Vice President & Senior Counsel
Charlotte, North Carolina, Us
Empowered C-suite leadership to make better decisions by building new team and pioneering legal operations, earning national accolades by building Bankrate's first legal department from scratch.Promoted in 2016 to lead all legal operations of this public, multinational $450 million consumer financial services company, which formerly traded as NYSE:RATE. Efficiently managed 400+ commercial contracts annually, including licensing, vendor agreements, marketing contracts, and digital advertising agreements. Advised on FTC, TCPA, general compliance, privacy, and HR matters. Managed extensive IP portfolio. Supervised paralegal, legal operations manager, and outside counsel panel. Partnered on key strategic initiatives across online brands/verticals.OPERATIONS EXCELLENCE:• Earned national recognition by the largest in-house counsel network as 1 of 10 Value Champions for legal operations excellence after developing Bankrate’s first legal team and department framework from the ground up; kept expenses 60% under budget and reduced reliance on outside counsel by 37%.• Transformed Bankrate Inc. into a shared service provider parent company for each of its core operating subsidiaries. Reorganized corporate structure, building discrete legal operating units. Authored contract management and signing authority policy to standardize contracting process workflow.• Accelerated contract review service-level agreement (SLA) completion to 3 days and reduced outside counsel spend 50% by designing contract playbook, sales toolkits, legal technology systems, and leaner processes.• Supported 9 M&A transactions with $3 billion aggregate deal size, including Bankrate’s 2017 acquisition by Red Ventures for $1.4 billion, the sale of its insurance vertical for $787 million, and the divestiture of its senior care vertical.
