Counsel - Real Estate Mortgage Lending

Description and Requirements
Role Value Proposition:
MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. We're united by our purpose to help our customers and each other create a confident future; we're guided by empathy; and we're inspired by each other to make a difference in the lives of our coworkers, customers, communities, and the world at large. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible. Join us!
Legal Affairs - Building confident futures is at the center of all our work at MetLife. In Legal Affairs, that means empowering our trusted advisors and advocates to focus on what's possible while safeguarding MetLife's global interests. Collaborating with each other and our businesses around the globe, we support innovative solutions while protecting our customers, employees, communities, and shareholders. And we work in an environment founded on integrity, trust, candor, and respect, where new challenges and diverse perspectives are encouraged and celebrated.
The assistant counsel or counsel will join an active and sophisticated Investments Law group that counsels and provides transactional support to the MetLife Investments Management ("MIM") Agricultural Investments unit on all aspects of real estate mortgage lending and agricultural investments from origination through the life of the investment. MIM is a registered investment advisor representing affiliated and non-affiliated investor clients. The Investments Law group is hybrid, and this counsel role would be able to work from home 2 days a week.
The assistant counsel or counsel will serve as a primary advisor on MIM's real estate mortgage lending matters involving agricultural investments and should be able to provide insightful, timely and pragmatic advice to business partners. Specifically, the assistant counsel or counsel will support our business partners in originating, servicing, and managing a diverse agricultural (commercial) mortgage loan portfolio, including farm and ranch, agribusiness and timber assets. The role requires an experienced and versatile attorney to structure, review and negotiate loan transaction documents and collaborate with other enterprise stakeholders. This assiatnt counsel or counsel must have the initiative and skills required to drive our business partners' goals, distill complex issues, and communicate the same to our business partners in a simple and straightforward manner, recommend courses of action based on a deep understanding of the issues, the market and MIM, and provide strategic advice to senior business leaders.
Key Responsibilities:
• Provide advice and counsel to key business decision makers on the structuring, origination and management of real estate mortgage loans in accordance with applicable law and MetLife policy and protocols.
• Advise business partners and manage outside counsel on loan originations, drafting and negotiating loan documents, assisting with closing due diligence, and handling all other aspects of a sophisticated financial lending group.
• Work with, guide, and manage outside counsel, representing MetLife Agricultural Finance on loan closings, loan servicing, special servicing, special projects, and litigation.
• Prepare, initiate, advocate for, and effectively present legal points and recommendations to guide key decision makers and to represent business partners as legal counsel.
Essential Business Experience and Technical Skills:
Required:
• Requires a Juris Doctorate and excellent academic credentials from an accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in at least one state and a member in good standing of a bar; admitted to practice before the Kansas state bar, a member of a reciprocal bar, or able to receive a single-employer restricted license to practice law in Kansas (pursuant to Rule 721) within 90 days of employment start date.
• Minimum of 3 to 5 years of relevant lending experience with a law firm or in-house, including significant experience leading the review and negotiation of commercial real estate and/or agricultural mortgage loan transactions or other asset backed lending arrangements.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with proven business acumen.
• Able to work under limited supervision.
• Creative thinker who is result oriented, finding solutions to novel issues or situations.
• Ability to work independently, grasp concepts, assess risk and make sound informed decisions quickly.
• Demonstrated strong learning agility and willingness to learn and advise on new investment asset classes, including but not limited to agricultural investments such as farm and ranch, agribusiness, timber and timber products. Demonstrated strategic planning, analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with a proven record of proactively managing risks and outcomes.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with a track record of building relationships and effective partnerships across constituencies and stakeholders.
• Superior organizational and leadership skills, and a demonstrated ability to establish and manage priorities.
• Awareness and understanding of current economic and market trends affecting institutional investors globally. The ability to work in an environment that emphasizes information sharing, collaboration, teamwork, mutual respect, and integrity.
Open to considering candidates at a more junior level.
At MetLife, we're leading the global transformation of an industry we've long defined. United in purpose, diverse in perspective, we're dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our customers.
Benefits We Offer
Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more!
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the 2024 "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™ for 2024, as well as the 2024 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For ®, MetLife , through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by empathy, we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
Equal Employment Opportunity/Disability/Veterans
If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.
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