Providence County, RI – VP of Legal

Position Summary: A confidential organization operating within a highly regulated transportation industry is seeking an experienced Vice President of Legal Affairs to provide executive-level leadership and oversight of its legal function. This is a long-term opportunity for the right candidate. The individual will oversee a broad portfolio of legal matters, including litigation, regulatory compliance, contracts, claims, investigations, public records, preservation obligations, and outside counsel management. The Vice President will provide practical, strategic legal guidance to executive leadership while ensuring legal services are timely, consistent, and aligned with organizational and operational priorities. The ideal candidate will bring significant experience advising complex organizations, managing legal and regulatory matters, supervising legal professionals, and working effectively within a highly regulated, public-sector, transportation, governmental, or similarly complex operating environment.

Key Responsibilities: Lead day-to-day Legal Affairs operations, including establishing priorities, assigning matters, allocating resources, and monitoring deadlines. Manage a diverse legal portfolio involving litigation, arbitration, administrative proceedings, claims, regulatory matters, contracts, investigations, and legal research. Provide legal counsel to executive leadership and organizational departments regarding regulatory, public-sector, commercial, construction, procurement, employment, environmental, governance, and operational matters. Review significant contracts, amendments, legal opinions, pleadings, regulatory responses, settlement documents, policies, and executive communications. Coordinate responses to subpoenas, legal demands, regulatory inquiries, audits, enforcement matters, investigations, and other governmental actions. Oversee litigation holds, preservation obligations, discovery, document collection, privilege review, and requests for information or production. Manage outside counsel, including assignments, scopes of work, budgets, invoices, performance, strategy, and status reporting. Oversee public-records matters and attorney review of exemptions, redactions, extensions, denials, appeals, and sensitive requests. Identify recurring legal and regulatory risks and recommend policies, controls, training, contractual provisions, and operational improvements to reduce organizational exposure. Develop and maintain legal procedures, templates, matter-management standards, approval requirements, reporting processes, and escalation protocols. Provide regular reporting regarding legal matters, risks, deadlines, budgets, and outside counsel activity to senior leadership. Partner cross-functionally with Human Resources, Procurement, Finance, Operations, Public Safety, IT, Marketing, Business Development, insurers, regulators, and other internal and external stakeholders. Support executive and governing-board matters, including the preparation and review of privileged materials and advice concerning governance and organizational risk. Supervise and provide leadership to legal staff and direct outside counsel and specialized legal consultants within delegated authority.

Required Qualifications: Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an American Bar Association-accredited law school. Active membership in good standing in the Rhode Island Bar, or eligibility and commitment to obtain Rhode Island admission within an established timeframe. Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible legal experience, including substantial experience counseling organizational clients and managing complex legal matters. Minimum of five years of meaningful supervisory, department leadership, in-house, government, public-authority, or comparable management experience. Demonstrated experience managing litigation, regulatory matters, contracts, outside counsel, legal budgets, preservation obligations, and executive-level legal advice. Exceptional legal research, writing, negotiation, analytical, judgment, communication, and project-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience representing or advising a transportation organization, public authority, state agency, municipality, government entity, or other highly regulated operational organization. Experience with transportation regulation, public procurement, construction, environmental law, employment and labor law, public records, insurance, and governmental affairs. Experience advising governing boards and senior executives. Experience managing sensitive, high-profile, or reputationally significant legal matters. Demonstrated success improving legal operations, matter management, outside-counsel controls, templates, reporting, and preventive-law programs.

Core Competencies: Executive legal judgment and strategic risk assessment Leadership, delegation, supervision, and legal quality assurance Clear, practical, and business-oriented legal counseling Litigation, regulatory, negotiation, and outside-counsel management Strong communication and relationship-management skills Discretion, independence, professionalism, and ethical judgment Ability to balance legal requirements with operational, safety, security, public-sector, and business objectives

Additional Information: This is a long-term opportunity for the right candidate. The selected professional will provide executive-level legal leadership within the organization and work under the terms of the engagement. The role is primarily performed in a professional office environment in the New England area and may require attendance at meetings, hearings, inspections, or other activities at organizational or off-site locations. Availability outside normal business hours may occasionally be required for urgent legal, regulatory, operational, labor, or executive matters. The successful candidate must be able to maintain appropriate security clearances and/or credentials required for access to secure facilities and must demonstrate the highest level of confidentiality when handling privileged, personnel, security, commercial, and governmental information. Compensation will be between $160,000-$180,000 annually, commensurate with experience.