Legal Counsel

Status: Full Time

Hours: Monday - Friday, 35 hours/week

Home Campus: Fennell (hybrid work arrangements available)

Rate of Pay: Payband 14 ($141,161 - $176,451 per year)

Posting Date: September 11th, 2025

Closing Date: September 25th, 2025, at 7:00 pm EST

We believe the rich diversity among our students and the communities we serve should be reflected within our workforce. As educators, we believe it is important to act and show leadership in advancing the principles of reconciliation, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our community.

Position Summary

The Legal Counsel provides expert legal, risk management, and policy oversight to support the College's mission, vision, and strategic priorities. Reporting to the Vice President, Corporate Services, this role serves as a trusted advisor to leadership and the Board of Governors on governance, compliance, enterprise risk, insurance, and legislative obligations. The Legal Counsel leads the Legal, Privacy, and Risk Management team and ensures the College operates with integrity, accountability, and in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities

1. Legal Compliance

• Create strategic legal objectives to support the mission and vision of the institution.
• Provide expert legal advice to the College leadership team on a wide range of legal issues.
• Provide legal advice and risk analysis for major transactions, including funding agreements, contracts, and real estate transactions.
• Manage legal proceedings representing the College's interests.
• Oversee the College's contract management process, including developing templates, drafting major contracts, and reviewing significant external agreements.
• Provide legal advice and counsel to the Board of Governors.
• Lead and oversee the College's obligations under privacy and access-to-information legislation, including responding to information requests.
• Oversee policies and practices related to records creation, maintenance, and disposal.
• Serve as a member of the Conflict-of-Interest Committee, ensuring proper assessment and management of disclosures.

2. Risk Management and Insurance

• Serve as lead advisor to the College's Enterprise Risk Management, supporting risk oversight.
• Champion a culture of accountability and transparency in risk ownership and escalation.
• Provide oversight for the development and maintenance of the College-wide ERM framework.
• Highlight and monitor emerging risks, sector issues, and changes to the risk profile requiring governance oversight.
• Ensure board-level risk registers reflect the College's most significant risks and align with strategic objectives.
• Ensure the College maintains appropriate and sufficient insurance coverage aligned with enterprise risks and tolerance.
• Provide leadership and oversight for insurance renewals to ensure appropriate coverage and mitigation of institutional risk.

3. Legislation and Policy Oversight

• Monitor relevant legislation and regulations to identify requirements for new or updated College policies, ensuring compliance.
• Provide expert advice and analysis on college policies.
• Provide oversight for whistleblowing obligations, including the assessment, investigation, and management of disclosures.
• Advise on the development and maintenance of Board policies and by-laws in collaboration with the Corporate Secretary.

4. Team and Department Leadership

• Lead and develop the Paralegal and Privacy & Risk Management team to ensure effective, efficient, and high-quality service delivery.
• Gather feedback on processes and services to identify and implement improvements.
• Stay current on emerging legal, policy, contract, privacy, and risk management trends to enhance College processes.
• Ensure sound financial stewardship through departmental budget development and management.

5. Leadership

• As a member of the Leadership Team, contribute to strategic planning, corporate decision-making, and administrative leadership.
• Provide support and counsel on College-wide legal issues.

Qualifications

Education & Professional Designation

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree in Law from an accredited post-secondary institution.
• Current licence to practice law in Ontario with the Law Society of Ontario.

Experience

• A minimum of seven (7) years of experience as a Corporate Lawyer, dealing with issues aligned to this role such as board governance, corporate policies, enterprise risk management, privacy, and intellectual property, within a large, complex, and unionized public sector organization.
• Demonstrated experience handling legal claims and proceedings, including lawsuits and Human Rights Tribunal matters.
• Demonstrated experience managing privacy and access-to-information processes and legislative requirements.
• Demonstrated experience with intellectual property rights issues and agreements.
• Demonstrated experience in the development and negotiation of formal contracts, including agreements with government agencies and funding arrangements.

Skills & Competencies

• Excellent communication skills, including listening, facilitation, presentation, and writing.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build and maintain positive relationships across diverse groups.
• Demonstrated knowledge of governance, best practices, protocols, and procedures.
• Excellent negotiation skills with proven experience in complex legal and risk management contexts.

What we offer

• Progressive vacation plan starting with 22 vacation days per year plus holiday closure.
• Defined Benefit pension plan (CAAT) with contributions matched by Mohawk College.
• 93% top up of maternity and parental leave pay for 52 weeks.
• Annual employee performance incentive program.
• Comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision, paramedical services (massage therapy, acupuncture, naturopath, psychotherapy and psychology), short-term and long-term disability.

To find out more about working at Mohawk College including our Employee Value Proposition, please visit https://www.mohawkcollege.ca/about-mohawk/careers-at-mohawk

We are committed to reconciliation and nurturing an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible (IDEA) environment for everyone who learns and works at Mohawk College. We welcome applications from racialized persons, women, Indigenous people, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ persons, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

The College is committed to fostering inclusive and barrier-free recruitment and selection processes. If you require accommodation during any stage of the recruitment process, please contact Human Resources.