Position Summary:
The Corporate Legal Counsel will support Samyang America's legal, compliance, contract, and governance activities across the U.S., Canada, and LATAM. This role will provide practical legal support for a Korea-headquartered food CPG business operating through direct imports from Korea, customer partnerships, distributor relationships, shared regional functions, and cross-border commercial operations.
The role requires strong business judgment, contract management discipline, compliance awareness, and the ability to partner with internal stakeholders, external counsel, Korea headquarters, and regional business teams to manage legal risk while enabling responsible business growth.
Key Responsibilities:
- Contract Management: Draft, review, negotiate, and manage commercial agreements, including customer, distributor, broker, vendor, service provider, marketing, confidentiality, and other business contracts.
- Legal Risk and Compliance: Identify legal and compliance risks, provide business-oriented guidance, and support practical risk mitigation across commercial, operational, employment, regulatory, and corporate matters.
- Corporate Governance: Support entity governance, internal approvals, delegation of authority, policy management, records maintenance, and governance alignment with Korea headquarters and regional stakeholders.
- Regulatory and Import Support: Partner with internal teams and external counsel on food CPG, labeling, advertising, consumer protection, import, customs, and cross-border compliance matters.
- Dispute and Claims Management: Coordinate with business teams and external counsel on customer disputes, vendor issues, claims, investigations, demand letters, and pre-litigation matters.
- Legal Operations and KPI Discipline: Maintain legal trackers, contract status reporting, turnaround-time metrics, matter prioritization, outside counsel coordination, and legal documentation controls.
- Business Partnership: Provide responsive, practical legal support to Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Regulatory, and leadership teams to enable timely, compliant, and commercially sound decisions.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree required; J.D., LL.M., paralegal certification, or equivalent legal education strongly preferred.
- 8+ years of relevant corporate legal, contracts, compliance, legal operations, or in-house legal support experience.
- Experience reviewing and managing commercial contracts, vendor agreements, customer agreements, NDAs, service agreements, and related legal documents.
- Experience in consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, manufacturing, distribution, import/export, retail, or regulated industries preferred.
- Working knowledge of contract law, corporate governance, compliance processes, regulatory coordination, and legal risk management.
- Ability to work with external counsel, Korea headquarters, cross-functional teams, and regional stakeholders across the U.S., Canada, and LATAM.
Core Competencies
- Strong contract review, drafting, and negotiation support skills
- Practical legal judgment and business-oriented risk assessment
- Compliance mindset with strong attention to detail
- Ability to manage multiple legal matters, deadlines, and stakeholders
- Clear written and verbal communication with executive presence
- Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management
- Confidentiality, professionalism, ethics, and sound judgment
Preferred Experience
- Experience supporting a global company, overseas subsidiary, or regional hub structure.
- Experience with food CPG, advertising review, product claims, labeling, import, customs, or distributor-related legal matters.
- Experience coordinating with outside counsel and business teams on cross-border legal issues.
- Bilingual English/Korean capability preferred but not required.
The base salary for this position is between $180,000.00 and $220,000.00 per year. Actual compensation will depend on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience, and location. This position may also be eligible for additional compensation and benefits, including an annual incentive bonus, medical/dental/vision insurance, life insurance, PTO/FTO, and a 401(k) plan with company match.
