As a member of the Legal Services team at Houston Methodist, the Director Senior Corporate Counsel position provides in-house legal counsel and guidance to Houston Methodist and its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively "Houston Methodist") by performing a variety of complex or specialized legal activities in accordance with the established standards of the legal profession to protect Houston Methodist's reputation and business interests and help ensure compliance with all relevant laws and regulations while supporting the fulfillment of Houston Methodist's Mission, Values and Belief Statements. The Director Senior Corporate Counsel position is directly responsible for providing comprehensive legal support and guidance for assigned health care facilities, physician groups, individual business lines and corporate support divisions within Houston Methodist.

Responsibilities include negotiating and drafting various business contracts and service agreements, such as health care and finance agreements, acquisition agreements, and joint venture agreements. The Director Senior Corporate Counsel position also performs review for all contracts, forms, and legal documents, making recommendations for any changes or additions to these documents. This position is responsible for selecting and working with any outside counsel that the business uses, developing complex business contracts, and determining when legal actions are necessary. The Director Senior Corporate Counsel position works collaboratively with and advises management and the boards of directors of various Houston Methodist entities as assigned.

The Director Senior Corporate Counsel position interfaces with many different levels of Houston Methodist, but most often interact with those in the executive management team. The Director Senior Corporate Counsel position works directly with the business executives, vendors, customers, business partners, and legal counsel to review and negotiate business and commercial contracts, information technology and IP agreements, master purchase agreements, manufacturing agreements, and software and hardware license and development agreements.

Reports to: Vice President, Legal Services

HOUSTON METHODIST EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS

• Provide personalized care and service by consistently demonstrating our I CARE values:
  • INTEGRITY: We are honest and ethical in all we say and do.
  • COMPASSION: We embrace the whole person including emotional, ethical, physical, and spiritual needs.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold ourselves accountable for all our actions.
  • RESPECT: We treat every individual as a person of worth, dignity, and value.
  • EXCELLENCE: We strive to be the best at what we do and a model for others to emulate.

• Practices the Caring and Serving Model

• Delivers personalized service using HM Service Standards

• Provides for exceptional patient/customer experiences by following our Standards of Practice of always using Positive Language (AIDET, Managing Up, Key Words)

• Intentionally collaborates with other healthcare professionals involved in patients/customers or employees' experiential journeys to ensure strong communication, ease of access to information, and a seamless experience

• Involves patients (customers) in shift/handoff reports by enabling their participation in their plan of care as applicable to the given job

• Actively supports the organization's vision, fulfills the mission and abides by the I CARE values

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Provides legal counsel and guidance to the management of Houston Methodist on legal matters by written and oral advice, committee activity, and educational presentations.

• Facilitates effective communication between the Department of Legal Services and Houston Methodist management regarding legal implications of strategies, policies, procedures, and activities of Methodist entities.

• Retains, coordinates, and monitors work of internal and external legal counsel and providers of related services.

• Serves as primary responsible attorney across all legal areas for assigned client groups, which may include one or more hospitals, the physician organizations, or specialized areas such as HR-Immigration, Houston Methodist Information Technology or Houston Methodist Supply Chain Management.

• Oversees the work of contracted and less experienced attorneys, paralegals and legal assistants.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Directs, and performs general corporate legal work, including, but not limited to, preparation, review, negotiation, and revision of contracts, policies and procedures, legal correspondence, medical staff bylaws, and other legal documents.

• Ensures that the legal department's customers, both internal and external, are satisfied with services provided.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Provides advice on and analysis of, medical staff, fraud and abuse, patient care, antitrust, third party payor, non-profit/ tax-exempt, federal and state regulatory, and compliance issues, with appropriate oversight, and coordinates his or her efforts with other lawyers and executives within the Methodist entities.

• Writes, reviews, and interprets complex and varied legal documents and approves legal contracts, letters of agreements and other documents related to a variety of trade, commercial, financial and operational matters (e.g. loans, leases, purchase agreements, acquisitions, divestitures, employment contracts) to protect Methodist's legal and business interests.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Partners with external counsel on specialized issues in a manner that safeguards Houston Methodist financial resources while ensuring high quality legal advisement.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Monitors trends in the healthcare industry, health law and general law and proactively makes recommendations to senior/executive leadership within assigned client groups or executives in Legal Services on how to respond to legal issues or proposed changes in laws and regulations that impact their operations.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• Juris Doctorate (J.D.) degree

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Seven years of practice in a corporate law department or law firm setting

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - REQUIRED

• ATT-JD - Attorney - State Bar -- License to practice law in Texas

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles, including the ability to relate effectively with all levels of personnel inside and outside of Houston Methodist

• Must be able to work in an environment that is high stress and routinely manage large numbers of complex, conflicting, high-priority initiatives

• Must be skilled in listening and achieving results through influencing others and have excellent writing and speaking skills

• Must have analytical skills and the ability to demonstrate critical thinking

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform No
• Scrubs No
• Business professional Yes
• Other (department approved) No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. DIsaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* No

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area Yes
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area No

Houston Methodist (HM) is one of the nation’s leading health systems and academic medical centers.  HM consists of eight hospitals: Houston Methodist Hospital, its flagship academic hospital in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, and seven community hospitals throughout the greater Houston metropolitan area.  HM also includes an academic institute, a comprehensive residency program, a global business division, numerous physician practices and several free-standing emergency rooms and outpatient facilities.  Overall, HM employs over 25,000 employees.   Houston Methodist is supported by a wide variety of business functions that operate at the system level to help enable clinical departments to provide the best patient care and service in a spiritual environment.

In 2019 Houston Methodist and its physicians treat more than 6,333 international patients from more than 76 countries. Houston Methodist Global Health Care Services’ consulting and education divisions also provide advisory services and training and development to health care organizations around the world.