Assistant General Counsel - Agricultural Real Estate Mortgage Lending

MetLife • Full-time • Whippany, New Jersey, United States • 2w ago

Alternative Location(s)

Posting Location: Whippany, New Jersey

Posting Location: Chicago, Illinois

Posting Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Description and Requirements

The Team You Will Join

In Government & Legal Affairs, you'll be an engaged and trusted partner - empowered to deliver innovative solutions, influence public policy, and achieve results that enable MetLife’s growth and protect its global interests. Applying a commercial and contemporary mindset, you'll advocate for what’s possible, overcome challenges, and embrace different perspectives. If you also pride yourself on acting with accountability, transparency, and respect, apply to join our Government & Legal Affairs team today.

The Opportunity

The Assistant General Counsel will join MetLife Investment Management’s (“MIM”) Investments Law group as Practice Group Lead (PGL) for Agricultural Investments. The PGL will be the central legal contact and accountable lawyer for MIM's $24 billion agricultural mortgage loan platform, covering farm and ranch, agribusiness, and timber assets in the U.S. and Latin America, from origination through servicing, special servicing, and portfolio management. The PGL helps set legal direction and policy for the program, directs matter workflow across the broader legal team, and serves as strategic advisor to senior business leaders at the Overland Park headquarters.

The role also serves as a senior subject matter expert for MIM's residential credit and private asset-based finance (ABF) businesses, including secondary residential whole loan acquisitions, single family rental lending, private structured finance investments, and related fund strategies. The ideal candidate is a versatile attorney with sound judgment and executive presence who can structure and negotiate complex transactions, distill complex legal and regulatory issues into practical recommendations and partner effectively with business, compliance, risk, tax, accounting, and other stakeholders.

Scope and Impact of the Role:

Platform scale: Legal accountability for a $24 billion agricultural investment portfolio spanning the U.S. and Latin America, with enterprise-wide reach across MIM, its strategies, and its affiliated and non-affiliated clients.
Business impact: Privately sourced agricultural, residential and ABF investments help MIM meet its investment income objectives. Legal structuring and negotiation directly influence deal terms, pricing, risk allocation, and the competitiveness of MIM's origination platform.
Single point of accountability: Serves as the recognized subject matter expert and primary legal contact for senior business leaders, with accountability for the quality, speed, and cost of legal support.

Key Responsibilities

Serve as PGL and day-to-day legal contact for senior business leaders on the agricultural mortgage lending platform with accountability for the quality, speed, and cost of legal support.
Provide strategic counsel and thought leadership to key business decision makers on the structuring, underwriting, origination, and management of agricultural loans, residential whole loans, single family rental loans, and private ABF investments, weighing legal risk against business goals in line with applicable law and MIM policies and risk parameters.
Lead negotiations on complex, high-value mortgage and asset-based transactions, including loan documents, closing due diligence, loan purchase agreements, participations, intercreditor agreements, servicing, and custodial agreements, indentures, note purchase agreements, and credit agreements.
Select, direct, and manage to budget outside counsel on loan closings, servicing, special servicing, workouts, restructurings, litigation, special projects, and platform initiatives.
Set legal direction and policy for the agricultural mortgage loan program, and advise on new product development, fund strategies, and applicable investment management and insurance regulations.
Monitor legislative, regulatory, and market developments affecting agricultural, residential, and ABF lending, including state lending and licensing laws, and translate them into practical guidance.
Manage transaction workflow and assign matters across the legal team, and train and mentor junior attorneys, legal staff, and business clients on deal terms, processes, and best practices.
Identify and implement process improvements and best practices, including responsible use of artificial intelligence and legal technology, to make legal services more efficient and scalable.

Required Qualifications

A Juris Doctorate and excellent academic credentials from an accredited law school.
Active license to practice law in at least one state and a member in good standing of a bar; admitted to practice before the Kansas state bar, a member of a reciprocal bar, or able to receive a single-employer restricted license to practice law in Kansas (pursuant to Rule 721) within 90 days of employment start date.
At least 10 years of law firm or in-house experience leading the structuring, negotiation, and closing of complex real estate mortgage loan transactions, including agricultural, farm and ranch, agribusiness, or timber finance.
Demonstrated expertise across the mortgage loan lifecycle, from origination through workouts and restructurings.
Knowledge of federal and state mortgage lending laws and regulations, and of the legal and regulatory landscape for institutional investors, including commercial, licensing, and insurance laws.
Superior leadership and organizational skills, including experience directing legal work, mentoring attorneys, and establishing priorities across multiple complex matters.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with executive presence and a track record of building trusted partnerships with senior business leaders and compliance, risk, tax, and accounting stakeholders.
Awareness of current economic and market trends affecting institutional investors globally, and the ability to work in an environment that emphasizes collaboration, teamwork, mutual respect, and integrity.
Experience with or aptitude for leveraging artificial intelligence, legal technology, and data analytics to improve legal workflows and decision-making.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with residential whole loan, single family rental, or private ABF transactions.
Experience advising institutional investors, asset managers, or insurance company investment platforms on mortgage lending, loan acquisitions, dispositions, securitizations, or portfolio strategies.
Familiarity with insurance company investment regulations and related capital, risk-based, and investment management requirements.

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.

The expected salary range for this position is164,200 - 218,900. This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.

Benefits We Offer

Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more! For more information regarding MetLife’s U.S. benefits, please click here.

About MetLife

Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World’s 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world’s leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

As part of our New Frontier strategy, MetLife is building an AI-enabled, people-centered future. We’re looking for people who bring curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset as we use AI to enhance how we serve customers, support communities, and evolve the way work gets done. At MetLife, AI is a responsible partner that supports human judgment, creativity, and continuous improvement while helping us build trust, inclusion, and long-term value.

Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our core values - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, and Think Ahead - we’re inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it’s #AllTogetherPossible. Join us!

MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law (“protected characteristics”).

If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at accommodations@metlife.com. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.

MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.

This posting is for a current vacancy and is anticipated to remain open for at least 90 days from the listed posting date.