Assistant General Counsel
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Urban Homesteading Assistance U-HAB Inc, New York, NY, US
- Work setup
- Hybrid
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Internship
- Experience
- 1+ years
- Category
- Legal
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- J.D. from an accredited law school; admitted to the New York State Bar
- A minimum of 2 years of legal experience, including transactional real estate, lending, nonprofit, and/or affordable housing work
- Excellent legal research, writing, and verbal communication skills; strong negotiation and analytical skills
Nice to have
- Experience drafting and negotiating contracts, loan documents, or real estate transaction documents
- Experience with or familiarity with real estate lending, secured transactions, construction lending, and mortgage loan portfolio management is helpful; litigation experience may also be useful
- Experience handling real estate transactions and facilitating closings
- Knowledge of corporate governance and entity formation and maintenance
- Familiarity with housing cooperative law, community development finance, and/or public/private housing programs
- Experience representing affordable housing developers, HDFCs, or nonprofits
- Experience working with or within CDFIs, affordable housing development, or community-based organizations
Full description
Assistant General Counsel
Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
The Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) is seeking a mission-driven Assistant General Counsel to join our General Counsel's office. Reporting to the General Counsel, you will handle a broad mix of transactional, compliance, and governance work supporting UHAB's affordable housing programs and our CDFI lending arm, HomeOwnership Lending.
About UHAB
UHAB empowers low- to moderate-income residents to take control of their housing and enhance communities by creating strong tenant associations and lasting affordable co-ops. Since 1973, UHAB has helped form hundreds of tenant associations and transformed troubled rental buildings into 1,200 affordable co-ops, providing homeownership opportunities for over 25,000 families. With democratic community control at the core of our mission, we work to sustain this thriving affordable housing community for this generation and those to come.
We organize residents to be active participants and decision-makers in shaping their neighborhoods. UHAB's programs address a full spectrum of affordable housing needs: from building resident power and organizing tenants as community leaders, to developing thousands of units of affordable housing across the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, to making loans to first-time homeowners, to preserving affordable co-ops through training, education, and technical assistance. UHAB's programs address the needs of future generations through long-term solutions: developing new affordable co-ops, increasing energy efficiency and introducing renewable technologies, and strengthening housing policy.
At UHAB, we're more than a housing nonprofit—we're a movement for economic justice and community empowerment. We offer a supportive, values-driven workplace where your work makes a tangible impact on people's lives.
About the Office of the General Counsel
The Office of the General Counsel is UHAB's in-house legal team. Led by the General Counsel, the office serves as legal advisor to UHAB's executive team, Board of Directors, program staff, and affiliated entities, including HomeOwnership Lending, our CDFI. Its work spans nonprofit, real estate, lending, regulatory, and corporate law.
The office's work falls into five areas:
- Transactions: structuring, documenting, and closing real estate deals, including the acquisition, financing, rehabilitation, and conversion of distressed rental properties into affordable cooperatives, and negotiating the contracts, grant agreements, and loan documents that support UHAB's programs
- Compliance: managing compliance with the federal, state, and local laws that govern housing cooperatives, nonprofits, and CDFIs
- Governance and risk management: supporting the Board of Directors on bylaws, resolutions, and governance matters, developing organizational policies with the Executive Director, People & Culture, and program areas, leading internal legal trainings and risk assessments, and managing contractual risk by ensuring UHAB's agreements include appropriate indemnification and insurance protections