Paralegal / Legal Assistant -, Johannesburg

Paralegal & Operations Associate

Employment Type: Full time, independent contractor

Work Model: Remote

Work Hours: US East Coast (EST) Business Hours Alignment

 

Role Summary

We are seeking an agile, highly organized, and tech-forward AI-Forward Corporate Paralegal & Operations Associate to lead our corporate governance, multi-entity compliance, and document management infrastructure.

This role is not for someone who needs a highly structured, corporate ladder environment. We are scaling rapidly and need a proactive builder who loves stepping into unstructured, fast-paced environments, creating order from chaos, and establishing bulletproof internal legal operations.

The ideal candidate possesses strong foundational paralegal skills but stands out by being highly AI-literate (expert proficiency with Claude or similar LLMs), using advanced prompting to radically accelerate contract reviews, documentation organization, and meeting workflows.

Key Responsibilities

Corporate Governance & Multi-Entity Management

• Entity Compliance: Own the end-to-end compliance lifecycles for multiple corporate entities across various jurisdictions (filings, annual renewals, local requirements).

• Board & Shareholder Secretarial Support: Coordinate board and shareholder meetings, build comprehensive agendas, track quorum, and draft precise corporate minutes.

• Corporate Records: Maintain and audit the company’s structural records, including capitalization tables, operating agreements, stock certificates, and organizational charts.

Contract Operations & Documentation Management

• AI-Assisted Contract Review: Execute initial legal reviews, syntax auditing, and data extraction on inbound contracts, NDAs, vendor agreements, and master service agreements using AI tools.

• Document Architecture: Build, catalog, and strictly maintain a unified, highly searchable digital data room and contract management system (CMS).

• Workflow Automation: Utilize modern AI tools (specifically Claude) to summarize dense legal agreements, generate template first drafts, draft board resolutions, and build actionable compliance checklists.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Experience: 3–5+ years of experience working as a corporate paralegal, legal operations associate, or corporate secretary—ideally in a fast-growing startup, law firm, or multi-entity ecosystem.

• AI & Tech Literacy: Advanced, daily operational proficiency with AI models (specifically Claude) for workflow acceleration. You should know how to prompt an LLM to accurately ingest, analyze, and format legal data without hallucinating details.

• Governance Foundations: Direct, hands-on experience organizing board/shareholder meetings and writing formal corporate minutes.

• The "Unstructured" Mindset: A proven history of entering early-stage, fast-moving environments and independently building processes where none previously existed.

• Meticulous Execution: Zero-defect attention to detail regarding legal naming conventions, entity distinctions, execution dates, and compliance deadlines.

• Logistics: Exceptional written and verbal English communication skills. Ability to work a full-time schedule tightly aligned with US East Coast business hours.

Preferred Qualifications

• A formal degree in Law, Paralegal Studies, or an active professional corporate secretarial certification.

• Deep familiarity with US corporate frameworks (e.g., Delaware corporate law).

• Experience utilizing equity management platforms (e.g., Carta) and tech-forward contract tools.

Success Metrics (KPIs)

• Data Room Integrity: Transitioning old, fragmented contract files into a 100% indexed, audit-ready global documentation architecture.

• Meeting Lifecycle Speed: Compressing the time between a live board meeting adjourning and final, polished minutes being routed via Claude optimization.

• Compliance Accuracy: Zero missed filing dates or lapse penalties across all active corporate entities under management.