Senior Corporate Counsel - M&A Focus

Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores•Oklahoma City, OK

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Corporate Counsel position will be based at our Oklahoma City corporate office. This role serves as the Legal Department's day-to-day lead attorney aligned with the Corporate Development department (CorpDev), which oversees mergers and acquisitions, key strategic partnership opportunities, and other growth initiatives. The position requires acting as lead counsel on assigned acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, partnerships, investments, and other transactions. The role involves managing transactions from intake through post-closing integration, including structuring, legal due diligence, drafting and negotiating transaction documents, regulatory approvals, closings, and post-closing obligations. The Senior Corporate Counsel will identify legal risks and recommend practical, business-oriented solutions. This role also involves maintaining visibility and status tracking across all open CorpDev projects and legal workstreams, triaging incoming matters, and helping to allocate work among the department's transactional attorneys and subject-matter experts. Partnering closely with CorpDev leadership on strategic priorities, timelines, and risk tolerance, and developing templates, playbooks, and workflows to improve consistency, quality, and speed are key aspects of the position. The role also provides legal advice and counsel to executives, directors, and other business clients, exercising independent judgment across M&A and general corporate and commercial matters, and proactively identifying potential legal issues. Support and participation in enterprise initiatives and programs led by Legal, such as compliance, corporate governance, information governance, and corporate responsibility & sustainability, are also expected. The Senior Corporate Counsel will represent the department on cross-functional task forces and committees and demonstrate leadership through initiative and informal mentoring of other attorneys, paralegals, and legal staff. Administrative duties include pursuing continuing legal education, maintaining matter status, contract information, and time logs in legal technology systems, and ensuring accurate outside counsel billing. The role requires exercising independent professional judgment, providing candid advice, and ensuring truthful communications with third parties. Prompt escalation of ethical concerns, conflicts of interest, or professional responsibility issues is necessary. Maintaining strict confidentiality of all client communications, legal advice, and sensitive business and personnel information is paramount. The Senior Corporate Counsel will work within the department's established structure, reporting relationships, and matter assignment processes, accepting and diligently pursuing assigned work, maintaining a full and productive workload, and communicating capacity proactively. Work will be performed in assigned office space, adhering to department workspace and availability expectations. Consistent, equitable service to all assigned clients, and the organizational skills and collaborative approach needed to manage multiple priorities in a team environment are essential. The role involves leveraging the department's legal technology platforms and utilizing AI and generative AI tools to enhance legal research, drafting, document review, and other attorney workflows, consistent with applicable professional responsibility rules, company policies, and confidentiality requirements. Support for the evaluation and rollout of new legal technology by participating in piloting and providing feedback is also expected. Staying current on emerging legal technology and AI trends relevant to legal practice and proactively identifying opportunities to improve quality, efficiency, and client service is crucial.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and Juris Doctor from an accredited law school.
Licensed to practice law in Oklahoma in good standing, or licensed in good standing in another state and willing to immediately pursue Oklahoma licensure.
Minimum of 8 years practicing law at a regional or national law firm and/or as corporate counsel.
Including at least 5 years of substantial M&A experience.
Prior mentoring, supervisory, and/or project leadership experience.
Demonstrated experience as lead counsel on M&A transactions, including a working knowledge of antitrust/HSR analysis and premerger notification filings.
Track record of successful project management — including stakeholder coordination, timeline oversight, and deliverable execution — and the ability to monitor and prioritize a high volume of concurrent matters.
Sophisticated understanding of deal structuring and acquisition financing, including tax-informed entity and transaction structures, purchase price and consideration mechanics, and debt and equity financing arrangements.
Experience structuring joint ventures, minority investments, and transactions involving complex private ownership structures — including multi-entity holding companies — with a strong command of governance rights, approval requirements, transfer restrictions, and exit mechanics.
Deep experience negotiating risk allocation in private transactions, including representations and warranties, indemnification structures, escrows and holdbacks, and representations and warranties insurance.
Strong judgment, discretion, risk assessment, and contract drafting and negotiation skills.
Ability to handle highly confidential, market-sensitive information.
Exceptional communication skills and practical business acumen.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and online legal research platforms.

Nice To Haves

Prior in-house corporate legal department experience, particularly with a large, privately held or family-owned enterprise.
Experience with capital markets and securities matters, such as debt offerings, private placements, or investor-side representation in connection with portfolio company public offerings.
Industry legal experience in transportation, logistics, retail, energy, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience leveraging AI and generative AI tools to improve the quality and efficiency of legal work.

Responsibilities

Serve as the Legal Department's day-to-day lead attorney aligned with the Corporate Development department (CorpDev), which oversees mergers and acquisitions, key strategic partnership opportunities, and other growth initiatives.
Act as lead counsel on assigned acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, partnerships, investments, and other transactions.
Manage assigned transactions from intake through post-closing integration, including structuring, legal due diligence, drafting and negotiating transaction documents, regulatory approvals (including antitrust/HSR), closings, and post-closing obligations.
Identify legal risks and recommend practical, business-oriented solutions.
Maintain visibility and status tracking across all open CorpDev projects and legal workstreams.
In coordination with the Director and Associate General Counsel, triage incoming matters and help allocate work among the department's transactional attorneys and subject-matter experts to ensure efficient and streamlined delivery of legal services.
Keep Legal Department leadership apprised of material developments.
Partner closely with CorpDev leadership on strategic priorities, timelines, and risk tolerance.
Develop templates, playbooks, and workflows to improve consistency, quality, and speed.
Manage outside counsel scope, work product, and budgets.
Provide legal advice and counsel to executives, directors, and other business clients, exercising independent judgment across M&A and general corporate and commercial matters.
Proactively identify potential legal issues.
Support and participate in enterprise initiatives and programs led by Legal — such as compliance, corporate governance, information governance, and corporate responsibility & sustainability — including serving in program roles as assigned.
Represent the department on cross-functional task forces and committees.
Demonstrate leadership through initiative and informal mentoring of other attorneys, paralegals, and legal staff.
Pursue continuing legal education on M&A, industry developments, and company strategies.
Timely and accurately maintain matter status, contract information, and time logs in the department's legal technology systems.
Ensure accurate and timely outside counsel billing.
Perform various other tasks, as assigned.
Exercise independent professional judgment; provide candid, accurate advice to clients and ensure truthful, accurate communications with third parties.
Promptly escalate ethical concerns, conflicts of interest, or professional responsibility issues through appropriate channels.
Maintain strict confidentiality of all client communications, legal advice, and sensitive business and personnel information consistent with attorney-client privilege and applicable professional standards.
Work within the department's established structure, reporting relationships, and matter assignment processes; accept and diligently pursue assigned work, including matters outside preferred practice areas; maintain a full and productive workload; and communicate capacity proactively to the supervising attorney.
Work in assigned office space and adhere to department workspace and availability expectations.
Provide consistent, equitable service to all assigned clients, and demonstrate the organizational skills and collaborative approach needed to manage multiple priorities in a team environment.
Leverage the department's legal technology platforms — including matter management, contract management, document management, and other systems as adopted — to support efficient delivery of legal services.
Utilize AI and generative AI tools to enhance legal research, drafting, document review, and other attorney workflows, consistent with applicable professional responsibility rules, company policies, and confidentiality requirements.
Support evaluation and rollout of new legal technology by participating in piloting and providing substantive feedback to inform adoption decisions across the department.
Stay current on emerging legal technology and AI trends relevant to legal practice and proactively identify opportunities to improve quality, efficiency, and client service in day-to-day work.