Transactional Paralegal - New York (M&A and R&I)

Baker McKenzie•New York, NY

6d•$60,000 - $85,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The M&A and R&I Paralegal supports the Firm’s Transactional Practice Group, primarily on domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and insolvency matters. The role works closely with partners, associates, clients, and professional teams across the Firm’s global offices on complex, high-value, multijurisdictional transactions. It coordinates matters from initial planning and due diligence through signing, closing, and post-closing, while managing competing priorities and providing high-quality support in a fast-paced international law firm environment. The successful candidate will bring substantial corporate-transaction support experience, strong project coordination and document-management skills, and the ability to work independently with sound judgment. Experience in restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy, distressed transactions, or liability management is strongly preferred.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
At least 3 years of relevant paralegal experience, preferably supporting corporate transactions in a large law firm, international law firm, or similarly complex professional-services environment.
Substantial experience supporting M&A transactions, corporate reorganizations, entity maintenance, due diligence, and transaction closings.
Experience supporting domestic and cross-border matters and coordinating with multiple offices, jurisdictions, or external counsel.
Strong understanding of corporate records, transaction documentation, closing processes, and legal document-management requirements.
Demonstrated ability to manage high-volume, complex matters involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, and time-sensitive deadlines.
Excellent attention to detail and commitment to accurate, complete, high-quality work.
Excellent organizational, project-coordination, written communication, and interpersonal skills.
Ability to review, organize, and synthesize substantial volumes of corporate, transactional, financial, and matter-related information.
Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, anticipate needs, and appropriately escalate issues.
Ability to collaborate effectively with partners, associates, paralegals, clients, and business professionals across experience levels and jurisdictions.
Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, document-management systems, virtual data rooms, and online legal and corporate research tools.
Ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion.
Ability to work additional hours when required by transaction deadlines, court filings, signings, or closings.
Commitment to developing technical knowledge, using initiative, and contributing to continual improvement of the team’s services and processes.

Nice To Haves

Paralegal Certificate from an ABA-approved program.
Experience with restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy, distressed M&A, liability management, finance, or creditor-related matters.
Experience with transaction-management, electronic filing, matter-management, or legal project-management platforms.

Responsibilities

Support attorneys throughout domestic and international corporate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, joint ventures, investments, and other strategic transactions.
Coordinate corporate due diligence, including managing virtual data rooms, reviewing corporate records, tracking document requests, and preparing due diligence summaries and reports.
Prepare and maintain transaction checklists, signing and closing agendas, responsibility matrices, timelines, status trackers, and other project-management materials.
Draft and prepare ancillary corporate and transaction documents, including corporate approvals, board and shareholder consents, officer certificates, stock certificates, stock transfer forms, signature pages, and closing deliverables.
Coordinate transaction document execution and collection, prepare and track signature packets, and maintain execution records.
Assist with entity formation, corporate maintenance, foreign qualifications, name changes, director and officer changes, registered-agent matters, and other corporate governance requirements.
Organize corporate minute books and entity records, and coordinate corporate documentation with local counsel and the Firm’s global offices across multiple jurisdictions.
Assist with signing and closing processes, finalize closing sets, prepare closing binders, maintain transaction records, and monitor post-closing obligations.
Coordinate searches, filings, certifications, legalizations, apostilles, good-standing certificates, and other required regulatory or governmental documentation.
Assist attorneys with securities and regulatory filings, where applicable.
Support preparation of organizational and structure charts, transaction timelines, heat maps, global surveys, and client-ready reports.
Support attorneys on restructuring, insolvency, bankruptcy, distressed M&A, liability management, creditor-side, and debtor-side matters.
Organize and maintain documents concerning corporate structures, debt facilities, security arrangements, creditor claims, assets, liabilities, and restructuring alternatives.
Assist with factual and corporate due diligence for distressed transactions, restructurings, and insolvency-related matters.
Prepare and maintain case and transaction chronologies, creditor and interested-party lists, deadline calendars, document indexes, claims trackers, and status reports.
Assist with preparation, organization, and filing of court, regulatory, and transactional documents, coordinating with attorneys, court personnel, filing agents, local counsel, and service providers as needed.
Coordinate collection and organization of documents and information from clients, lenders, creditors, financial advisers, accountants, consultants, and other stakeholders.
Monitor filing dates, procedural requirements, deliverables, and other critical deadlines.
Support distressed acquisition and disposition processes, including due diligence, data-room management, transaction checklists, execution coordination, closing preparation, and post-closing follow-up.
Assist with preparation and maintenance of materials relating to restructuring plans, claims, creditor communications, corporate authorizations, and implementation steps.
Conduct factual, corporate, and public-record research using online databases and other resources.
Manage multiple complex matters and workstreams, anticipate upcoming requirements, and proactively follow up on outstanding items.
Coordinate among attorneys, clients, local counsel, the Firm’s global offices, and external service providers.
Develop working relationships with partners, associates, paralegals, and business professional teams across offices and jurisdictions.
Review work product for completeness, consistency, accuracy, and compliance with transaction or matter requirements.
Provide guidance, training, and day-to-day support to junior paralegals and other team members, as appropriate.
Assist with developing and maintaining templates, precedents, checklists, trackers, and knowledge-management resources.
Identify opportunities to improve processes, standardize recurring activities, and introduce tools or methods that improve efficiency, consistency, and quality.
Maintain accurate time entries and comply with the Firm’s billing, confidentiality, information governance, and matter-management requirements.
Assist with other corporate, transactional, restructuring, or practice-group projects as needed.