About the Department
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is a community of dedicated researchers, consultants, educators, and former practitioners who drive innovation and advancement in courts and justice systems. NCSC’s reputation for trusted leadership allows us to work alongside top judicial officers to examine some of the most complex and significant issues facing society. Our team of experts and court leaders are deeply committed to advancing just, free, and safe communities. To learn more about NCSC, visit NCSC.org
NCSC is seeking an experienced Contracts and Compliance Counsel to join our team. The Contracts and Compliance Counsel is a hybrid legal and operations role that combines sound contract law practice with a strong focus on process improvement, contract lifecycle management, and technology-enabled efficiency. This role is responsible for drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and managing a broad portfolio of agreements supporting programs, operations, and partnerships, including work with courts, government agencies, commercial vendors, sponsors, funders, associations, and partner organizations.
The Contracts and Compliance Counsel plays a key role in ensuring agreements are legally sound, commercially appropriate, and operationally efficient. Beyond legal review, this role is expected to improve contracting workflows, leverage contract management platforms and technology tools, and build internal capacity so that teams are empowered, not bottlenecked. The ideal candidate brings commercial savvy alongside legal expertise: understanding what is standard and acceptable across commercial agreements, government contracts, and MOUs, and applying context-appropriate risk standards rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. This position must exhibit sound legal judgment, a practical service-oriented and solution-oriented mindset, and a genuine interest in using technology to modernize and streamline contract management.
Trusted Leadership. Proven Solutions. Fair and Impartial Courts.
Position Duties
Contract Drafting, Review, and Negotiation
- Draft, review, and negotiate a broad range of agreements, including consulting agreements, professional services agreements, vendor contracts, grant and funding agreements, memoranda of understanding, licensing agreements, insurance contracts, and confidentiality agreements.
- Provide legal review of contracts with courts, government entities, foundations, associations, and private-sector vendors.
- Identify and mitigate legal, financial, and operational risks in contract terms.
- Ensure contracts clearly define scope of work, deliverables, payment terms, intellectual property, confidentiality, and termination provisions.
- Develop, maintain, and refine standard contract templates, clauses, and approval workflows; lead or support implementation and ongoing management of a contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform to improve tracking, visibility, and turnaround time.
Legal Guidance and Management
- Advise NCSC staff on contract-related legal issues, risk allocation, and compliance considerations.
- Interpret and apply applicable laws, regulations, and organizational policies affecting procurement and contracts.
- Support development and refinement of standard contract templates and clauses.
- Escalate complex or high-risk matters to senior leadership or external counsel, as appropriate.
Ethics, Governance and Organizational Support
- Support adherence to ethical standards, conflict-of-interest policies, and governance requirements.
- Provide legal and administrative oversight of NCSC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) or human subjects research review process, as applicable.
- Ensure with governance-related legal matters as they relate to contracts and agreements.
- Contribute to continuous improvement of internal legal, contracting, and compliance processes.
Collaboration and Internal Support
- Work closely with programs, finance, and leadership staff to support timely and effective contracting.
- Provide training, tools, and guidance to staff on contracting processes, requirements, and best practices, building internal knowledge and reducing bottlenecks.
People Management and Team Development
- Lead, mentor, and manage responsibly and empathetically.
- Set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and conduct performance evaluations.
- Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.
- Support professional development, workload balance, and succession planning.
Minimum Qualifications
- Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
- Admission to practice law in, at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
- Significant experience (typically 5-8 years+) drafting and negotiating contracts, preferably in a non-profit, public-sector, government or consulting environment.
- Strong knowledge of contract law and risk management principles.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple priorities.
- Familiarity with grant-funded or government contracts, preferred; demonstrated understanding of what terms are standard and commercially reasonable across different agreement types (commercial, government, MOU) and the ability to apply context-appropriate risk standards.
- Experience collaborating with external counsel, preferred.
- Experience with contract management platforms and legal technology tools to automate and streamline contract operations, preferred.
- Supervisory experience, preferred.
Additional Skills and Abilities
- Demonstrate use of sound judgment in practical matters and critical decisions, choosing wisely after contemplating various options.
- Proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) and experienced with or eager to adopt contract management platforms (e.g., Ironclad, Concord, DocuSign CLM, or similar) and other legal technology tools to improve efficiency and visibility.
- Operational discipline, including recruiting and training new and/or promoted staff, assigning work, assisting with staff development, reviewing and approving staff timesheets and expense reports.
Other Qualifications
Benefits
NCSC is proud to provide a comprehensive benefits package for our regular full-time and regular part-time employees, consisting of:
Insurance
- Medical Insurance: PPO, HDHP options (HMO option for VA residents)
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Employer Paid Life Insurance for Employee + Family
- Employer Paid Accidental Death Insurance
- Employer Paid Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
- 125 Plan
- Employee Assistance Program
Retirement- Retirement: Money Purchase Plan Pension account (9% of salary)
- Retirement Option: 403B
Paid Time Off - All Purpose Leave (APL)
- Paid Holidays (10)
Other Benefits- Education Assistance
- Paid Training and Development
- Qualifying Employer for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness under 501(c)(3)
The annual starting salary for this role is between $120,640 - $140,000. Factors that affect starting pay within the range include education, experience, and other qualifications as they relate to the position.
Join our Team!This position closes on April 13, 2026. Please submit your resume and cover letter in addition to your completed NCSC application. For reference, include professional references only with at least one previous or current supervisor.
NCSC is an equal opportunity/disability/veteran employer.