Director, Legal

**Director, Legal & Lease Documentation**

Epic is seeking a proactive leader for Legal and Lease Documentation to join our company and develop a team to serve Epic’s needs nationally. We’re looking for someone who is detail-oriented, keen to continually improve, and able to develop or improve business processes. The person in this role will have relationships in the legal community and will be able to foster those relationships with external legal firms.

The Legal and Lease Documentation function is an integral part of delivering service to Epic’s clients and customers. This role will report to the Vice President of a centralized national services group which also includes sustainability, innovation and national programs. This role will be required to attend regional offices within Canada from time to time.

These responsibilities below are intended as a general description of the tasks and types of tasks expected in this position. These may evolve and include additional tasks and responsibilities over time.

**Your Responsibilities**:

- Train and mentor/lead a team of documentation and administration specialists to ensure timely delivery of legal and lease documents to key parts of the business, including leasing, real estate management, and corporate.
- Collaborate with team members and business teams to review processes in place for legal and lease documentation and identify opportunities to improve the team’s effectiveness or minimize risk to the business, the properties, and clients, including through the use of technology.
- Ensure strong communication between department team members and other internal parties with regard to leasing deals, critical dates and deviations from standard forms.
- Stay apprised of legal precedents and developments related to commercial leases, risk and liability of landlord.
- Ensure timely and accurate billing of lease documentation fees.

**Lease Documentation and Administration**
- Draft and if necessary, negotiate, lease related documents and agreements including leases, lease extensions, amendments, consent agreements, termination, surrender, default letters, storage, licenses, releases, etc.
- Oversee preparation of estoppels, lease summaries and other similar documents.
- Consult with external legal counsel as needed and requested.
- Proactively follow up with other involved personnel, such as asset managers, brokers, and tenants to ensure timely completion of due diligence material gathering and compliance with deadlines, driving accountability and ensure all parties are informed and organized while maintaining an efficient workflow.
- Provide legal guidance and advice to leasing or real estate management upon request and collaborate with real estate management to address lease-related issues during tenancies.
- Manage standard lease form templates and related document templates including standardized step-down language, ensuring they are up to date in content and format by conducting periodic review, recommending updates to templates, and coordinating approvals as required.
- Efficiently manage the majority of the legal requests in-house to minimize the cost of external legal counsel.
- Support onboarding and offboarding of properties by reviewing existing leases, and as required, preparing summaries, updated standard templates, estoppels or other documents.
- Flag and ensure tracking of important tenant lease options to be tracked (ROFO, ROFR, caps on operating costs, audit rights, and all other non-standard lease rights granted) and any critical dates associated therewith.
- Accountability for elements of lease administration including circulation of documents, credit checks, VTS updates, appropriate filing of documents with consistent filing structure and naming conventions

**Corporate and Other Legal Functions**
- Advise on agreements and documents involving the company including those related to proposals, asset management, real estate management, information technology, joint ventures, and various corporate entities.
- Support in review of legal documents or processes in other departments from time to time.
- Assist with corporate legal setups, regulatory filings, annual corporate recordkeeping requirements, corporate legal dissolutions, and other requirements of corporate secretary
- Conduct legal due diligence, negotiate and prepare documentation for acquisitions and divestitures

**Requirements**:

- 10-15 years of progressive experience in contract management, drafting leases, commercial lease negotiation or lease administration and a thorough knowledge of leases and related ancillary documents relevant to commercial real estate.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Law, Paralegal, Commerce, or Business Administration.
- Attention to detail, strong ability to review, interpret and draft complex lease & legal documents.
- Proficient in legal jargon and analyzing lease & legal terms and conditions.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to work u