development and ongoing improvement of governance structures, board processes, and enterprise accountability structures.
Serving as principal governance advisor to the Board and Board committees.
Advising Board members regarding fiduciary obligations, conflicts of interest, ethics, and governance best practices.
Overseeing governance policies and enterprise decision-making frameworks.
Ensuring governance practices support organizational transparency, accountability, and strategic objectives.
Providing guidance and support to IFF’s board of directors and committees on corporate governance best practices, fiduciary responsibilities, conflict of interest, and ethics.
Leading identification, assessment, prioritization, and reporting of significant enterprise legal, compliance, governance, operational, and reputational risks.
Establishing enterprise risk escalation protocols.
Providing periodic risk assessments to executive leadership and the Board.
Ensuring emerging organizational risks are identified and addressed before material business impacts occur.
Steers operational leaders through legal and contractual complexity.
Establishing legal review standards, delegation protocols, contracting frameworks and risk thresholds for agreements across the organization.
Providing direct leadership of only the organization’s most strategically significant, financially material, or enterprise-risk agreements.
Advising operational leaders on vendor, technology, employment, and regulatory risk considerations.
Identifying and escalating enterprise risks that may create operational or reputational exposure.
Partnering with Enterprise Operations leadership to strengthen internal controls, governance rhythms, and organizational accountability.
Ensuring leadership preparedness related to audits, compliance reviews, investigations, or governance inquiries.
Leads legal and governance response to significant organizational crises.
Overseeing sensitive internal investigations involving ethics, compliance, governance, executive conduct, or regulatory concerns.
Advising executive leadership regarding business continuity, regulatory response, and reputational management.
Directing legal strategy related to significant litigation or regulatory proceedings.
In partnership with the Chief External Affairs Officer, monitors industry trends, legislative changes, and regulatory developments affecting CDFIs and the community development finance industry.
Develops and revises organizational policies and procedures to ensure compliance with legal requirements and industry best practices.
Leads and mentors the Risk, Compliance & Legal team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning and improvement.
As appropriate, consults, obtains, supervises, and coordinates outside counsel on legal issues related to governance, organizational management, litigation, operations, resolution strategies, employee, or regulatory issues.
Builds and maintains relationships with external legal counsel, regulatory agencies, industry partners, consultants, and other vendors to support meet IFF’s risk management, compliance, and legal needs.
Demonstrates a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Promotes an environment of empathy and respect, ensures the inclusion of all team members, and will actively engage in EDI events and learning opportunities.