Senior Director - Real Estate Attorney

Posting Duration: This posting will close at the end of February and will only be extended if we need to see more candidates to fill the position.

Position Summary

Forum is seeking a Senior Director-Real Estate Attorney to join our in-house legal team in Denver, Colorado. The ideal candidate will have experience in law firm or in-house roles with respect to transactional real estate work and be well-versed in all aspects of commercial acquisitions, developments, borrower-side financing, mezzanine loans and preferred equity transactions. The position proactively manages legal risks, supports business operations, and contributes to the company’s long-term goals.

The successful candidate has excellent communication skills and attention to detail, is a problem solver, and has the ability to take on significant project responsibility and manage a challenging workload within a collaborative and fast-paced environment.

Education & Skills:

• Juris Doctorate degree from an accredited law school with an excellent academic record
• Admission to the Colorado bar
• 5 to 7 years of combined in law firm or in-house roles with respect to transactional real estate work.
• Experience with private funds, REITs and 1031 transactions a plus
• Demonstrate an ability to work independently and productively
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills
• Strong decision-making, problem-solving and organization skills
• Strong business acumen
• Outstanding judgement

Essential Functions:

• Support internal departments in various real estate transactions including strategy, structure, and transaction documents
• Review and negotiate service provider contracts for legal compliance and identifying risk factors
• Assist legal team to maintain contract and legal databases for parent entity, subsidiaries, funds, and business units
• Oversee, manage and direct external attorneys

 Other Duties and Responsibilities:

• Ability to interface directly with external attorneys and investors
• Ability to effectively handle multiple projects
• Ability to develop and implement legal strategies
• Ability to manage legal risks
• Supports all business operations
• Other duties as needed and assigned

 Supervisory Responsibilities:  Together with COO & General Counsel, and CCO & General Counsel, oversee, mentor, and manage legal team.

Skills & Qualifications:

• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy in performance
• Highly organized and self-motivated individual, able to work independently and take ownership
• Positive attitude and self-starter
• Resourceful and learns quickly
• Adaptable, flexible and able to multitask well
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills
• Detail-oriented and hyper-organized
• Comfortable in a startup, entrepreneurial environment
• Demonstrates a “can do” attitude and a willingness to “roll up your sleeves”
• Well-versed in MS Office Suite – including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
• Ability to be resourceful and proactive in dealing with issues that may arise
• Effective time management skills; ability to organize, multitask, prioritize and work under pressure

 Competencies: To perform this job successfully, the individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Organizational Support: Benefits organization through outside activities; Completes administrative tasks correctly and on time; Follows policies and procedures; Supports affirmative action and respects diversity; Supports organization’s goals and values
2. Quality: Applies feedback to improve performance; Demonstrates accuracy and thoroughness; Displays commitment to excellence; Looks for ways to improve and promote quality; Monitors own work to ensure quality
3. Teamwork: Balances team and individual responsibilities; Contributes to building a positive team spirit; Exhibits objectivity and openness to others’ views; Gives and welcomes feedback; Puts success of team above own interests
4. Project Management: Communicates changes and progress; completes projects on time and on budget; coordinates projects; develops project plans; manages project team activities.
5. Achievement Focus: Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; measures self against standard of excellence; recognizes and acts on opportunities; sets and achieves challenging goals; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
6. Cooperation: Displays positive outlook and pleasant manner; Establishes and maintains effective relations; Exhibits tact and consideration; Offers assistance and support to co-workers; Works actively to resolve conflicts; Works cooperatively in group situations
7. Judgement: Displays willingness to make decisions; Exhibits sound and accurate judgment; Includes appropriate people in decision making process; Makes timely decisions; Supports and explains reasoning for decisions
8. Problem Solving: Develops alternative solutions; Gathers and analyzes information skillfully; Identifies problems in a timely manner; Resolves problems in early stages; Works well in group problem solving situations
9. Communications: Exhibits good listening and comprehension; expresses ideas and thoughts well in written form; expresses ideas and thoughts well verbally; keeps others adequately informed; selects and uses appropriate communication methods.

In addition to the above job-specific competencies, all Forum employees are expected to demonstrate these Forum core competencies:

1. Adaptability: Accepts criticism and feedback; accustomed to a culture of rapid and constant change and easily adjusts to changing priorities and conditions; manages competing demands.
2. Innovation: Develops innovative approaches and ideas; displays original thinking and creativity; generates suggestions for improving work; meets challenges with resourcefulness.
3. Collaboration: Recognizes and cultivates strong interpersonal relationships and cross-functional collaborations; generates value and uses motivation to influence and create change; seeks not to control but to inspire; facilitates dissemination and sharing of knowledge and information.
4. Accountable: Keeps and follows-through on commitments; readily takes ownership of achieving results by exhibiting responsibility and initiative; displays open, proactive communication that builds trust.
5. Initiative: Asks for help when needed; looks for and takes advantage of opportunities; seeks increased responsibilities; takes independent actions and calculated risks; undertakes self-development activities; volunteers readily.
6. Respectful: Displays integrity and honesty; maintains professional demeanor and composure in tense situations; exhibits fairs and generous behavior; readily owns up to mistakes and admits when wrong; strives to “get it right”; displays loyalty even when tough to do so.

Forum Values:

• Blaze the future. Take initiative. Push what’s possible. Own your path but stay nimble. Embrace change and always challenge the status quo. (Entrepreneurial)
• Dare to be clear. Certainty is impossible, but clarity is essential. Eliminate the noise and focus your strategy to achieve something better, something great. (Clear)
• Stay open. Have the courage to make yourself vulnerable. Communicate honestly and respectfully. Share mistakes and trust one another. (Vulnerable, Transparency)
• Make it better together. Go all in. Get messy. Welcome new ideas and share yours freely. Be a sponge. Bump heads. Take it out. Listen. Learn. Repeat. (Collaborative)

Physical Demands:

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and talk or hear. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.

Minimal travel may be needed.

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position.

Compensation Information:  Base salary range is $175,000 to $200,000. This range is estimated for this role; actual pay may be different.

Benefits for full-time employees include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, employee assistance program, Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, 401(k) with company match program, 12 paid company holidays, self-managed PTO, anniversary milestone program/awards, gift matching program.