Commercial Lawyer

Epiq Counsel; Atlanta (GA); Hybrid; USD 124,000 - 152,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

Paid vacation

Paid holidays

Bar dues

Job summary

Epiq Counsel seeks a Commercial Counsel for a Fortune 50 home improvement retailer. This interim, full-time role covers drafting and negotiating vendor- and customer-facing agreements, plus advising senior leaders on strategic risk in three fast-moving units from installation to services and rental.

Hybrid role based near Atlanta; 40 hours weekly; $100/hr. The ideal candidate is a versatile generalist with in-house retail/commercial experience and a practical, business-focused mindset.

Qualifications

• JD and active U.S. law license in good standing.
• Extensive experience drafting and negotiating commercial contracts.
• In-house experience at a retailer, consumer services, or similar complex business.
• Ability to advise across consumer, commercial, and operational law with first-principles reasoning.
• Strong drafting and communication skills with credibility before senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements across the professional services, installation, and rental businesses — primarily with vendors and with business customers
• Own the moderate-complexity contract flow end to end, escalating only what genuinely needs the Associate General Counsel's attention
• Review and advise on consumer-facing documents, including service waivers and opt-out terms
• Support internal policy drafting and review, including a policy currently in development
• Serve as the day-to-day legal contact for business leaders across the three units — identify the issue, size the risk, and get to a practical answer
• Advise on operational matters as they arise in the rental business, including theft, loss, and customer disputes involving vehicles and equipment
• Take ownership of live matters with business clients after an initial ramp working alongside the Associate General Counsel
• Bring a generalist's judgment to questions that span consumer, commercial, and operational law, and know when to pull in specialists or outside counsel

Skills

Commercial contracts

In-house retail experience

Generalist problem-solving

Drafting & negotiation

Communication skills

Education

Juris Doctor (JD) and active US law license

Job description

Epiq Counsel is seeking a Commercial Counsel to support our client, a Fortune 50 home improvement retailer, across three of its fastest-moving business units.

This is an interim engagement for a commercial generalist who likes variety and likes being close to the business. You'll draft and negotiate commercial agreements — mostly vendor-side, some with business customers — and spend the rest of your time as the first call for business leaders when something comes up: a consumer waiver that needs reworking, a rental fleet issue, a policy that needs a legal read before it goes out. No two clients you support look alike, and there is no playbook for most of what lands on your desk. That is the appeal.

About the Client

Our client is one of the largest retailers in the world. The businesses this role supports — professional customer services, installation services, and equipment and vehicle rental — together represent roughly $9 billion in revenue and are both customer-facing and vendor-facing. Legal sits close to the business: your clients are the directors and senior directors running these units, and the Associate General Counsel you'll report to expects attorneys to be direct, curious, and collaborative.

• Duration: Defined-term engagement, with potential to extend
• Hours: Full-time, approximately 40 hours per week
• Work Model: Hybrid, based in the Atlanta area
• Start Date: As soon as available
• Client Exposure: Direct work with business leaders at the Director and Senior Director level across three business units; reports to the Associate General Counsel
• Compensation: $100/hr (~$200,000 per year annualized over 40 hours per week)
• Benefits: Market-beating benefits in the alternative legal services space (healthcare, paid vacation, paid holidays, paid bar dues), plus thoughtful engagement support and coaching

Responsibilities

Commercial Contracts (~60%)

• Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements across the professional services, installation, and rental businesses — primarily with vendors and with business customers
• Own the moderate-complexity contract flow end to end, escalating only what genuinely needs the Associate General Counsel's attention
• Review and advise on consumer-facing documents, including service waivers and opt-out terms
• Support internal policy drafting and review, including a policy currently in development

General Counsel Support & Problem-Solving (~40%)

• Serve as the day-to-day legal contact for business leaders across the three units — identify the issue, size the risk, and get to a practical answer
• Advise on operational matters as they arise in the rental business, including theft, loss, and customer disputes involving vehicles and equipment
• Take ownership of live matters with business clients after an initial ramp working alongside the Associate General Counsel
• Bring a generalist's judgment to questions that span consumer, commercial, and operational law, and know when to pull in specialists or outside counsel

Qualifications

• JD and active U.S. law license in good standing
• Substantial experience drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, ideally in-house at a retailer, consumer-services company, or other operationally complex business
• Demonstrated generalist range — comfortable advising on unfamiliar issues without a template and building the answer from first principles
• Strong commercial judgment and a practical, solutions-oriented approach to risk
• Direct communication style, intellectual humility, and curiosity — willing to ask questions rather than assume, and to check reasoning before acting
• Excellent drafting and communication skills, with credibility in front of senior business leaders

Preferred Experience

• In-house experience at a retailer, consumer-services, home improvement, or construction-adjacent company
• Familiarity with consumer-protection requirements, waivers, and multi-state consumer regulatory issues
• Exposure to fleet, rental, leasing, or asset-loss matters
• Prior interim or secondment engagements

Why This Role

This is a chance to be a true commercial generalist inside one of the most operationally sophisticated legal departments in retail — real contract ownership plus a steady stream of "what do we do about this?" questions from business leaders who want a partner, not a gatekeeper. It suits an attorney who is energized by variety, wants meaningful business exposure, and is looking for a full-time interim engagement with the flexibility and support of the Epiq Counsel model.

About Epiq Counsel

Epiq Counsel is an innovative legal services talent provider that offers meaningful work and flexibility to sophisticated, credentialed lawyers and legal professionals. Our lawyers work on a wide variety of matters for leading organizations across the U.S. Epiq works hard to provide our diverse legal talent with challenging, high-quality work that does not require sacrificing flexibility or control. We take the time to understand each legal professional's practice areas, experience, and preferences to ensure alignment with sophisticated interim in-house opportunities. Leverage our network to work with organizations in need of top-tier legal services, and take the next step in your career by joining a vibrant community of Epiq legal professionals.

It is Epiq’s policy to comply with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws by making all employment decisions without unlawful regard or consideration of any individual’s race, religion, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expressions, transgender status, sexual and other reproductive health decisions, marital status, age, national origin, genetic information, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, veteran or family status or any other basis protected by applicable national, federal, state, provincial or local law. Epiq’s policy prohibits unlawful discrimination based on any of these impermissible bases, as well as any bases or grounds protected by applicable law in each jurisdiction. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. Epiq is pleased to provide such assistance and no applicant will be penalized as a result of this request. Pursuant to relevant law, where applicable, Epiq will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.