Vice President, Legal in Scottsdale, Arizona at Cogir Senior Living

About the Role

Cogir Senior Living is seeking a practical, business-minded Vice President, Legal to support our U.S. senior living operations, risk management strategy, and continued growth across a multi-state platform.

This senior legal role will partner closely with executive leadership, operations, HR, risk management, finance, and other cross-functional teams to provide timely, thoughtful, and solutions-oriented legal guidance. The VP, Legal will serve as a key legal advisor to the business, helping leaders navigate operational, regulatory, contractual, employment, and dispute-resolution matters in a way that balances legal risk with business and resident-care priorities.

This is a senior individual contributor role with significant visibility and influence across the organization.

Why Join Cogir

Cogir Senior Living is a growing organization serving seniors and their families across multiple states. This role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in a mission-driven environment while helping shape legal strategy, strengthen risk management practices, and build scalable legal processes for a growing senior living platform.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work closely with senior leadership, advise on complex and meaningful issues, and contribute to operational excellence across the organization.

What You’ll Do

Serve as a trusted legal advisor to U.S. operations and executive leadership on day-to-day legal matters affecting senior living communities.

Provide practical legal guidance on resident-related matters, operational risk, dispute resolution, community-level issues, and regulatory considerations.

• Draft, review, negotiate, and support the management of commercial contracts, vendor agreements, service provider agreements, resident-related agreements, operational agreements, and other business-critical documents.
• Partner with operations, risk management, insurance partners, and outside counsel to support effective claims management, dispute resolution, and risk mitigation.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders and outside counsel on litigation and dispute-resolution matters, including administrative proceedings, settlements, threatened claims, active litigation, and defense strategy.
• Advise on legal and regulatory matters affecting senior living operations, including licensing, resident rights, care-related regulations, investigations, incident response, and state-specific compliance requirements.
• Support the development, implementation, and refinement of policies, procedures, legal processes, and operational guidance that promote consistency, compliance, resident safety, and effective risk management.
• Provide legal counsel on complex or escalated employment-related matters in partnership with HR, including sensitive employee relations issues, mediations, investigations, litigation, and employment-related risk.
• Manage outside counsel relationships across litigation, resident-related matters, employment matters, regulatory matters, and specialized legal projects, with a focus on quality, efficiency, cost control, and practical outcomes.
• Provide legal support on select corporate, governance, and transactional matters in coordination with the General Counsel, internal legal colleagues, and outside counsel.
• Identify legal risks and provide proactive, business-oriented recommendations that support operational excellence and sound decision-making.
• Help strengthen legal department processes, including matter tracking, contract and file organization, documentation practices, outside counsel coordination, and scalable workflows.

What You’ll Bring

• Juris Doctor degree from an accredited law school.
• Active bar membership in Arizona, or eligibility to practice in Arizona through applicable multi-state or in-house counsel registration.
• Minimum of 5 years of legal experience, preferably with a combination of law firm and in-house corporate experience.
• Strong experience with operational legal support, commercial contracts, risk management, litigation oversight, claims management, and employment-related legal matters.
• Experience advising multi-state organizations on legal, regulatory, operational, and compliance issues.
• Experience partnering with senior leadership, operations, HR, risk management, finance, and outside counsel to resolve complex legal and business issues.
• Demonstrated ability to provide practical, business-oriented legal advice to both executive leaders and field operators.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to manage sensitive and confidential matters.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment with evolving priorities and significant matter volume.
• Demonstrated success operating in a private-sector or similarly demanding environment with high accountability, shifting priorities, and cross-functional collaboration.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in senior living, long-term care, healthcare, hospitality, or another multi-site service-oriented industry is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with federal and state senior living regulations, including licensing, compliance, resident rights, care-related requirements, incident response, and healthcare-related legal requirements.
• Experience working with insurance carriers, brokers, claims professionals, and outside counsel on liability claims, resident-related matters, employment claims, or similar issues.
• Experience managing legal matters across multiple states.
• Experience developing or refining operational policies, incident-response protocols, risk management processes, legal workflows, or claims-management practices.
• Experience with real estate transactions, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, corporate structuring, land use, or development matters related to senior living communities is helpful but not required.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a pragmatic, collaborative, and operations-oriented legal leader who is comfortable working closely with executives, HR leaders, risk management, and community operations teams. This individual will be nimble, flexible, and solutions-oriented, with the ability to navigate shifting priorities and provide clear, actionable legal guidance in a growing organization.

The strongest candidate will bring sound legal judgment, a proactive risk-management mindset, and the ability to quickly assess operational legal risks, build relationships across the business, and create practical action plans. Direct experience in senior living, long-term care, healthcare, or a similar multi-site service environment is highly valued.

Work Location and Travel

This role is based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with occasional travel to communities or business locations as needed.