Ethics and Legal Affairs Specialist Senior

ECMC Group is a nonprofit corporation focused on helping students succeed. Headquartered in Minneapolis, ECMC Group and its family of companies provide financial tools and services, as well as funding for innovative programs to help students achieve their academic and professional goals.

Job Summary

Manages ECMC’s ethics program; develops and implements formal compliance and ethics training. Oversees the proper, consistent handling of vendor, customer, and other contracts. Assesses contractual and filing requirements and interacts with vendors, customers, outside counsel and state filing agencies. Assists with case preparation, legal research, and resolution of servicing and collections inquiries. Handles insurance claims and ensures regulatory compliance. This position requires expertise on a broad range of legal matters, including compliance, ethics, corporate governance, bankruptcy, and collections litigation, and plays a key role in supporting departmental operations and strategic initiatives.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage the corporate ethics program, including monitoring and tracking cases and trends, developing and presenting training, developing short- and long-term ethics initiatives, and coordinating company communications about corporate ethics.
• Investigate ethics reports, interview relevant witnesses, gather and review relevant documents, make determinations and prepare proposed findings.
• Evaluate and benchmark company Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Conflict of Interest Policy, and related policies through participation in relevant industry groups; formulate and propose policy changes based on current best practices.
• Serve as subject matter expert and provide guidance to management and others related to policies and processes specific to the ethics program, including the Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Conflict of Interest Policy, and related policies.
• Establish, revise, and maintain centralized contract repository platform; review and prepare contracts, renewals or amendments.
• Direct and coordinate Legal Department participation in ECMC Vendor Management Process, including managing and processing vendor contract requests and renewal notices, reviewing contracts and identifying issues, drafting contract amendments and termination notices, and assigning contracts to attorneys for final review.
• Determine filing requirements for foreign qualifications, charitable trusts/solicitations, dissolutions, withdrawals, assumed names, franchise taxes, business licenses, etc; prepare and file annual corporate renewals and other state registration filings for the company and all its subsidiaries; establish, revise, and maintain centralized regulatory documentation platform.
• Communicate with stipulation-account borrowers, assess issues and independently resolve borrower concerns as appropriate.
• Draft discovery responses, pleadings, agreements, borrower and attorney correspondence.
• Resolve inquiries related to account servicing, bankruptcy, and collections by assessing loan histories, records, and repayment options.
• Prepare and manage annual Legal and Compliance budgets.
• Oversee management of outside counsel and the LegalTracker database.
• Plan for and maintain attorney-related expenses such as CLE registrations, conference fees, and bar association dues.
• Handle all insurance claim notices, updates to policy information, and day-to-day interaction with insurance claims personnel.
• Provide other ad hoc support to in-house ECMC attorneys and ECMC-retained outside counsel.
• Provide support outside of normal working hours if and as required by litigation, ethics support, or other business needs.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Post-secondary degree and/or paralegal certificate
• Previous legal support experience (5 years)
• 2+ years’ experience with ethics/compliance programs and policies (may be a combination of direct work experience and advanced education)
• Familiarity with legal processes and terminology
• Strong proficiency in legal software (e.g. document management, billing, or e-discovery tools)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in the student loan or financial industry
• Experience working in a fast-paced litigation environment
• Current Minnesota Notary Public commission

The salary range for this position is $90,000-$115,000. Actual pay may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, time in role, peer and market data, prior performance, business sector and geographic location.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

ECMC Group also provides a comprehensive benefits package:  

• Health & wellness benefits: Medical, dental, and vision insurance plan options, with a generous employer subsidy. Company paid life & disability insurance, pre-tax flexible spending accounts and robust wellness programs.
• Financial benefits: Generous 401(k) plan with a company match up to 6% and additional discretionary contribution potential, holiday time off, paid time off accrual starting at 20 days/year and commuter subsidy.
• Education benefits: Tuition reimbursement up to $10,500/year for approved programs and student loan payment reimbursement up to $4,800/year. Up to $5,250 of qualifying education benefits can be reimbursed pre-tax.