Job Description – Junior Legal Counsel

Castellan Real Estate Partners - India (Remote)

Job Title: Junior Legal Counsel

Location: Remote (India)

Work Hours: 4:00 PM – 1:00 AM IST

About the Role

We are seeking a skilled and detail-oriented Junior Legal Counsel with a license to practice law in the United States to join the in-house legal team to support its U.S. real estate platform across legal, operational, transactional, litigation, compliance, and corporate governance matters.

This is a hands-on in-house role requiring strong drafting and review skills, practical legal research, matter-management discipline, and the ability to convert legal analysis into clear, business-friendly guidance for internal stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of real estate, corporate, commercial, and operational documents, including purchase & sale agreements, NDA’s, lease agreements, listing agreements, leasing documents, internal as well as external policies, corporate documents, and operational guidelines.

Conduct legal research for complex legal issues ranging across affordable housing, landlord tenant disputes, land use, fair housing, data privacy, and construction defects on a federal or state level.

Support day-to-day legal needs for Castellan’s property management and asset management operations, including landlord-tenant issues, rent-stabilized and free-market leasing workflows, renewal packages, rent notices, tenant disputes, delinquency/recovery processes, fair housing and operational compliance, and coordination with property management teams.

Conduct legal research and prepare concise internal guidance on U.S. federal, state, and local legal issues, including New York and California real estate law, landlord-tenant law, rent stabilization, good cause eviction, affordable housing regulations, land use/zoning, construction law, fair housing, data privacy, corporate governance, lending, insurance coverage, and litigation procedure.

Support pre-litigation processes by collating, organizing and reviewing internal documentation for potential disputes and assist in early-stage case assessments as well as external counsel handoff, status tracking, settlement documentation, preparing case summaries and maintaining litigation trackers across the organization.

Coordinate with outside counsel on landlord-tenant, recovery, construction defect, insurance, corporate, affordable housing, and other active matters, including tracking deadlines, follow-ups, document requests, budgets, invoices, and next steps.

Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to address legal issues and provide legal advice across verticals and cross-functional teams, including acquisitions, finance, investor relations, asset management/property management, construction, lending and IT/AI teams.

Conduct a detailed review of various legal documents to ensure accuracy, relevance, and compliance with applicable legal standards.

Maintain and regularly update legal trackers, litigation/recovery trackers, regulatory update databases, document-management systems, template libraries, and other internal legal operations tools.

Monitor significant legal and regulatory developments affecting Castellan’s business, including New York and California real estate, landlord-tenant, construction, affordable housing, and compliance developments, and provide timely, concise updates to the legal team.

Support document management and internal project tracking, ensuring organized, up-to date legal files and records. Assist with implementation and improvement of legal operations processes, including DocuSign/e-signature workflows, document retention, matter intake, internal checklists, playbooks, and AI/technology-enabled legal workflows.

Take on additional legal responsibilities as needed in support of business priorities.

Qualifications & Skills:

Law degree from a recognized institution.

Active license to practice law in at least one US jurisdiction (preferably California or New York) – Strictly required .

Approximately 1–4 years of relevant legal experience preferred, ideally in real estate, corporate/commercial, litigation support, landlord-tenant, affordable housing, construction, lending, or in-house legal operations.

Experience in contract drafting and negotiation, litigation support, and legal research.

Strong attention to detail, excellent drafting, analytical and communication skills.

Working knowledge of California and/or New York laws and regulations, particularly in real estate, landlord-tenant disputes and affordable housing.

Ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, and stakeholders across time zones in a fast-paced in-house environment.

High attention to detail, sound judgment, confidentiality, ownership, responsiveness, and ability to escalate issues appropriately.