About Aspire Lifestyles
Aspire Lifestyles is a global leader in concierge and loyalty solutions for the high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth segments. The company provides travel and lifestyle solutions through premium concierge servicing, custom partnership development, and assistance services. It operates in 19 markets, including Greater China, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas.
Position Overview
The Global Counsel serves as the global legal advisor on the Aspire executive committee. The key responsibilities include overseeing legal support for commercial and vendor transactions, including contract review, managing and negotiating client contracts, vendor contracts, and strategic partnership agreements; providing legal support for mergers and acquisitions; managing litigation and compliance; advising on employment and real estate matters, appointing and managing outside counsel for employment and commercial litigation matters. The Global Counsel manages the legal cost center.
The Global Counsel is responsible for managing the implementation and ongoing compliance with the contractual provisions of major contracts between the company and its customers, industry and country regulations (such as PCI-DSS) supporting contract administration and documentation, overseeing state filings, supporting corporate governance, legal research, operational matters, and other related responsibilities. The Global Counsel also serves as the privacy officer for Aspire, including negotiating data processing agreements, reviewing data incidents, and advising on data privacy compliance matters.
The Global Counsel reports administratively to the Global CEO of Aspire Lifestyles. They will report functionally to the Global Counsel of International SOS Health Subscription and Security Services. In addition, this attorney will work closely with the CEO and CFO of Aspire Americas; the CEO and CFO of Aspire Asia; the Aspire GM, Service Delivery, Aspire Group GM, IT Operations, Aspire CDO
Key Responsibilities
The Global Counsel is responsible for a diverse portfolio of legal matters and will support the business with the following:
- Ensure timely, high-quality legal review of commercial transactions, efficient litigation management, compliance, governance, procurement, strategic alliances, mergers, and acquisitions. Ensure legal counsel has sufficient resources and manages their performance.
- Advise the Global CEO, Aspire Executive Committee members, and Aspire Human Resources on personnel matters, including recruitment, performance management, and termination.
- Oversee drafting and negotiation complex commercial contracts in support of commercial transactions, review commercial terms for RFP and tenders, manage escalations of commercial terms from sales for approval by Aspire management.
- Develop and write implementation and compliance guidelines, create and deliver training modules on negotiation, anti-corruption, litigation risk mitigation and workplace conduct.
- Review subpoenas, bankruptcy notices and oversee performance of legal counsel on subscriber or member complaint cases.
- Create negotiation training and strategies in response to common objections, draft terms and conditions for new or changing products and services.
- Develop supportive relationships and manage expectations of key internal and external (customer) stakeholders, including guidance on corporate policies & guidelines.
- Appoint and oversee external counsel for litigation.
- Draft merger and acquisition related sale and purchase agreements, employment and transition agreements, conduct due diligence and participate in integration of new entities.
- Assistance in preparation of required management reporting as required.
- Oversee vendor diligence in support of departmental partner/vendor contract execution.
- Support corporate governance and record keeping.
- Develop close working relationships with customer representatives, suppliers, partners, landlords and appointed external counsel where necessary.
- Assist in preparation for customer compliance audits, PCI audits and privacy compliance audits.
Required Skills and Knowledge
The successful candidate will possess the following skills and expertise:
- Business acumen and experience, as well as the ability to recommend efficient and effective risk mitigation strategies to enable business.
- Commercial acumen, knowledge of commercial contracts law and payment card industry data security standards compliance.
- Negotiation experience with high volume commercial transactions, vendors, mergers and acquisitions and settlements.
- Experience in a multinational corporate group counseling on international commercial and compliance matters.
- Experience working as a sole contributor and legal generalist.
- Experiencing managing outside counsel for litigation and commercial matters, including the ability to develop a network of legal support services in Asia and Middle East.
- Ability to influence stakeholders to comply with competing commercial processes.
- Contract writing and procurement skills (including negotiation).
- High level of PC literacy (especially Microsoft Office suite), business writing and verbal communication skills
- Conceptual and process thinking, decision making, attention to detail, ability to evaluate options, and learn new commercial processes.
- Relationship skills with external and internal clients.
- Experience counselling non-lawyers on complex legal issues in a fast-paced environment.
- Practical and proactive problem-solver who possesses strong business acumen and is confident, mature and calm under fire.
Required Professional Qualifications
The successful candidate will have a JD, a minimum of ten (10) years of experience practicing law and be a licensed member in good standing of at least one state bar. English fluency is required. Mandarin or Cantonese language skills is a plus.
Travel/Rotation Requirements
Moderate domestic and international travel may be required.
This job description outlines the types of responsibilities the incumbent is required to perform. The incumbent may be required to perform job related tasks other than those specifically presented in this job description. This job description is subject to regular review.
Application Process
Interested, qualified professionals should submit an electronic copy of their letter of interest and their resume to the following search consultants:
| Steve John Partner John and Snyder, LLC steve@johnandsnyder.com (415) 505-6685 | Jason Snyder Partner John and Snyder, LLC jason@johnandsnyder.com (415) 505-6687 |
All inquiries and/or application materials sent directly to Aspire Lifestyles will be redirected to John and Snyder, LLC for review, which may cause significant delays in evaluation and response.
On behalf of Aspire Lifestyles, we thank you for your interest in the Global Counsel role.
