General Counsel

The General Counsel serves as the company's chief legal officer and a key member of the executive leadership team, reporting to the Chief Executive Officer. This leader will oversee all legal affairs for a multi-site, multi-state organization operating in a highly regulated industry. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise across real estate, employment law, commercial contracts, M&A transactions, and knows how to deliver pragmatic, business-minded counsel at deal speed.

Key Responsibilities

• Legal Program Development: Serve as the architect of FPG's legal function. Build a best in class legal program from the ground up, with a blank canvas and full executive support. Shape the policies, processes, training, and compliance frameworks that will empower leaders across the organization and grow alongside one of the most dynamic platforms in the industry.

• Risk Assessment & Enterprise Risk Management: Bring a forward looking, enterprise wide lens to legal and regulatory risk. Proactively identify emerging exposure and translate complexity into clear priorities. Partner with executive leadership and the board to protect and enable the business as it grows, treating risk management as a strategic advantage rather than a brake.

• Real Estate: Own the legal strategy and workstreams for the company's real estate portfolio, including acquisitions and dispositions, leases, easements, title and survey matters, land use and zoning, and cemetery/funeral home property considerations.

• Transactions & M&A: Serve as lead counsel on acquisitions, divestitures, and integration matters; manage due diligence, purchase agreements, and closing processes in partnership with corporate development and outside counsel.

• Contracts: Draft, negotiate, and manage the full range of commercial agreements, including vendor and supplier contracts, service agreements, NDAs, and preneed/at-need related arrangements; build scalable contract templates, playbooks, and approval processes.

• Employment Law: Advise HR and operations leadership on multi-state employment matters, including hiring and classification, wage and hour compliance, employee relations, restrictive covenants, leaves and accommodations, and employment-related disputes.

• Regulatory & Compliance: Oversee compliance with federal and state regulations governing the deathcare industry, including FTC Funeral Rule requirements, state funeral and cemetery board licensing, and preneed trust and insurance regulations across 21 states.

• Litigation & Risk: Manage litigation, claims, and pre-litigation disputes; select and direct outside counsel, control legal spend, and drive matters to efficient, favorable resolution.

• Corporate Governance: Support board governance, entity management, financing arrangements, and sponsor reporting; partner effectively with ownership on strategic initiatives.

• Legal Operations: Build and lead a right-sized legal function, developing processes and leveraging technology to serve the business efficiently.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school; active bar membership in good standing.

• 12+ years of progressive legal experience, including significant in-house leadership experience; General Counsel, Deputy GC, or AGC experience strongly preferred.

• Substantial, hands-on real estate experience (transactions, leasing, portfolio management) is required.

• Demonstrated experience in a regulated industry such as deathcare, healthcare, financial services, or similar, with multi-state compliance responsibility.

• Strong background in employment law and commercial contracting across a distributed, multi-site workforce.

• Experience supporting M&A activity, including due diligence and integration, ideally in a high-acquisition-volume environment.

• Prior experience in a private equity-backed company, or advising investor-backed clients, strongly preferred.

• Track record of building or maturing a legal program, including risk assessment frameworks, compliance infrastructure, and policy development