RE Legal Operations & Contracts Mgr

TransformCo•Chicago, IL

About The Position

The RE Legal Operations & Contracts Manager is responsible for the systems, workflows, contract administration, and documentation infrastructure supporting the Real Estate Legal Department across a portfolio of more than 100 properties. This role serves as the operational and process-management counterpart to the RE Contracts & Transaction Manager, with primary responsibility for contract and estoppel administration, legal workflow automation, AI-enabled process design, document management, and cross-functional legal support. The position operates with a high degree of autonomy and partners closely with Real Estate Legal, Contracts and Transactions, Property Management, Asset Management, and other business stakeholders to improve legal processes, maintain accurate documentation, and enable attorneys to focus on substantive legal analysis and decision-making. The RE Legal Operations & Contracts Manager manages and continuously improves the operational infrastructure supporting the Real Estate Legal Department. This position oversees legal workflow automation, contract and document administration, estoppel and SNDA processes, legal data and knowledge management, and recurring legal and business support activities. The role identifies opportunities to streamline high-volume and repeatable legal processes through technology, automation, and AI-enabled tools while establishing appropriate validation and accountability controls. The position also serves as a central resource for executed agreements, portfolio documentation, historical contract information, and legal process coordination across the Real Estate organization.

Requirements

Bachelors Degree
Over 10 years of related experience
18 years of age or older
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Legal Studies, Real Estate, or a related field preferred, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience
10+ years of experience supporting commercial real estate legal, contract administration, or related functions, preferably within an in-house, multi-property environment
Extensive knowledge of commercial real estate contracts and documentation, including leases, amendments, estoppels, SNDAs, consents, and related agreements
Demonstrated experience developing, implementing, or administering legal workflow and process automation solutions, including dashboards, macros, workflow platforms, or similar tools
Strong contract administration, document management, and quality-control capabilities
Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume, detail-oriented processes while maintaining accuracy and appropriate documentation controls
Strong organizational and project-management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, and stakeholders simultaneously
Ability to work independently and exercise sound judgment in a lean, fast-paced, and resource-constrained environment
Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to effectively collaborate with attorneys, Real Estate professionals, and cross-functional business partners
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify process inefficiencies and develop practical solutions
Demonstrated ability to handle confidential, sensitive, and legally significant information appropriately

Nice To Haves

Experience working within an in-house commercial real estate legal department supporting a large or geographically dispersed property portfolio
Experience implementing or administering AI-enabled legal, contract-management, or workflow automation tools
Understanding of appropriate validation, governance, and accountability practices associated with AI-assisted legal and business processes
Experience developing or maintaining legal dashboards, knowledge-management systems, contract repositories, or legal operations reporting tools
Experience supporting litigation, defaults, contract disputes, land-use matters, and other legal-adjacent Real Estate activities
Familiarity with legal operations, process improvement, workflow design, and continuous-improvement methodologies

Responsibilities

Analyzes recurring legal administrative processes to identify automation opportunities, and independently designs, builds, and implements the resulting workflow and AI-enabled tools, including for estoppel administration, notice tracking, docket maintenance, and Document Review Memo (DRM) intake (20%)
For standard-form consent, land-use, and notice requests involving Real Estate properties, independently evaluates and determines TransformCo's position, escalating novel or high-value matters to counsel (15%)
Manages and leads initial review of various legal documents and processes, including estoppel and Subordination, Non- Disturbance and Attornment (SNDA) processes, ensuring timely execution, and elevates non-standard counterparty responses (10%)
Manages and identifies opportunities to standardize, streamline, and automate legal administrative processes, and determines and validates implementation approach to improve efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and consistency across the department (10%)
Manages and continuously improves the department's use of AI-enabled tools and processes, establishing the review, validation, and accountability standards for AI-assisted output before it is provided to attorneys or business stakeholders (7%)
Analyzes litigation and default case files to identify factual gaps, and recommends what documentation and information is needed to support counsel's position, including matter organization and development of factual records related to active disputes (7%)
Serves as subject-matter authority on legacy agreements, contractual provisions, and established practices across the Real Estate portfolio, exercising independent judgment to interpret how historical provisions apply to current transactions, disputes, and policy decisions (5%)
Partners with the RE Contracts & Transaction Manager to ensure legal documentation and administrative processes are effectively integrated with transaction and closing workflows (5%)
Collaborates with Property Management, Asset Management, and other cross-functional teams to ensure legal processes effectively support ongoing property and portfolio operations (5%)
Maintains appropriate controls and documentation standards to support the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of legal records and department processes (5%)
Reviews executed agreements, including leases, amendments, nondisclosure agreements, consents, and other contractual documents, for material deviations from standard terms and determines appropriate escalation (4%)
Oversees the quality and accuracy of automated agreement processing, resolving exceptions flagged in the entry, abstraction, and distribution of executed agreements to appropriate internal business teams and stakeholders (4%)
Serves as the process owner for the Real Estate Legal Department's internal dashboard and knowledge base, ensuring information related to leases, reciprocal easement agreements (REAs), defaults, litigation matters, and other legal activity remains accurate, current, and accessible (3%)