Lead Senior Counsel, Legal, Global Contracts

Location

Morrisville, North Carolina, United States - Hybrid

Lenovo is seeking an experienced legal professional and people manager to serve as Lead Senior Counsel, North America, within its Global Contracts Team (GCT). This role will be responsible for leading the delivery of contractual legal support across North America, with a focus on sales, procurement, and related commercial transactions.

The role will advise and support Lenovo's North America businesses across a broad range of technology offerings and commercial models, including hardware, services, software, channel, DaaS, IaaS, SaaS, and managed services.

In addition to providing legal advice on complex commercial matters, the successful candidate will lead and develop the North America Contracts Team, build strong relationships with internal clients and stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement in the delivery of legal services. The role requires a combination of strong technical legal skills, people leadership, commercial judgment, stakeholder management, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, global environment.

This is a hybrid role based at Lenovo's award-winning North America headquarters in Morrisville, North Carolina, with three days per week in the office and two days remote.

Job Responsibilities

This role is responsible for:

• Leading the North America Contracts Team and overseeing the delivery of contractual legal support across North America, including Public Sector transactions.
• Managing, coaching, and developing team members, including providing regular feedback, supporting professional development, and fostering a collaborative, accountable, and high-performing team environment.
• Managing team priorities, workload allocation, and resources to ensure effective and timely support to Lenovo's businesses.
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex technology and commercial agreements.
• Advising Lenovo's North America teams on a broad range of contractual, commercial, and related legal issues.
• Developing a strong understanding of Lenovo's existing contractual commitments to customers and suppliers and advising the business accordingly.
• Building and maintaining strong, trust-based relationships with key internal clients and stakeholders.
• Providing practical, business-oriented advice, including risk-and-reward analysis and clear recommendations to support informed decision-making.
• Collaborating with internal and outside counsel, subject matter experts, and business stakeholders to facilitate the efficient negotiation and closure of transactions.
• Working closely with other Lenovo lawyers, Contract Management Teams, and Business Groups on contractual and strategic matters.
• Effectively identifying legal and regulatory issues and engaging appropriate subject matter experts within the broader Lenovo Legal Department.
• Developing and implementing legal efficiencies, including contract templates, playbooks, guidance, training, and other tools to improve contract processes and operations.
• Leveraging contract lifecycle management, AI-enabled legal tools, and other technologies to improve the quality, efficiency, consistency, and scalability of legal services.
• Leading and participating in legal innovation and AI-related projects, including identifying opportunities to apply AI and automation to contract review, legal workflows, knowledge management, and other GCT processes.
• Supporting the implementation of company-wide policies, procedures, systems, and change-management initiatives.
• Engaging and managing outside counsel and other external resources when appropriate.

Basic Requirements

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active license to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 12+ years of relevant legal experience, with substantial experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating complex commercial agreements.
• Significant experience with technology transactions.
• Experience with or familiarity with U.S. Public Sector contracting and government procurement.

• Strong commercial judgment and the ability to balance legal risk with business objectives.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to explain complex legal matters clearly and practically to business stakeholders.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, with the ability to manage multiple transactions, projects, and competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.

Experience we are looking for

People Management and Leadership

• Demonstrated experience leading, managing, coaching, and developing legal professionals.
• Proven ability to build and maintain a collaborative, engaged, accountable, and high-performing team.
• Experience managing workload, priorities, and resource allocation across a team supporting multiple business stakeholders.
• Ability to provide effective feedback, support professional development, and foster continuous improvement.
• Experience leading teams through organizational, process, technology, or policy changes.

Client Relationship Development and Management

• Proven track record of building strong, trust-based relationships with diverse internal client groups.
• Ability to effectively interface with customers, senior leaders, and stakeholders across large and complex organizations.
• Experience managing stakeholder expectations and establishing clear priorities in a demanding business environment.
• Comfort leading steering groups, business reviews, and other governance forums, including reporting on team performance and key matters.

Contract Drafting and Negotiation

• Extensive experience reviewing, drafting, and negotiating sophisticated commercial agreements, preferably in the technology industry.
• Demonstrated ability to understand business objectives and develop practical and creative solutions and risk-mitigation strategies for key negotiation points.
• Experience negotiating customer paper as well as company templates.
• Ability to lead or provide strategic direction on complex, high-value, or high-risk transactions.

Continuous Improvement, Technology, and Innovation

• Proven ability to identify opportunities to improve legal processes and implement practical solutions in collaboration with clients and team members.
• Experience developing contract templates, playbooks, guidance, and other tools that improve consistency and efficiency.
• Experience using contract lifecycle management systems, AI-enabled legal tools, automation, and other technologies to support legal work.
• Interest in and experience with legal innovation, including AI-related initiatives and projects designed to improve the delivery of legal services.
• Experience using data, reporting, workflow tools, and performance metrics to manage legal operations and team performance.
• Experience implementing and managing change resulting from company-wide policies, procedures, systems, or process improvements.

Collaboration

• Proven ability to work collaboratively across different internal groups, functions, and geographies.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively within a global legal organization.
• Ability to work successfully with all levels of an organization while maintaining a strong client-service orientation.
• Demonstrated ability to engage subject matter experts and other resources effectively when specialized support is required.

Location

Morrisville, North Carolina, United States