Paralegal

ACCO Brands•Ela Township, IL

12d

About The Position

The Paralegal provides high-quality legal, governance, securities, employment, cybersecurity, and administrative support to the attorney responsible for governance, securities, and employment law. The role supports Board of Directors and committee processes, corporate governance records, securities filings, employment law matters, contract and matter tracking, legal entity management, and coordination with internal stakeholders and external partners. It calls for strong attention to detail, discretion, sound judgment, excellent organizational skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced public company environment. The Paralegal supports Board and committee meetings and governance processes; manages ACCO Brands legal entities globally; and prepares, coordinates, and maintains corporate records and documentation. The position also supports public company reporting and disclosure obligations, including SEC filings, insider trading compliance, Section 16 reporting, proxy season, and annual meeting activities. Additional work includes legal operations and matter management across governance, securities, employment, cybersecurity, privacy, contracting, and administrative matters. The role handles confidential and privileged information and performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Juris Doctor or Paralegal Degree.
Five or more years of legal or paralegal, corporate legal, governance, securities, employment, or legal operations experience is preferred.
Strong ability to organize contracts, legal files, corporate records, matter trackers, templates, and legal documentation.
Ability to manage deadlines, competing priorities, calendars, deliverables, filings, signatures, and follow-up items accurately and urgently.
Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to interact professionally with executives, attorneys, HR, Finance, IT, Privacy, Procurement, Investor Relations, outside counsel, and other stakeholders.
Ability to handle sensitive, confidential, privileged, employee, executive, Board, investor, cybersecurity, and privacy information with discretion.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting public company governance, Board processes, SEC filings, proxy season, insider reporting, or corporate records.
Experience supporting Board and committee materials, corporate records, entity management, officer and director records, subsidiary maintenance, consents, resolutions, certificates, and related documentation.
Experience assisting with SEC filings, disclosure calendars, Section 16 reporting, insider lists, proxy materials, annual meeting support, shareholder communications, or public company reporting processes.
Experience supporting employment law matters, investigations, litigation, agency charges, separation agreements, HR policies, employee relations documentation, or employment templates.
Experience with legal matter management, entity management, contract management, e-billing, Board portals, document management, or filing systems.

Responsibilities

Prepare materials for Board and committee meetings, including agendas, resolutions, materials, minutes, calendars, and related records.
Oversee Board and committee calendars, annual governance processes, director questionnaires, director self-assessments, and governance documentation.
Propose changes to committee charters, governance principles, bylaws, governance policies, and other corporate governance documents as requested.
Lead management of ACCO Brands legal entities globally, working with Mercator, local counsel, and local teams as needed.
Interpret legal requirements for ACCO Brands legal entities around the world and propose solutions that balance legal compliance with business needs.
Make risk-based decisions on legal-entity questions and issues, and draft powers of attorney, corporate documentation, DBA registrations, and other business requests.
Maintain corporate records, including legal entity information, subsidiary lists, officer and director records, annual consents, resolutions, organizational charts, and related governance documentation.
Prepare, coordinate, or maintain secretary certificates, incumbency certificates, good standing certificates, apostilles, legalization requests, and related corporate documentation.
Assist with preparation, coordination, review, and filing support for public company reporting and disclosure obligations.
Prepare and submit SEC filings via DFIN, including Forms 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, S-8s, DEF-14As, Section 16 filings, Form SD, and other securities-related filings.
Oversee timelines, drafts, signatures, exhibits, certifications, supporting documentation, and filing logistics for securities and governance deliverables.
Administer the Insider Trading Compliance Policy, blackout calendar tracking, Section 16 reporting processes, insider lists, and related documentation.
Coordinate securities law and disclosure-related work with Legal, Finance, Investor Relations, outside counsel, and external auditors.
Support annual meeting and proxy season activities, including D&O questionnaires, proxy statement preparation, shareholder meeting materials, related filings, and tracking deliverables.
Maintain securities law files, disclosure records, filing calendars, and related documentation.
Support securities-related aspects of strategic transactions, financings, capital markets activity, and other assigned special projects.
Maintain legal matter files, trackers, calendars, dashboards, and project plans for assigned matters.
Track deadlines, deliverables, action items, approvals, signatures, filings, renewals, and follow-up items.
Coordinate with outside counsel, vendors, auditors, transfer agents, registered agents, internal stakeholders, and cross-functional partners.
Assist with legal billing, budget tracking, outside counsel coordination, invoice review support, and matter administration as assigned.
Prepare first drafts of routine legal documents, templates, correspondence, certificates, forms, summaries, and trackers for attorney review.
Support document management, legal holds, records retention, contract repositories, electronic files, and legal knowledge management.
Help improve legal department processes, templates, workflows, checklists, and tracking tools.
Handle confidential and privileged information with discretion, professionalism, and sound judgment.
Perform other duties as assigned.