Associate General Counsel

The Opportunity:

Lead Maple Leaf Foods’ commercial contracting team, including the processes, standards and tools that deliver consistent, high-quality and timely commercial legal support. Facilitate, expedite and guide contracting, negotiation and escalation to the General Counsel, including cross-functional leadership of Grocery Code of Conduct compliance.

Act as commercial counsel to the business alongside other lawyers, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts, matters and disputes.

Lead Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Develop and maintain the enterprise framework and facilitate risk identification, assessment, prioritization and reporting for senior leadership and the Board. Functional leaders retain ownership and management of risks in their businesses and functions.

Any MLF team member interested in being considered for this role are encouraged to apply online by October 29. Applications received beyond that date are not guaranteed consideration.

Reason for vacancy: Existing Headcount

Snapshot of a Day-in-the-Life:

• Commercial contracting: Lead enterprise commercial legal processes, standards, playbooks, training, service levels and portfolio prioritization. Advise priority clients on customer, supplier, technology and services agreements.
• Commercial disputes: Oversee key disputes and external counsel, with the General Counsel’s sign-off to retain external counsel.
• Legal operations: Own contracting intake, triage, approval routing, knowledge management and Icertis from a legal standpoint. Introduce practical AI and automation.
• Grocery Code of Conduct: Lead cross-functional compliance and report to the General Counsel and senior leadership.
• Enterprise risk: Maintain a practical ERM framework, lead periodic enterprise risk assessments and synthesize decision-useful reporting for senior leadership and the Board.

Commercial Contracting

• Commercial legal process oversight
• Accountable for designing, implementing and maintaining processes, standards, playbooks, knowledge management, training and service levels that govern the quality, consistency and timeliness of commercial legal support across the enterprise, and for prioritizing commercial contracting across the portfolio.
• This accountability covers the processes and standards for commercial legal work.
• Commercial contracting support
• Provide support and advice to priority clients on customer, supplier, technology and services agreements.
• Commercial disputes
• Oversee key commercial disputes, including instructing and supervising external counsel. Retaining external counsel on commercial disputes requires the General Counsel’s sign-off.
• Legal operations
• Own contracting processes, intake and triage rules, service levels, approval routing and knowledge management. Own the Icertis contract management platform from a legal standpoint and introduce practical AI and automation.
• Develop standard-form agreements and playbooks with input from the General Counsel, then implement and enforce them across the commercial legal team.
• Grocery Code of Conduct
• Provide cross-functional leadership of Maple Leaf Foods’ compliance with the Grocery Code of Conduct. Report to the General Counsel and senior leadership on this portfolio.

Risk Management

• Cross-functional ERM leadership
• Further develop and maintain the enterprise ERM framework. Coordinate and facilitate functional risk management across the organization and drive consolidated visibility and reporting for senior leadership and the Board.
• Functional risk ownership and incident response
• Each function continues to identify, own and manage its risks. ERM connects, challenges and elevates existing activity. ERM does not assume operational ownership of incident or crisis response.
• The accountable business or functional leader leads the response to a specific event, based on its nature. ERM supports enterprise visibility, appropriate escalation and linkage to the broader risk framework, as required.
• Practical, proportionate framework
• Support the General Counsel and senior leadership in evolving an ERM framework suited to Maple Leaf Foods’ scale and risk profile. Include a common risk taxonomy and assessment criteria, appropriate expressions of risk appetite or tolerance, escalation thresholds and reporting cadence.
• Build on and connect existing functional risk practices without creating duplicative infrastructure. Evolve the initial model as business needs and risk-management maturity develop.
• Enterprise risk assessment
• Lead periodic assessments with senior leadership and functional risk owners to identify, assess and prioritize principal and emerging enterprise risks, material exposure changes and significant interdependencies.
• Risk reporting
• Lead synthesis of enterprise risk information and support clear, decision-useful reporting for senior leadership and the Board, coordinated with the Manager supporting program mechanics.

What You’ll Bring:

Required qualifications and professional standing

• Membership in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario, or eligibility to be admitted.

Required experience

• Substantial in-house and/or law firm experience in commercial contracting, including customer, supplier, technology and services agreements.
• Experience in legal operations.
• Experience working directly with senior business leaders, providing business-focused, practical and commercially sound legal advice.
• Experience leading enterprise-wide programs, projects or initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience leading or materially contributing to enterprise-wide risk management, governance, strategic risk assessment or another complex cross-functional risk program, including engagement with senior executives and/or Boards.
• Strong experience or interest in the use of AI in legal operations and practice.

Preferred experience

• Experience leading or coordinating the work of other lawyers.
• Consumer packaged goods, food or retail-facing industry experience.
• Experience developing or evolving an ERM framework, enterprise risk assessment, risk appetite or tolerance approach, or Board-level risk reporting.

What We Offer at Maple Leaf Foods:

• Being part of a high-performance, people-focused company that has an inspiring and unique vision to become the most sustainable protein company on earth, and a deep commitment to sustainable protein across North America.
• An inclusive company culture and a work environment that keeps our people safe, rewards excellence, and empowers everyone to learn and contribute their best.
• Competitive Health and Wellness benefits that offer flexibility to meet your individual or family needs, including programs focused on improving mental health and wellbeing. These benefits start on your first day of employment.
• Defined Contribution Pension Plan with company matching that starts on your first day of employment.
• Learning and development opportunities, including workshops, ‘speaker series’ events, and resources that allow you to develop your skills and progress your career.
• Comprehensive tuition reimbursement program that supports continuous learning and development of our team members through investment in eligible degrees, diplomas, professional certification, or trades programs.
• Supporting our deep commitment to community impact, we offer up to two paid days annually to volunteer at a cause of your choice.