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Salary: USD 170,000 - 196,000 / annual
Ascent Developer Solutions is a private lending platform serving real estate developers nationwide in acquisition, renovation, and construction of residential real estate. The company is seeking an entrepreneurial mid- to senior-level real estate attorney to join its growing legal team as VP, Real Estate Transactions Attorney.
Reporting to the General Counsel, you will work closely with credit, loan officer, operations, and executive teams to provide transactional and strategic legal guidance. The role focuses strategically on loan originations (including work on the loan origination platform and processes), negotiations, modifications, and enforcement matters across Ascent's nation-wide footprint. Ascent provides short-term, secured business-purpose loans to developers for purchase, renovation, construction, and bridge financing of single-family and multi-family assets.
Key responsibilities include:
- Draft, review, and negotiate loan documents including loan agreements, promissory notes, guarantees, security instruments (deeds of trust/mortgages), intercreditor and subordination agreements, and repurchase agreements
- Advise internal stakeholders on legal structure, risk allocation, and compliance considerations
- Coordinate with operational colleagues, external counsel, and title/escrow agents on closing logistics
- Review borrower entity documents, organizational charts, and SPE/separateness compliance
- Support structuring and creation/modification of programmatic elements for construction loans, bridge loans, and loan participations
- Provide guidance on state-specific legal requirements, lien priorities, and enforceability, including enforcement matters
- Draft term sheets, letters of intent, and modification and forbearance agreements
- Collaborate with leadership on default scenarios and workouts
- Support capital markets transactions, including warehouse facility negotiations, securitization document review, and investor-side legal diligence
- Create and maintain legal documentation templates, checklists, and best practices
- Foster a team-oriented environment within the legal/compliance team
This is an opportunity to help build and shape the legal function at a high-growth company with meaningful visibility to senior leadership and direct impact on the business. The ideal candidate thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and loves creating novel deal structures.
Requirements:
- J.D. from an accredited law school and active license in good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction
- 8+ years of relevant experience in real estate finance law, preferably with a lender, law firm, bank, debt fund, or institutional investor
- Demonstrated track record with complex deals and program structuring for real estate secured lending, including construction
- Effective communicator with ability to engage stakeholders across departments and management levels
- Comfort liaising with and leading loan servicing, workouts, and enforcement matters
- Experience in highly collaborative environment, fostering entrepreneurial culture, driving growth, and demonstrating leadership in problem-solving and innovation
- Ability to manage wide array of tasks across multiple product and business lines, with multiple concurrent transactions, and within nation-wide footprint
- Proactive, growth- and risk-oriented mindset with focus on results
- Strong experience in capital markets transactions highly preferred and will be significant differentiator
