Legal Counsel – Transactions

Role Overview

• Provide broad legal transactional and commercial contract support for all of Pizza Hut’s corporate departments, including a focus on executing third-party vendor and services agreements and approval and collaboration on both external and internal corporate communications.
• Ensuring all contracts are aligned with Pizza Hut’s goals and protecting its legal and financial interests.
• Managing contract workflow and lifecycle – facilitate contract intake process, select appropriate contract forms and templates for each client engagement, draft contract amendments and routine termination documents, and maintain contract repository for the Pizza Hut U.S. brand.
• Providing legal partnership, guidance, and proactive risk reduction strategies to the Pizza Hut business team.
• Reviewing and approving external and internal corporate communications for the Pizza Hut U.S. system.
• Assist legal franchise administration team with preparation and negotiation of contracts with franchise and license partners.
• Preparing and supporting negotiation of agreements with franchisees and licensees including franchise agreements, licensee agreements, development agreements, incentive agreements, asset upgrade agreements and other strategic agreements supporting Pizza Hut’s overall franchising and licensing efforts.
• Drafting routine ancillary documentation under franchise and license agreements, including side letters, consents, and releases.
• Supporting Pizza Hut franchise finance team in review of franchisee ownership restructures and documentation of the same.
• Providing legal advice to Pizza Hut operations, development and franchise finance teams regarding terms and conditions of certain franchisee and licensee agreements, including support in the enforcement and tracking of the terms of such arrangements.
• Developing expertise in relevant legal regimes, including those governing domestic franchising and licensing relationships.

Requirements

• EDUCATION: Juris Doctor Degree from an ABA accredited law school **
• QUALIFICATION: Admitted to the Texas state bar**

EXPERIENCE:

• 3+ years’ experience in transactional legal roles, either at reputable law firm(s) or on an in-house corporate legal team(s)**
• In-depth knowledge of several of the following areas (with proficiency in all): corporate transactions and commercial contract negotiation; franchise experience preferred but not required**
• Ability to provide practical, strategic legal advice aligned with business objectives**
• Strong background in client counseling or other client-facing engagements

PREFERRED:

• Ability to work efficiently and independently, but also collaborative with colleagues across the organization, and solve problems and/or propose creative solutions, while managing and mitigating associated legal risk(s)**
• Detail and results oriented with excellent communication, organization, interpersonal, and analytical skills**
• Strong leadership skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with teams across the Pizza Hut organization**
• Ability to be a team player and relationship builder, with the ability to adapt in a fast paced and rapidly changing environment