Legal Ops Manager

Who We Are

Waste Solution Services (WSS) helps multifamily and commercial property management companies reduce and stabilize their waste expenses. We serve as an advocate between our clients and waste haulers, managing vendor relationships, auditing invoices, optimizing contracts, and resolving service issues. As a growing organization, WSS is continuing to expand its operations, infrastructure, and internal capabilities.

Title: Legal Operations Manager
Compensation: $100,000–$130,000 annually
Location: Lawrence, NY
Work Arrangement: Full-Time, In-Office
Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

The Role (What You'll Do)

We are seeking an experienced, proactive Legal Operations Manager to serve as the primary point of contact for legal matters across the organization.

This individual will work directly with the CEO and department leadership, taking ownership of the company's day-to-day legal needs while developing the internal processes, templates, and systems necessary to support a growing business.

This is a hands-on role for someone with an in-house legal background who is comfortable operating independently, exercising sound judgment, and determining which matters can be handled internally versus those requiring outside counsel.

The individual will be responsible for establishing and continuously improving the company's legal operations, creating standardized procedures, building contract templates, developing workflows, and bringing structure and accountability to legal matters across the business.

The objective is to create a centralized legal function that allows leadership to focus on running the business while ensuring legal matters are handled efficiently, proactively, and appropriately.

Core Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary internal point of contact for legal matters across the organization.

• Manage incoming legal requests from Finance, HR, Sales, Operations, and other departments.

• Independently draft, review, negotiate, and redline routine commercial agreements, vendor contracts, customer agreements, NDAs, and other business documents.

• Develop and implement legal SOPs, standardized templates, contract workflows, approval processes, and internal procedures.

• Establish and maintain a centralized contract management system and organized legal document repository.

• Manage demand letters, payment disputes, collections-related legal matters, liens, small claims preparation, and judgment tracking.

• Coordinate with outside counsel on complex litigation, regulatory matters, employment issues, and other matters requiring specialized legal support.

• Manage outside counsel relationships, including selecting firms, coordinating assignments, monitoring deliverables, and tracking legal spend.

• Establish systems for tracking legal deadlines, filings, outstanding matters, and required follow-ups.

• Identify potential legal risks and proactively bring issues to the attention of leadership.

• Determine which matters can be resolved internally and which require escalation to outside counsel.

• Continuously evaluate and improve the company's legal processes as the organization grows.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in corporate, commercial, or business-focused legal roles.

• Previous in-house legal experience strongly preferred.

• Experience serving as a primary legal point of contact or operating with limited supervision.

• Strong background in contract drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and redlining.

• Experience managing outside counsel and coordinating legal matters.

• Excellent organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to exercise sound independent judgment and prioritize competing legal matters.

• Comfortable working directly with executive leadership and department heads.

• Highly proactive, resourceful, and capable of building processes rather than simply following existing ones.

Preferred Experience

• Experience as an in-house corporate paralegal, legal operations manager, or senior legal professional.

• Background working in a small or growing company where the legal function was lean.

• Experience developing legal SOPs, contract templates, and standardized workflows.

• Familiarity with commercial collections, demand letters, liens, and litigation coordination.

• Experience managing contract repositories, legal matter tracking, and document management systems.

• Experience supporting multiple entities or operating companies.

• Ability to balance hands-on legal execution with broader operational and process-building responsibilities.