Corporate Counsel at BMW of North America in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey

Job Description:

BMW Group Legal Department Corporate Counsel are primarily responsible for providing expert, comprehensive legal advice for the BMW Group and its companies, officers, directors, management, and employees on business critical, strategic, high risk and exposure, regulatory, compliance, public policy, and day-to-day matters. They are expected to perform as much legal work as possible in-house, control legal costs, and manage and direct law firms, experts, legislative counsel, lobbyists, vendors, suppliers, Alternate Dispute Resolution providers, and other third parties in handling BMW Group legal affairs.

Responsibilities:

• Provide legal advice and support for the most critical Treasury functions relating to financing BMW Group operations by and through capital market transactions involving the US and Canada. This includes, but is not limited to, 144A financing, smaller unsecured bonds, asset backed securitizations (i.e., leases, retail installment contracts, and floorplan loans), European medium-term notes, currency and interest rate swaps and derivatives, hedges, syndications, commercial paper, American Depository Receipts, and general treasury work. The lawyer in this position needs to be an expert on US securities laws and regulations (e.g., Sections 144A and 10(b)(5) of the Securities Exchange Act), the Dodd-Frank Act, Regulation ABII, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, capital markets transactions, and e-contracts. These financial transactions can exceed one billion dollars and serve as an important funding source for BMW Group operations and involves serving as the leader of cross functional teams. In connection with this work, he/she will be advising BMW US Capital Corporation ("BMW US Capital"), BMW Financial Services NA, LLC ("BMW FS"), BMW Bank of North America ("BMW Bank"), BMW of North America, LLC ("BMW NA"), BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC ("BMW MC"), BMW Canada Inc. ("BMW Canada"), BMW AG, and other BMW Group companies in and outside of the US;
• Provide legal advice on internal control systems;
• Provide legal advice to the Executive Board, the Executive Committee, Senior Managers of BMW NA, and other BMW Group companies and their management in and outside of the US and Canada (e.g., BMW US Capital, BMW FS, BMW Bank, BMW Canada, and BMW AG). Provide legal advice to all business units within BMW NA. The lawyer in this position deals with and provides legal advice to managers at the grade level of Department Manager or higher more than 50% of the time;
• Provide legal advice on corporate governance;
• Handle, negotiate, and provide legal advice and lead cross functional teams on, multimillion dollar commercial stock and/or asset transactions. The legal worked involved is likely to include venture capital investment transactions, as well as related commercial contracts;
• Handle audit letters and corporate internal audit reports. This incudes, but is not limited to, preparing letters to be issued by the Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel to outside auditors on behalf of one or more US BMW Group companies and edit and respond to corporate internal audit reports;
• Draft, edit, and coordinate work on company policies, procedures, and guidelines and provide related legal advice;
• Responsible as Legal Department's New Jersey location's point person for legal compliance with Compliance organization, advise BMW NA's Executive Board and Executive Committee, the boards and committees of other BMW Group companies, and members of management of BMW Group companies on legal compliance, compliance training, and counseling compliance responsibles on completing BMW Group compliance reports and questionnaires;
• Negotiate, review, and approve contracts;
• Make all strategic and significant decisions with respect to litigation, non-litigation, and legislative legal matters and direct and supervise the work performed by partners, associates, and paralegals at law firms, experts, legislative counsel, lobbyists, vendors, suppliers, Alternate Dispute Resolution providers, and other third parties in handling BMW Group legal matters. In total, this involves the active management of numerous entities and/or people at all times;
• Control budgets and handle matters in a cost effective manner to achieve budget targets;
• Train and mentor other in-house lawyers on matters for which they have expertise. Also supervise, train, and mentor in-house paralegals and manage the work that they perform;
• Back up other BMW Group lawyers and coordinate the handling of matters with other BMW Group lawyers in and outside of New Jersey and other related duties/projects as required; and
• Other duties as the need arises.

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university
• Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school
• A member of the bar association in at least one jurisdiction in the US
• Licensed to practice law in New Jersey (this could include obtaining a license to practice in-house based on being a member of the bar of a state outside of New Jersey)
• 5+ years of legal experience
• Expertise in securities laws and regulations and the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Must be able to use Microsoft Office, Lexis/Nexis, and Westlaw
• Must be able to travel overnight as necessary

Preferences:

• Prior legal experience with another motor vehicle distributor or manufacturer is desired, but not required

BMW NA is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

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