Corporate Counsel & Landlord-Tenant Attorney
4 days ago
Commack
Job DescriptionDescription: Position Overview We are seeking a high-impact Corporate Counsel & Litigation Manager to join our in-house legal department to lead, modernize, and scale our landlord-tenant legal operations across a diverse multifamily portfolio. This is a role for a courtroom-tested litigator who is equally energized by legal operations, workflow engineering, technology adoption, and portfolio-level analytics. You will have full authority to design and enforce new legal workflows, leverage existing and emerging software, including Yardi to its fullest capabilities, and build a data-driven legal ecosystem that aligns with institutional standards seen in NAA-benchmarked operators. The ideal candidate will have 5 -7 years of experience with extensive court appearances and hands-on litigation management, including New York landlord-tenant proceedings. The successful candidate will work closely with property management, asset management, operations, and outside counsel to protect the Company’s legal and business interests while providing practical, business-oriented advice. Requirements: Key Responsibilities Courtroom Litigation & Case Management • Litigate nonpayment, holdover, nuisance, order-to-show-cause, and bankruptcy-impacted matters across landlord-tenant courts., • Manage all phases of the eviction lifecycle, including notices, petitions, motions, stipulations, and warrant execution., • Ensure cases move efficiently from filing to resolution., • Negotiate settlements and resolutions designed to minimize risk and litigation costs., • Develop litigation strategies that reduce cycle time and improve resolution outcomes., • Identify litigation trends and develop proactive legal strategies. Legal Operations Modernization • Overhaul and scale all playbooks, notice libraries, escalation protocols, and default-resolution frameworks., • Implement standardized, enforceable workflows across property management, legal, and operations teams., • Drive a culture of operational discipline and compliance with statutory timelines., • Develop and train support staff on legal operations modernization and technology initiatives. Technology, Automation & Yardi Integration • Leverage Yardi Voyager Legal to automate notice workflows, track statutory timelines, and audit tenant ledgers., • Partner with internal teams to enhance data governance, accuracy, and reporting integrity., • Identify opportunities for automation, dashboarding, and workflow triggers to reduce manual work and error rates. Institutional-Grade Metrics & Reporting You will build and own a legal performance dashboard, including: • Days-to-Resolution and cycle time by case type, • Legal Aging Buckets and portfolio legal exposure, • Notice Accuracy & SLA Compliance, • Ledger Audit Accuracy, • Eviction Filing Rate per 100 Units, • Outside Counsel Spend vs. Budget, • Bad Debt Recovery & Write-Off Rates You will present these metrics directly to executive leadership and influence portfolio-level strategy. Outside Counsel Oversight & Budget Discipline • Manage outside counsel with a focus on budget discipline, performance tracking, and adherence to company workflows., • Establish expectations for reporting, timelines, and outcome metrics., • Ensure external firms operate as extensions of the in-house legal department—not independent silos., • Audit outside counsel spend and identify cost trends and savings opportunities. Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence • Collaborate with property management, operations, finance, and compliance to enforce legal workflows., • Serve as the subject-matter expert on L&T law, statutory timelines, and risk mitigation., • Lead training initiatives to elevate legal literacy across the organization. Department Growth & Strategic Impact • Leverage existing paralegal support and help shape future team expansion., • Contribute to long-term legal department design, including potential roles in compliance, risk, and broader litigation., • Play a key role in aligning legal operations with portfolio growth and corporate strategy. Required Qualifications • 5 - 7 years of active, high-volume landlord-tenant litigation experience in New York., • JD and active NYS Bar admission in good standing., • Demonstrated expertise in OSCs, nuisance litigation, and bankruptcy stay navigation., • Hands-on experience with Yardi, including legal workflows and ledger auditing., • Strong analytical skills and comfort presenting data to senior executives., • Proven ability to design and enforce process-driven systems. Preferred Qualifications • Experience with institutional owners, or large multifamily operators., • Exposure to legal operations, process engineering, or workflow automation., • Familiarity with operational benchmarks and industry best practices., • Experience building dashboards or working with analytics tools. Who Thrives in This Role • A courtroom tactician with a systems-builder mindset, • Tech-forward, data-driven, and energized by modernization, • Comfortable enforcing discipline across departments, • Ready to step out of the billable-hour grind and into a leadership trajectory, • Motivated by the opportunity to build a best-in-class legal department