Director, Legal Affairs & Operations

About this role

Banyan Software is the best permanent home for software businesses that serve specialized industries, their employees, and their customers. We are on a mission to acquire, build, and grow great companies worldwide, helping them modernize through shared AI expertise and operational discipline. The Banyan Software Foundation, endowed with $100 million in Banyan stock, leverages technology to build a greener and more equitable world. Banyan is Great Place to Work Certified, a five-time Inc. 5000 honoree, and a top 10 company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Atlanta, Banyan operates more than 100 portfolio companies across North America, the UK, EU, and APAC.

Director, Legal Affairs & Operations

Banyan Software | Toronto, ON (Hybrid - 3 days onsite) | Head Office Legal Team

This is not a typical in-house legal role. It is one of the most unique opportunities in the market for a commercially minded lawyer, and one of the most demanding.

You will serve as the primary legal resource for Banyan's growing portfolio of independent software businesses, acting as shared in-house counsel for a diverse group of operators who are running their businesses, not their legal function. At the same time, you will work directly alongside the General Counsel on Banyan HQ matters, including procurement, corporate governance, HQ employment, and commercial disputes (including purchase agreement claims with sellers post-close).

The role is primarily focused on North America, with connectivity to Banyan's UK/European and Australian teams as needed.

You will have direct reports: who support the broader legal function across the portfolio.

What makes this role unique is that it operates at two speeds simultaneously: reactive enough to be a trusted advisor when portfolio companies face a real legal problem, and strategic enough to build the infrastructure (templates, playbooks, training, and systems) that lets those same companies help themselves. You are not the bottleneck. You are the person who makes sure there does not need to be one.

This role is best suited to someone who has thrived in a lean, high-growth environment and finds energy in breadth rather than depth. The ability to context-switch quickly, operate with a light touch, and build things that scale is what makes someone successful here.

What You'll Do

Portfolio Company Shared Services

• Lead post-close legal onboarding for newly acquired portfolio companies: review their existing contract stack, identify gaps and risks, align templates and processes with Banyan standards, and build the foundation for the OpCo to manage its own commercial matters going forward. The goal is independence, not dependence. Once set up correctly, OpCos run their own commercial negotiations

• Maintain and develop a roster of overflow counsel across North America who service OpCo day-to-day legal needs, billing the OpCo directly. You train this network on Banyan standards and best practices and serve as the quality control layer across the relationship.

• Manage IP matters for the global portfolio through a dedicated external law firm relationship, coordinating filings, renewals, enforcement questions, and strategic IP matters on behalf of portfolio companies

• Advise portfolio companies on commercial disputes and litigation, engaging and managing external counsel where the matter warrants it. You are the strategic lead; you bring in the right resources at the right time

• Advise portfolio companies on high-risk employment matters, including executive employment contracts, complex or sensitive terminations, and escalated HR-adjacent legal questions that require counsel involvement

• Manage privacy and data incidents across the portfolio, working with Banyan's cyber insurance carriers and information security team to coordinate incident response, breach notifications, and remediation efforts

• Serve as a resource for the full range of strategic legal questions that arise across a diverse portfolio: real estate matters, product and technology questions, regulatory and compliance issues, and anything else that genuinely warrants legal input. If it is material to the business, it finds its way here

Portfolio Enablement - Your Biggest Impact

• Build and maintain a self-serve legal resource library: template contracts, negotiation playbooks, approval checklists, and plain-language guidance that empowers operators to move independently

• Design and run lunch and learn sessions and legal education programming for portfolio company teams across North America and beyond, no law degree required to understand

• Create the kind of materials that answer questions before they are asked, reducing legal friction and building operator confidence at scale

• Champion the principle that accessible legal infrastructure is a competitive advantage for the businesses we support, and prove it

HQ Legal Matters

• Serve as the General Counsel's right hand on all strategic legal matters at the Banyan level. This is a broad mandate: the GC's priorities…