Description The Opportunity: As Deputy General Counsel, you'll be a senior legal leader and trusted advisor to American Credit Acceptance's (ACA) executive team and Board, helping shape enterprise decisions, guide material legal and regulatory risk, and lead the day-to-day direction of the Legal Department.
Reporting directly to the General Counsel, you'll connect legal judgment with business strategy, bringing clarity to complex decisions and helping the company scale responsibly.
This role is onsite and based out of our headquarters in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Open to candidates willing to relocate. Position requires relocation to Spartanburg, SC by start date.
About the Team: Made up of specialized lawyers and paraprofessionals, our Legal Department provides legal guidance and support to the organization on a broad range of issues, including regulatory compliance, contract negotiations, litigation, employment law, immigration, and transactional matters.
What You'll Do: - Serve as a trusted advisor to the company's Senior Executive team and members of the Board on all legal, regulatory and compliance matters.
- Drive a culture of accountability, performance and development across the Legal team by coaching, setting clear expectations, and reinforcing high standards.
- Advise the company's second-line Compliance and corporate governance function on regulatory compliance, monitoring, testing, remediation and risk management.
- Participate in and provide guidance to Compliance on state licensing and regulatory examinations.
- Provide guidance to internal business partners on matters with significant impact on business initiatives, strategy, and performance, collaborating with and managing outside counsel as needed.
- Provide strategic legal counsel on direct and indirect lending product initiatives, advising on significant legal and regulatory risks and guiding appropriate controls and risk mitigation strategies.
- Oversee legal guidance on material servicing-related regulatory matters, advising leadership on complex debt collection issues, legal risk, and mitigation strategies.
- Collaborate within the Department and across business and staff functions to identify, address and mitigate legal and risk issues in a manner consistent with the best interests of ACA.
- Provide direction on top priorities and allocate resources as needed across the inside and outside Legal teams, understanding when and how to utilize outside counsel and other external resources.
- Keep abreast of changes in laws and regulations that may impact the company, proactively identifying potential legal risks, advising on mitigation plans, and providing oversight.
- Manage the legal aspects of the company's operations, including reviewing and drafting legal documents, contracts, and agreements.
What You Bring: - A background in consumer finance, lending and auto-finance (FCRA for Lenders, TILA, ECOA, FDCPA, TCPA, EFTA, UDAPP and state equivalents).
- The ability to build trusted relationships with senior leadership, understanding the business and providing counsel that is fact-based, data-driven, and analytically sound.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience leading a team of direct reports.
- A coaching mentality to identify team strengths and to drive business results.
Qualifications: - Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school.
- Admitted to practice law in South Carolina or another jurisdiction.
- 15+ years of relevant law firm or in-house corporate law experience. Regulatory or financial services experience a plus.
- 5+ years of experience managing a team of lawyers and paraprofessionals.
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
You are not officially considered an applicant unless you have completed an employment application in ACA's online applicant tracking system, Jobvite.
