Paralegal

Location

This position will be based in Kingsport, TN.

This Paralegal role will support our Corporate and Commercial Legal attorneys in various corporate, commercial, finance, real estate, and bankruptcy matters.

Responsibilities

Corporate:
•    Assisting with preparation, execution and maintenance of documentation and governance materials for North America and Latin America subsidiaries (back-up for Eastman Chemical Company, Europe, Middle East, Africa subsidiaries and Asia Pacific subsidiaries)
•    Maintaining Eastman’s global entity management system (GEMS) as subject matter expert and providing training to GEMS users
•    Preparing reports and organizational charts for auditing purposes and for use by Treasury, Tax, PWC, and Legal
•    Preparing documents related to corporate reorganization plans, new entity formation, entity dissolution
•    Responsible for maintaining and updating delegations of authority for Eastman Chemical Company’s, North American and Latin American subsidiaries 
•    Maintaining hard copy minute books for global legal entities
•    Generating and Maintaining Legal Entity Locations List 
•    Supporting mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and joint venture initiatives
•    Maintaining closing documents for past mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures
•    Liaising with registered agents and outside counsel
•    Supporting Treasury transactional financings and/or re-financings
•    Researching requirements for document legalization based on Hague Convention of 1961 and State apostille/authentication procedures and then notarizing and processing documents to be used in various countries based on respective requirements
•    Creating forms and templates related to corporate governance for subsidiaries
•    Supporting commercial business attorneys
•    Supporting business organizations
     o    Answering questions regarding approval and signatory authority for respective entities
     o    Drafting or revising corporate governance documents, delegations of authority, powers of attorney based on business organization restructuring
     o    Providing information as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) requests
     o    Drafting Secretary and Incumbency Certificates
     o    Creating simplified ownership structures

 
Commercial:

•    Assist lawyers with initial drafting, formatting, and redlining of documents, including commercial sales contracts.
•    Ensure receipt of due diligence items; review and summarize same.
•    Request and review entity documents for each entity involved in the transaction.

Finance:
•    Assist in ordering and reviewing UCC searches and filings.
•    Assist in ordering and reviewing opinion letters. 
•    Draft Secretary/Officer Certificates in support of finance transactions.

Real Estate:
•    Order and review title work and commitments for title insurance.
•    Review surveys and summarize any exceptions or discrepancies noted therein.
•    Interact with outside counsel and communicate transaction progress to internal team members.

Bankruptcy:
•    Review bankruptcy dockets and filings and summarize same.
•    Preparation and filing of bankruptcy proofs of claim.
•    Calendar deadlines incident to bankruptcy matters.

Qualifications

•    Bachelor’s degree and/or paralegal certification from an accredited college or university 
•    5-years’ experience in a law firm or corporate law department
•    Strong organizational skills with attention to detail
•    Ability to adapt and respond to challenges in a changing environment
•    Well-developed interpersonal skills
•    High degree of verbal and written communication skills
•    Understanding of and compliance with confidentiality policies and company/attorney-client privilege requirements
•    Experience supporting corporate mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, particularly with respect to due diligence, data rooms, disclosure schedules and closing documentation preferred 
•    Understanding of corporate organizational structures, governance and legal principles impacting legal entity operations
•    Familiarity with corporate delegations of authority, secretary of state certificates of good standing, corporate resolutions, and certificates of incumbency and authority
•    Substantive experience with UCC and bankruptcy filings is preferred
•    Initiative to work with limited supervision and to seek input as needed
•    Ability to handle multiple tasks
•    Ability to recognize needs and solve problems, anticipating issues and developing solutions
•    Proficiency in Outlook, Excel, Word, Visio, Adobe Pro, SAP, GEMS is desirable 

NOTE

Eastman will not accept applicants for this offered position who require visa sponsorship, including those whose status is F-1 visa OPT who subsequently would require ongoing visa sponsorship.