Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.
Job Description
Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) is seeking an experienced and strategic commercial attorney to join its Legal team. This role reports to the Managing Director, Associate General Counsel, Enterprise Legal. The position offers the opportunity to lead and continue developing Ares' vendor contracting function within a dynamic and fast-growing alternative investment management platform.
The Senior Commercial Counsel will serve as the primary legal advisor and functional lead for Ares' vendor contracting program. The role will be responsible for overseeing a high-volume contract review function while remaining hands-on in reviewing, drafting and negotiating vendor and other commercial agreements. The Senior Commercial Counsel will supervise a team of contract professionals and will partner closely with business stakeholders and other members of the Legal team on vendor contracting matters.
In addition to managing the existing contracting function, the Senior Commercial Counsel will be responsible for developing and implementing the future-state operating model for vendor contract review at Ares. This will include evaluating processes and workflows, external service providers, contract lifecycle management systems, and emerging artificial intelligence and other legal technologies. The ideal candidate will combine strong commercial contracting expertise with demonstrated experience leading a large-scale contract review function and an interest in using technology, process design and innovative service-delivery models to improve the quality, efficiency and scalability of legal services.
REPORTING
Reports to: Associate General Counsel, Enterprise Legal
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Commercial Contracting
· Review, draft and negotiate a broad range of vendor and other commercial agreements, including master services agreements, statements of work, software and SaaS agreements, technology agreements, professional services agreements, NDAs and other commercial arrangements.
· Serve as a senior escalation point for complex or higher-risk vendor contracts and provide practical, solutions-oriented advice regarding contractual and commercial risk.
· Ensure vendor contracts appropriately reflect Ares' contractual standards, policies and risk tolerances while facilitating the firm's commercial objectives.
· Partner with stakeholders across Procurement, Technology, Information Security, Privacy, Finance and other business functions on vendor contracting matters.
· Develop, maintain and improve contract templates, playbooks, fallback positions and escalation guidelines to promote consistency and efficiency across the contracting function.
Contract Review Team Leadership
· Lead and supervise a team of contract professionals responsible for the day-to-day review, drafting and negotiation of vendor contracts.
· Operate as a hands-on leader, maintaining responsibility for personally reviewing and negotiating contracts while effectively managing, developing and supporting the broader contract review team.
· Establish clear standards, workflows and escalation protocols and provide substantive guidance and coaching to members of the contract review team.
· Monitor contract volume, turnaround times, workload allocation and other relevant performance indicators to ensure the contracting function delivers timely, high-quality and consistent support to internal…