Reporting to the General Counsel, the Senior Litigation & Claims Counsel leads the litigation and claims functions of Azuria Water Solutions, Inc. (the "Company") across North America, including management of the claims team, oversight of outside counsel and third-party administrators, and implementation of litigation and claims management processes and reporting. This position serves as a primary legal advisor for insured and uninsured claims, commercial disputes, regulatory matters, and litigation involving the Company's operating businesses. The Senior Litigation & Claims Counsel uses practical business judgment to mitigate risk, protect the Company's interests, and support timely and effective resolution of disputes.
ResponsibilitiesSupervisory Responsibility
- Directly supervise members of the Company's claims team and will be responsible for establishing priorities, developing talent, allocating workload, and driving accountability across the claims management function. The position will also oversee outside counsel, third-party administrators, investigators, expert witnesses, and other external service providers supporting litigation and claims matters.
Claims Management and Team Leadership
- Oversee the Company's insured and uninsured claims portfolio, including general liability, automobile liability, property damage, environmental, professional liability, and contractual indemnity matters.
- Identify trends within the claims portfolio and develop strategies to reduce overall litigation exposure.
- Collaborate with operational leadership to ensure consistent and timely claim investigation, reporting, and resolution.
- Establish claims handling standards, reporting protocols, escalation procedures, reserve discipline, and key performance metrics for the claims team.
- Directly manage and develop claims personnel, including performance management, coaching, training, and workload balancing.
Litigation and Dispute Resolution
- Manage the Company's portfolio of litigation, arbitrations, mediations, administrative proceedings, and pre-litigation disputes.
- Evaluate claims and disputes and develop resolution strategies aligned with the Company's business objectives, risk tolerance, and settlement authority protocols.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for business leaders regarding litigation strategy, risk assessment, dispute avoidance, and resolution.
- Direct and oversee outside counsel, including matter staffing, budgets, legal strategy, work product, billing, and performance.
- Support contract-related disputes, construction claims, warranty claims, collections matters, liens, bond claims, and other commercial disagreements.
Insurance, Risk Transfer, and Investigations
- Partner with Operations, Finance, Human Resources, and business leaders to investigate claims, preserve evidence, assess exposure, and develop resolution plans.
- Coordinate with insurance carriers, brokers, third-party administrators, and coverage counsel regarding claim reporting, handling, coverage, reserves, and recovery opportunities.
- Advise the business regarding incident reporting, claim preservation, litigation holds, document preservation, investigation practices, contractual indemnity obligations, and risk transfer.
Legal Operations and Reporting
- Lead the implementation, administration, and continuous improvement of litigation and claims tracking, matter management, e-billing, and reporting processes.
- Establish and maintain standardized matter intake, status reporting, reserve tracking, budgeting, forecasting, and escalation procedures.
- Develop dashboards, metrics, and reports concerning litigation exposure, claim trends, outside counsel spend, reserves, and matter outcomes.
- Partner with Finance regarding litigation budgets, accruals, reserves, insurance recoveries, and financial reporting.
- Prepare concise and timely litigation and claims updates for executive leadership, the Audit Committee, and the Board of Directors.
Business Support, Training, and Special Projects
- Advise business leaders on dispute avoidance, legal risk, government regulations, and practical risk mitigation strategies.
- Assist with mergers and acquisitions due diligence and integration concerning litigation, claims, insurance, and contingent liabilities.
- Develop and delivers training on claim reporting, document preservation, investigations, litigation readiness, and related legal processes.
- Contribute to special projects across the Company and the Legal Department.
- Attend to miscellaneous legal questions and projects of the business units on a daily basis, as required.
- Performs other duties as required.
Qualifications- Education and Licensure: Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active membership in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar.
- Experience: A minimum of eight years of legal experience, including significant responsibility for litigation and claims management. Prior in-house counsel experience is strongly preferred. Experience managing a complex litigation portfolio, directing outside counsel, and working with insurance claims, coverage issues, risk management, or self-insured programs is preferred.
- Claims Tracking and Legal Operations: Demonstrated experience implementing or materially improving claims tracking, matter management, e-billing, dashboards, or other legal operations processes is strongly preferred. The successful candidate must be comfortable using data and technology to improve visibility, consistency, and accountability.
- Industry Experience: Experience in construction, infrastructure, industrial services, environmental services, utilities, engineering, manufacturing, or a similar operational industry is preferred but not required.
- Critical Thinking and Reasoning Skills: Ability to analyze complex facts, contracts, insurance policies, legal issues, and financial information; assess exposure; establish facts; draw sound conclusions; and provide practical recommendations in highly sensitive matters.
- Communication and Negotiation Skills: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly with business leaders, insurers, outside counsel, opposing parties, and senior management. Strong negotiation, mediation, and dispute resolution skills are required.
- Financial and Analytical Skills: Experience developing litigation budgets, evaluating reserves and exposure, reviewing legal invoices, and using spreadsheets and reporting tools to monitor trends and outcomes.
- Time Management and Initiative: Commitment to managing a diverse workload in a fast-paced environment, exercising sound judgment, and prioritizing competing matters with limited supervision.
- Interpersonal Skills: Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build productive, cross-functional relationships with Operations, Finance, Human Resources, and other business partners.
- Proactive Problem-Solving and Business Acumen: A practical, business-oriented approach to legal advice, dispute resolution, process improvement, and risk mitigation.
- Desire for Growth and Challenge: The Company is constantly growing and changing. The successful candidate will embrace change, improve existing processes, and take on areas of greater responsibility as the business evolves.
We offer a competitive salary with career growth opportunities and a full benefits package including medical, dental, and vision Insurance, prescription drug coverage, annual bonus potential, 401k matching, tuition assistance, paid time off, and much more.
