Legal and Contracts Operations Specialist

Corporate Legal Support and Outside Counsel Management

At Aleut Federal, we believe the company and its mission are just as important as the job for which you are applying. Aleut Federal is an Alaska Native-owned enterprise whose purpose is to support our shareholders, the Unangax̂ people of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands of Alaska. People are at the core of everything we do. We support our shareholders by delivering excellent service and quality results to customers across the federal government, and community service is embedded in how we operate.

Our culture strengthens our workforce through mentorship, coaching, professional development, and competitive benefits. We support and encourage diversity, inclusion, accountability, and growth at every level.

The Aleut Federal motto is “We Are One” because we believe that with one heart, one mind, and one purpose, we can accomplish our mission and build an organization that employees are proud to be part of.

The Legal and Contracts Operations Specialist is an experienced, hands-on individual contributor who provides broad paralegal and legal operations support across Aleut Federal and its affiliated entities. The position serves as a central resource for outside counsel administration, legal spend management, matter tracking, corporate governance, entity records, contract and transaction support, claims and disputes, legal research, and legal file management.

A principal responsibility of this role is to bring discipline, transparency, and financial control to the company's use of outside counsel. The position manages engagement documentation, matter budgets, invoice review, accruals, spend reporting, payment coordination, and supporting records so Legal and business leadership can understand commitments, forecast costs, and make informed decisions.

This role also provides flexible support for complex or time-sensitive legal and contractual matters. Work is performed under the direction of the General Counsel, another licensed attorney, or designated Legal leadership. The position is expected to exercise strong independent judgment in managing assignments, identifying issues, protecting confidential and privileged information, and escalating matters requiring attorney review; it does not provide independent legal advice.

• Serve as the operational hub for the Legal function by coordinating matter intake, triage, assignment, status tracking, documentation, and closure across multiple entities and business units.
• Create and maintain a complete matter inventory that identifies the responsible entity, business owner, attorney, outside counsel, matter type, risk level, status, key deadlines, budget, spend, and next action.
• Establish consistent matter-opening and matter-closing procedures, naming conventions, approval requirements, file structures, and documentation standards.
• Coordinate requests for legal support, obtain the facts and documents needed for review, clarify business deadlines, and route matters to the appropriate internal or external resource.
• Maintain matter calendars and track filing dates, response deadlines, notice periods, hearing dates, renewal dates, cure periods, limitation periods, and other time-sensitive obligations.
• Prepare recurring reports and dashboards showing open matters, aging, spend, upcoming deadlines, significant developments, decisions required, and unresolved risks.
• Coordinate meetings, agendas, action items, approvals, signatures, and follow-up activities for Legal matters and projects.
• Support Legal department budgeting, annual planning, vendor administration, records management, and other operational priorities.

• Administer outside counsel engagements from authorization through closeout, including engagement letters, conflict-clearance documentation, matter numbers, billing contacts, approved staffing, negotiated rates, budgets, billing guidelines, and scope changes.
• Confirm that outside counsel is engaged by an authorized company representative and that the correct Aleut Federal entity and matter are identified before work begins.
• Maintain a centralized register of law firms, active matters, approved timekeepers and rates, matter budgets, fee arrangements, retainers, purchase orders, insurance involvement, and payment status.
• Review legal invoices for mathematical accuracy, correct entity and matter coding, approved rates and timekeepers, appropriate staffing, duplicate charges, block billing, vague narratives, administrative or clerical time, excessive internal conferencing, unsupported expenses, and compliance with engagement terms and billing guidelines.
• Document invoice exceptions, obtain clarification or corrected invoices, route proposed reductions and appeals for attorney approval, and retain a clear record of final disposition.
• Coordinate with Accounts Payable, Finance, Procurement, business owners, and outside counsel to resolve coding, approval, tax, vendor, purchase-order, and payment issues.
• Track invoiced, approved, paid, unpaid, committed, unbilled, and accrued amounts by entity, business unit, firm, matter, matter category, and reporting period.
• Obtain timely accruals and cost-to-complete estimates from outside counsel and support accurate month-end, quarter-end, and year-end financial close activities.
• Monitor actual and forecasted spend against matter budgets, investigate variances, identify developing overruns, and escalate scope or budget concerns before additional costs are incurred.
• Prepare spend dashboards, budget forecasts, variance analyses, trend reports, and management summaries that enable Legal and executive leadership to evaluate cost, exposure, and value.
• Support rate negotiations, alternative fee arrangements, panel reviews, vendor performance assessments, and decisions regarding law firm selection or continued use.
• Maintain audit-ready engagement approvals, invoices, reductions, payment records, accrual support, budget updates, and related correspondence.

• Maintain complete and current corporate records for Aleut Federal and assigned subsidiaries, including formation documents, governing documents, ownership records, resolutions, consents, minutes, officer and director information, and organizational charts.
• Prepare draft board, shareholder, member, manager, and officer actions using approved forms and attorney direction; coordinate review, approval, signature, and final record retention.
• Support preparation and distribution of board and committee materials, maintain meeting calendars and action logs, and coordinate post-meeting documentation and follow-up.
• Track and coordinate state annual reports, foreign qualifications, certificates of good standing, registered-agent matters, assumed names, business licenses, and other entity maintenance requirements.
• Maintain an entity database showing legal names, jurisdictions, entity types, ownership, officers, directors or managers, registered agents, principal addresses, tax identifiers, and status.
• Support entity formations, mergers, conversions, dissolutions, reorganizations, officer changes, ownership changes, and other corporate actions under attorney direction.
• Respond to authorized requests for entity documents, signature authority, incumbency information, organizational records, and certifications while protecting confidential information.
• Coordinate notarization, apostille, legalization, certified-copy, and document-execution requirements when needed.

• Provide advanced paralegal and legal operations support for complex contractual, corporate, employment, regulatory, dispute, and transactional matters under the direction of Legal Counsel or designated Legal leadership.
• Support the review and administration of higher-risk business agreements, including master service agreements, consulting agreements, nondisclosure agreements, teaming agreements, leases, licenses, settlement agreements, releases, waivers, and powers of attorney.
• Conduct factual and legal research using approved resources and prepare concise issue summaries, chronologies, comparison charts, and decision-support materials for attorney review.
• Prepare initial drafts, revisions, redlines, signature versions, notices, correspondence, and ancillary documents using approved templates, clause libraries, prior work product, and attorney guidance.
• Support attorney review of elevated provisions involving indemnification, limitation of liability, insurance, intellectual property, confidentiality, data rights, governing law, disputes, warranties, termination, assignment, audit rights, and regulatory obligations.
• Identify deviations from approved templates, contracting positions, and delegated authority and route them to the appropriate attorney or decision-maker.
• Maintain approved legal positions, negotiated exceptions, fallback language, clause libraries, templates, playbooks, and contract-review guidance.
• Track contractual notices, consent requirements, renewal and termination dates, cure periods, settlement obligations, document requests, and other post-signature commitments assigned to Legal.
• Support reorganizations, acquisitions, divestitures, novations, due diligence, data-room administration, closing checklists, signature collection, and post-closing obligations.
• Serve as a flexible resource for unfamiliar, urgent, or cross-functional legal matters by organizing the facts, identifying required documents and stakeholders, advancing the work, and escalating questions requiring attorney judgment.

• Coordinate intake and administrative support for claims, demand letters, subpoenas, disputes, investigations, employment matters, insurance matters, litigation, administrative proceedings, and government inquiries.
• Collect and organize relevant facts, correspondence, contracts, personnel records, financial information, and other source documents for attorney and outside counsel review.
• Prepare matter chronologies, witness and custodian lists, document indexes, issue summaries, damages support, and status reports.
• Coordinate legal holds, preservation notices, acknowledgments, reminders, releases, and defensible documentation in partnership with counsel, Information Technology, Human Resources, and records owners.
• Support document collection, review, production, discovery, deposition, hearing, mediation, arbitration, and trial preparation as assigned.
• Track response deadlines, settlement obligations, insurance notifications, reserves, outside counsel activities, and required business actions through closure.
• Coordinate efficiently with outside counsel and internal stakeholders while maintaining clear ownership, timely communication, and appropriate privilege protections.

• Maintain organized, complete, and secure electronic and physical legal files in accordance with company requirements, retention schedules, legal holds, and access restrictions.
• Apply consistent file naming, document classification, metadata, version control, and final-execution standards in SharePoint, matter-management tools, contract repositories, and other approved systems.
• Protect attorney-client privileged, attorney work-product, confidential, personally identifiable, and other sensitive information and immediately escalate suspected disclosure or access issues.
• Maintain executed agreements, legal opinions, settlement documents, corporate records, engagement letters, invoices, and other critical records in the appropriate system of record.
• Coordinate orderly transfer, archiving, and closing of matter files received from outside counsel or departing personnel.
• Support responses to authorized audits, due diligence requests, discovery obligations, and records inquiries by locating and validating responsive materials.

• Develop and maintain Legal procedures, desktop guides, intake forms, checklists, templates, approval workflows, and service standards.
• Identify opportunities to simplify intake, automate tracking, improve data quality, strengthen cost controls, and reduce administrative burden.
• Develop practical metrics for matter volume, cycle time, outside counsel spend, budget performance, workload, deadline performance, and service delivery.
• Provide guidance and training to internal stakeholders on legal intake, document preservation, privilege, signature routing, entity records, outside counsel billing documentation, and use of approved templates.
• Promote timely collaboration among Legal, Contracts, Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, Operations, and executive leadership.
• Perform other duties and special projects within the Legal function as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree in paralegal studies, legal studies, business administration, or a related field is preferred.
• An associate degree or paralegal certificate combined with significant directly relevant experience may substitute for a bachelor's degree.
• Paralegal certificate from an ABA-approved or otherwise recognized program is preferred.
• Continuing education in corporate governance, legal operations, contract administration, e-billing, litigation support, or records management is beneficial.

• Seven or more years of progressively responsible experience as a corporate paralegal, senior paralegal, legal operations specialist, or comparable legal support professional is required.
• Direct experience managing outside counsel invoices, matter budgets, accruals, spend reporting, and billing guideline compliance is required.
• Experience supporting an in-house legal department or serving as the primary paralegal or legal operations resource for a multi-entity organization is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience with corporate governance, entity maintenance, board or officer actions, annual filings, and corporate record books is required.
• Experience supporting contract review, drafting, redlining, execution, and post-signature obligation tracking is required.
• Experience supporting claims, disputes, investigations, litigation, legal holds, discovery, or insurance matters is preferred.
• Experience supporting acquisitions, divestitures, reorganizations, due diligence, closing activities, or other corporate transactions is beneficial.
• Experience in a federal contractor, regulated company, Alaska Native Corporation, or other complex multi-entity enterprise is preferred but not required.
• Experience with legal e-billing or matter-management systems, SharePoint, contract repositories, electronic signature platforms, and advanced Microsoft Excel is strongly preferred.

• Legal operations: Ability to build reliable intake, matter-tracking, calendaring, approval, reporting, and file-management processes.
• Outside counsel financial management: Strong command of engagement terms, invoice review, accruals, budgets, forecasting, variance analysis, and spend reporting.
• Corporate governance and entity administration: Ability to maintain entity records and coordinate recurring filings, approvals, resolutions, minutes, and organizational actions.
• Legal and contract support: Ability to research, draft, redline, compare, organize, and track legal and contractual materials under attorney direction.
• Project management: Ability to manage multiple matters, deadlines, stakeholders, and workstreams from intake through closure.
• Judgment and escalation: Ability to identify material issues, distinguish administrative work from attorney judgment, and escalate promptly.
• Data analysis and reporting: Ability to reconcile financial and matter data, identify inconsistencies, analyze trends, and produce decision-ready reporting.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for prolonged periods.
• Must be able to perform repetitive tasks or motions for prolonged periods.
• Must be able to communicate and exchange information effectively in person and through electronic means.

• Work is generally performed indoors in a professional office or home-office environment.
• This is a hybrid position in which work may be performed remotely or onsite according to business needs.
• Occasional travel may be required for company meetings, outside counsel meetings, hearings, closings, training, or professional development.

Aleut Federal, LLC provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, AF complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location where the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training. AF prohibits workplace harassment based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.