Position : Vice President of Legal/General Counsel (Remote)
Position Type: Internal-External
FLSA Classification: Exempt
Reports to: Michael Stimpfel, CFO, (Remote - ET)
Start date : January 2025
Application Deadline : November 8, 2024
Location: strongly preferred in Illinois; flexible within the following states only assuming the candidate is also barred in Illinois : California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin
Salary Range: $176,000-187,000 is the hiring salary range (i.e. the range a candidate would be offered to start). Please note: OneGoal aligns salaries to Cost of Labor, so the actual salary offered would be dependent on the Cost of Labor in the candidate's living location.
About OneGoal OneGoal transforms postsecondary advising and support so that every student can define their own future. Together with our partners, we're building a movement to close the opportunity gap. We work side-by-side with partner schools and districts to build their knowledge and capacity. The result is more equitable and effective support for all students. Our unique approach, honed over 15 years, prioritizes strong human relationships. And it's proven to deliver real student impact . 81% of OneGoal high school graduates enroll in a postsecondary institution, and 73% of those students persist one year after high school graduation. An independent study by the University of Chicago found that OneGoal students are about 40% more likely to earn their postsecondary degrees than students from similar backgrounds. We are looking for individuals to join us in our pursuit of equity.
The Person As a key member of OneGoal's leadership team, the VP & General Counsel will ensure that our business and programmatic operations adhere to the highest legal and ethical standards, ensuring our work reaches underserved communities effectively and responsibly. Your legal expertise will enable us to navigate complex challenges and protect the organization as we expand and grow our impact.
The Vice President and General Counsel operates as in-house counsel and is responsible for managing and prioritizing legal and compliance initiatives, project flow and deliverables, and coordinating with relevant stakeholders regarding the legal impact and associated risk of business strategies. They have the ability to address issues proactively and reactively by analyzing and providing legal expertise on a broad range of matters, however, identify primarily as a student data privacy expert. They work alongside Human Assets, Technology + Data, and Finance + Operations to promote an organization-wide culture that maintains high legal and ethical standards, and alongside the management team to ensure our program operations maintain the highest degree of compliance in the interest of our students.
This experienced leader will communicate and advocate for the value of risk management. They will influence the evolution of our risk management framework to ensure that it is appropriately dynamic and responsive and aligns with organizational objectives. They will train key stakeholders in developing a risk perspective for decision-making and process improvement. This role will help the organization plan and prepare our compliance infrastructure for delivering our program offerings in new and different environments as the organization grows and evolves.
You will do this by:
- Legal Counsel and Compliance Oversight (50%)
In your role as Legal Counsel and Compliance Oversight, you will lead legal and compliance initiatives critical to OneGoal's mission and operations. You will provide expert guidance on student data privacy, human resources, and intellectual property matters, ensuring compliance with all relevant laws and regulations. You will partner closely with your direct report, the Director of Legal Operations, to enable their role in this work. Key responsibilities include:
- Student Data ( in partnership with our Security Architect)
- Lead our efforts to be trusted stewards of student data, including compliance with our commitments to: data privacy and security, data protection laws, and education and training regarding our privacy and security practices and statements.
- Oversee negotiation, agreement, and implementation of commitments to families and schools about student data privacy, monitor for needed changes, and ensure compliance with the industry's privacy and security legal requirements.
- Become an expert in OneGoal's program design and implementation and generate creative recommendations for our legal strategy for future-facing programmatic decisions and tools, including guidance on student engagement in alignment with governing contractual obligations and applicable laws
- HR Regulations and Laws
- Provide expert legal counsel on human resources matters, including employment law compliance, employee relations issues, and policy development.
- Interpret and apply federal, state, and local labor laws to protect employee rights and mitigate legal risks for the organization.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for our external legal counsel firm on retainer
- Intellectual Property Protection
- Manage trademarks, copyrights, and other IP assets to safeguard OneGoal's brand and innovations.
- Draft and negotiate licensing agreements and permissions to support organizational objectives.
- Provide guidance on IP creation, ownership, and protection to internal stakeholders.
- Conduct training sessions to ensure compliance with IP policies and legal requirements.
- Collaborate with external counsel as needed to manage IP litigation and disputes.
- Contractual Management
- Negotiate, draft, and review contracts with schools, districts, state agencies, vendors, and employees to safeguard OneGoal's legal interests and ensure compliance with contractual obligations and regulatory requirements.
- Assess and manage legal risks associated with partnerships and contractual agreements throughout their lifecycle.
- Risk Management and Strategic Influence (40%)
This role will play a pivotal role in identifying and assessing operational, programmatic, and business risks. Your expertise will guide our decision-making processes, ensuring that we pursue new initiatives, partnerships, and expansions with a clear understanding of associated risks and opportunities. Key responsibilities include:
- Assessing risks and opportunities for new initiatives, partnerships, and programs.
- Identifying regulatory, operational, and market-specific risks in new regions.
- Addressing cybersecurity, data privacy, and compliance risks in digital product development.
- Supporting due diligence and risk management for mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships.
- Educating and training stakeholders on risk perspectives and decision-making processes.
- Board Governance (10%)
Your role extends to supporting board governance by providing legal and compliance expertise. You will contribute to the maintenance and advancement of governance policies that uphold ethical standards and ensure compliance across the organization. Key responsibilities include:
- Contributing to governance policies and protocols to ensure compliance and ethical standards.
- Providing legal insights to support board decision-making and governance oversight.
- Collaborating with board members and executive leadership to implement governance best practices.
- Serve as secretary to the board of directors, responsible for the creation and filing of all meeting minutes
The VP & General Counsel is likely to see themselves in the following examples as they are designed to help you determine if this opportunity aligns with your own passion, purpose, skills, and experiences.
You believe deeply in our Fellows and their ability to achieve their postsecondary aspirations. - You believe that our Fellows face real systemic barriers to postsecondary success, and that empowering their families, their teachers and themselves to own their unique path will help them to overcome those barriers.
You thrive in complex and nonlinear systems. - You like to explore and build innovative approaches and have designed new ways of doing things.
- You make connections, determine fits, and build plans that are responsive to interlocking and evolving challenges and opportunities.
- Contingency-planning and problem-solving excite you, and working to streamline and improve systems give you energy.
- You have a strong ability to evaluate risk and resolve complex issues in creative and effective ways.
You love the big picture but are obsessed with the details. - You're able to easily navigate between high-level/big picture strategy and the day-to-day details that keep a team running and executing on key outcomes.
- You love managing the details and have systems/processes that ensure that things don't fall through the cracks and that you consistently have a clear picture of where things are relative to short- and long-term goals.
You are a coalition builder. - You cultivate relationships with the understanding that our students are best served when we collaborate to meet all of their needs.
- You have a strong ability to manage up and influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
- You demonstrate empathy and ability to apply understanding of an audience to deliver desired products and/or services
- You are both humble and optimistic about the role OneGoal can play within a partner school, with a commitment to serving more students, better.
- You are driven both by data and experience, recognizing that decision-making and strategy require evidence as well as a drive to dream big.
You are a compelling and effective communicator. - You have a tremendous ability to adapt messages to different audiences in order to inspire stakeholders and build champions, including a strong ability to interpret policies and procedures, presenting complex and sensitive issues concisely and effectively .
- You discern the appropriate mode of communication, depending on the situation and audience.
- You serve as an ambassador for OneGoal in every space you join.
You are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion - You seek to understand and celebrate the unique identities of the individuals with whom you interact; you advocate for and elevate the voices of marginalized people and communities especially those from which our Fellows come; you interrogate your own understandings, bias, and privilege and reflect on how they play out in your work. You act on the awareness of your identity's relationship to privilege and oppression.
- You see becoming a more equitable and inclusive team member as a lifelong journey and regularly pursue opportunities that will cause you to reflect, learn, and grow
Qualifications - Lived experience of the Students we serve ( Preferred )
- Licensed to practice law in Illinois ( Required)
- Experience working with legal processes or contracts within the education industry ( Required)
- Experience and familiarity with student data privacy requirements and related legislation ( Preferred)
- Ability to effectively manage outside counsel firms and leverage help cost-effectively ( Required)
- Superior analytical skills with the ability to distill feedback from disparate sources, make recommendations and decisions balancing legal requirements and business/managerial needs and to efficiently and effectively communicate those decisions with non-lawyers ( Required)
- Exceptional project management skills fueled by persistence and amazing follow through ( Required)
- Curious, insightful and innovative with a natural bias for action, thrives in a dynamic environment ( Required)
Thinking Of Applying? Research shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. If you are excited about the role and see connection with what we are looking for, but don't meet every single requirement, we'd encourage you to apply anyway.
Our Team Guided by a clear set of core values and beliefs , you will join an impressive group of more than 200 OneGoal staff across the country who believe in the untapped potential within students. The OneGoal team challenges themselves and others to regularly ask, "Is there a better way?" You believe in an inclusive and culturally competent society and the essence of our commitment to diversity and inclusion. We believe that in order to create the change we seek, each person we hire brings a remarkable and diverse set of experiences, skills and characteristics that individually and collectively, will contribute to the radical change needed to move us towards a more equitable and just nation.
The Tangible Good OneGoal offers competitive compensation based on the market for nonprofits our size. Our benefits package* includes: over eight weeks of paid time off (or 43 business days), between vacation days, wellness time, and holidays; paid medical or parental leaves should you have need; medical, dental, vision, short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance; as well as a 401(k) with a 3% match.
We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, OneGoal does not negotiate salary offers; instead each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the hiring process.
*OneGoal reserves the right to change benefits at any time according to business need.
If you require a reasonable accommodation to submit an application or to participate in the application or interview process, please reach out to our Human Assets Team to request an accommodation. Our Human Assets Team can be contacted at 773-321-2630 or [email protected] .
OneGoal is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of actual or perceived sex, race, color, ancestry, citizenship, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, disability (mental or physical), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, breastfeeding or related medical condition, parenthood, genetic characteristic or information, military or veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.