Assistant General Counsel - Merchandise

The Assistant General Counsel, Merchandise handles the legal work for merchandise matters. This position involves working closely with the merchandise teams to provide legal advice, training and business solutions for various product and merchandising issues, including regulatory compliance (e.g. FDA, CPSC, Customs, and EPA), vendor contracts and disputes, governmental investigations and inquiries, and marketing of products. The Assistant General Counsel, Merchandise will work daily with internal business partners, outside counsel, vendors, and governmental agencies on a wide variety of legal regulatory and merchandising issues

Principal Duties & Responsibilities:
1. Legal advisor for Merchandising Department for various matters, including

a. General legal advice

b. Advisor on laws and regulations affecting merchandise, including product evaluation and development and compliance programs

c. Advisor and negotiator for supplier agreements. Such duties include negotiation of the standard supplier agreement as well as the development and drafting of custom supplier contracts involving various business arrangements including extended term, exclusivity, marketing and space funding, and assorted rebate structures.

d. Advisor for various commercial disputes, including those related to product quality, product delivery, payment disputes, intellectual property infringement and service disputes. Duties include pre and post-dispute legal counsel, dispute analysis, strategy development, negotiation, drafting of settlement documents and providing ongoing support in litigated matters. Advisor on supplier bankruptcy matters

2. Legal advisor to Quality Department for various matters, including:

a. Product standards, regulation, testing and analysis

b. Product specification and labeling

c. Pre and post-production product regulatory matters at all administrative levels

3. Manage product investigations and inquiries by various governmental entities (including the CPSC, FDA, EPA and various state and local agencies) regarding the safety and compliance of various regulated consumer products.

4. Manage company product recalls and withdrawals. Such matters include recalls in conjunction with the CPSC, FDA, EPA and various state agencies.

5. Train merchants on various merchandising legal issues, including intellectual property laws.

6. Legal advisor to Marketing Department for various matters, including:

a. Contract negotiation

b. General legal advice

c. Review of various aspects of in-store and media advertising activity and assorted promotional contests to assure compliance with Federal, State and local laws

d. Dispute resolution

7. Assist duties for other Legal Department practice areas include advice regarding and management of company intellectual property portfolio, private brand advice and clearance, patent troll consultation and trend monitoring, general liability case involvement.

Position Requirements:

Office work environment, 40+ work hours per week

Minimum Requirements:

• Education: Juris Doctorate
• Experience: 7-10 years. Bar membership with at least one state and in good standing with at least one state and eligible to be issued a Virginia Corporate Counsel Certificate, if not a member of the VA Bar. Retail experience is preferred
• Licenses; Good standing and active member of a state bar
• Ability to travel 20%

Job Related Skills:

• Excellent communication skills are critical to the job function- communicating with and building relationships with internal business partners, vendors, outside counsel and government officials. Part of this communication is imploring good judgment.
• Strong analytics, problem- solving, multi-tasking and prioritization capabilities
• Capacity to operate both strategically and tactically as needed
• Attention to detail and accuracy

Computer Skills:

Intermediate to advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Office desktop applications, inclusive of Excel, Access, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook. Exposure to web-based applications including web forms, portals and workflow tools.