Paralegal – Trade Licensing Management

Job Description

Paralegal | Kelso Industries

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at Kelso Industries, supporting operations across the nation. Kelso Industries is a substantial organization with over 3,500 employees across 30 companies, dedicated to delivering exceptional HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, refrigeration, and electrical solutions nationwide. This newly created Paralegal position is critical for managing state and local trade licensing, building scalable processes, and providing essential legal support across the company’s growing portfolio.

The TL;DR
• Role: Experienced Professional
• Type: Full-time

• Mission: Manages state and local trade licensing to ensure compliance and support the corporate, compliance, and operational legal needs across a diverse portfolio of companies.
• Tech Stack: Licensing software solution

What You’ll Actually Do
• Manage Corporate & Compliance Records: Maintain legal entity records for all portfolio companies, support new entity formation, foreign qualification filings, and assist in selecting and managing registered agent and annual report service providers to ensure corporate governance.
• Direct Trade Licensing Program: Oversee the comprehensive tracking, application, renewal, and ongoing maintenance of state and local trade licenses across Kelso Industries’ operating companies, including implementing and managing a dedicated software solution for efficiency.
• Administer Contract Processes: Maintain a centralized repository for customer, vendor, and lease agreements, coordinate the execution of finalized agreements, and contribute to the development of standard contract templates and process checklists to streamline operations.
• Support Litigation Efforts: Provide critical assistance for litigation matters by helping manage outside counsel relationships, monitoring legal spend, coordinating litigation holds, and facilitating internal document and communication production.
• Implement Compliance Policies: Help develop and implement internal compliance policies, such as those related to privacy, ethics, and anti-bribery, and support internal audits and investigations to uphold company standards.

The Must-Haves
• Background: An experienced professional with a client-service mindset, focused on supporting legal functions within a corporate environment, particularly for a growing organization in the MEP+ sector.
• Experience: Demonstrated experience managing construction licenses, ideally across multiple states, combined with practical experience supporting diverse legal needs in a corporate setting.
• Skills: Proven ability in legal entity record maintenance, trade licensing administration, contract lifecycle management, and litigation support coordination; highly organized, self-motivated, and detail-oriented.
• Bonus: Familiarity with lien filings; a collaborative mindset, a sense of humor, and enthusiasm for building new, scalable processes within a growing legal function.