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Ag & Business Legal Strategies · 3 months ago

Managing Attorney

Hiawatha, IA

Full-time

Hybrid

Lead/Staff, Director/Executive

$175K/yr - $175K/yr

5+ years exp

Ag & Business Legal Strategies is an entrepreneurial boutique law firm focused on helping farmers and business owners with debt restructuring and bankruptcy. The Managing Attorney will oversee day-to-day operations, supervise legal staff, and ensure high-quality legal services while collaborating closely with the firm's owner and HR team.

Legal Services

Responsibilities

Collaborating with the owner to take over day-to-day management of the firm; supervising the delivery of legal services by the firm’s staff; ensuring that staff meet their key performance indicators; evaluating staff and conducting periodic reviews of staff performance

Identify training, recruitment, client needs/opportunities, and current trends that may be impactful to the Firm in collaboration with the Administrative and Management Team

Work closely with Firm’s HR Team to proactively identify employee and contractor staffing needs and participate in vetting process as needed

Maintaining excellent communication with clients, advisors, opposing counsel, courts, and other interested parties

Supervising and assisting the firm’s qualified staff and professionals in evaluating the client’s overall financial, tax, and legal position

Assisting clients in determining realistic goals then designing strategies to accomplish those goals

Providing excellent legal services, including legal research; drafting petitions, schedules, motions, pleadings, orders, and status updates; and overseeing and analyzing discovery. The Managing Attorney may delegate to Junior Associates and Paralegals to accomplish these tasks but remains responsible for the final work product

Representing clients at mediations, negotiations, depositions, and in court, whether state court, federal district court, or bankruptcy court

Conducting new client meetings (also called case evaluations or initial consultations) to sell the firm’s legal services

Collaborate with the owner of the firm, its professional legal administrator and/or Chief Operating Officer, as relevant, to refine and optimize the firm’s policies and procedures that are relevant to any workflow within the Managing Attorney’s area of responsibility

Train subordinate staff (e.g. paralegals, legal secretaries, et.al.) on the firm’s policies and procedures, and audit compliance with the same as appropriate

Cultivating expert familiarity with the firm’s law practice management software and other technological systems to leverage these tools to enhance efficiency and consistency of the firm’s work product through all cases

Using and following the firm’s policies and procedures to ensure efficient and consistent work product through all cases

Making suggestions to continually improve those technologies, policies, and procedures

Qualification

Bankruptcy lawDebt restructuringAgricultural industry knowledgeProject managementNegotiation practiceCross-cultural communicationProfessional judgmentDiverse background collaborationEffective leadership

Required

Law degree from an accredited law school

Licensed in the state of Iowa or could be licensed in the state of Iowa within a reasonably short period of time

Experience in bankruptcy and debt restructuring

Work history that demonstrates increasing responsibility in a law firm or corporate legal department

Confirmed at least five Chapter 11 or Chapter 12 plans (or have equivalent experience on the creditor side)

Participated in numerous related activities (motions to lift stay, motions to incur secured debt, motions to assume or reject leases and executory contracts, claim objections, plan objections, adversary proceedings, etc.)

Subject matter expertise in bankruptcy & commercial law

Knowledge and familiarity with the agricultural industry

Understanding of how income taxes affect businesses struggling to survive and considering partial or complete liquidation

Ability to evaluate probable outcomes in bankruptcy scenarios

Ability to determine the priority of liens on real and personal property

Negotiation practice

Income tax

Experience in program management, including experiences such as project management, tracking deliverables, hiring, planning, and development

Strong record of cultural competence and cross-cultural communication skills

Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively and persuasively both orally and in writing

Demonstrated effective and authentically engaged leadership; ability to critically assess challenges and propose and execute solutions, with appropriate consultation and visibility to leadership; excellent professional judgment

A deep understanding of and ability to work and lead effectively with internal and external stakeholders

Ability to work effectively with people of diverse backgrounds, lived experiences, and communication styles