Legal Specialist IV - Akron FirstEnergy Headquarters

FirstEnergy at a Glance

FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence.

Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, FirstEnergy comprises one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric systems based on serving six million customers in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Our diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped storage hydro and other renewables.

About the Opportunity

This is a position with FirstEnergy Service Co., a subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp.

The Legal Department supports FirstEnergy’s customer contracting strategy by providing legal and commercial support for utility service agreements, amendments, and related documents, with primary emphasis on large commercial and data center customers.

The successful candidate will support the Legal Department and collaborate with National Accounts, Customer Accounts, Economic Development, Operations, Engineering, Finance, Regulatory, and other business partners on contract drafting, review, administration, and execution. This role is critical to helping FirstEnergy execute customer agreements efficiently, support large-load and data center growth, and protect the company’s legal and commercial interests.

The role supports attorneys and business partners by preparing materials, tracking contract issues, coordinating approvals, maintaining contract files, and helping move agreements efficiently through the contracting process.

The position reports to the Vice President, Associate General Counsel (Securities, Corporate, Finance, M&A, Commercial, Environmental, Benefits), who is located at the corporate headquarters in Akron, Ohio. 

Reporting Relationship

This position reports to an attorney and performs work under attorney supervision. The role supports legal and commercial contracting processes but does not independently render legal advice or perform attorney-only functions.

Key Responsibilities 

• Draft, revise, and maintain customer contract templates, standard forms, exhibits, and related contract language for utility service agreements and related commercial documents.

• Review customer-proposed terms, redlines, and non-standard provisions. Summarize key issues and coordinate recommendations with attorneys and business partners.

• Support negotiations of commercial terms under attorney supervision, including coordination of changes to standard and non-standard contract language and escalation of high-risk issues.
• Manage contract intake, routing, approval, signature, execution, and storage processes to ensure timely movement of customer agreements through the contract lifecycle.
• Track contract status, key dates, milestones, renewals, amendments, expiration dates, notices, obligations, and open issues; maintain reliable records and follow-up with internal stakeholders.
• Coordinate with legal, customer account, economic development, operations, engineering, finance, risk, and regulatory teams regarding contract terms, customer requests, service obligations, and implementation issues.

• Assist attorneys and business teams in identifying and documenting legal, commercial, and operational risks in customer contract terms, including confidentiality, indemnity, limitation of liability, term and termination, billing, service obligations, and security or credit support provisions.

• Prepare contract summaries, issue lists, status reports, trackers, and metrics related to contract requests, turnaround times, execution status, renewals, and workflow performance.
• Conduct legal and commercial research on standard contract terms, internal precedent, and related utility/customer contracting issues, and compile findings for attorney review.
• Maintain organized contract files, manage version control, and ensure accurate storage and retrieval of executed agreements, amendments, correspondence, and supporting documentation.
• Draft correspondence, summaries, and internal communications related to contract status, contract issues, signature packages, and customer follow-up items.
• Support due diligence requests, document collection, and issue resolution related to customer contract matters, including assistance with audits, disputes, and regulatory or legal requests as directed by attorneys. 
• Perform other legal support and contract administration duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in paralegal studies, legal studies, business, or a related discipline.
• Four or more years of relevant experience in legal support, paralegal work, contract administration, commercial contracting, or customer agreement administration.
• Experience drafting, reviewing, and tracking contracts, redlines, amendments, and related legal and commercial documentation.
• Strong writing, proofreading, organization, and attention-to-detail skills.
• Strong project coordination and deadline management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a deadline-driven environment.
• Ability to work effectively with attorneys, business teams, and external counterparties while handling confidential and sensitive information appropriately.
• Strong communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work under attorney supervision and escalate legal or commercial questions appropriately.
• Ability to respond to internal client needs in a manner consistent with corporate values, business objectives, and risk tolerance.

Preferred Qualifications

• ABA Paralegal Certification or equivalent preferred.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, especially Word, Excel, Outlook, Copilot, and PowerPoint; experience with document management and contract lifecycle systems preferred.
• Experience supporting utility, energy, infrastructure, or regulated-industry customer contracts; exposure to master service agreements, amendments, notices, and other commercial contract documents.
• Familiarity with contract repositories, SharePoint, SAP, NetDocuments, or similar systems.
• Experience partnering with regulatory, engineering, operations, construction, finance, or economic development teams.

Benefits, Compensation & Workforce Diversity

At FirstEnergy, employees are key to our success. We depend on their talents to meet the challenges of our changing business environment. We are committed to rewarding individual and team efforts through our total rewards philosophy which includes competitive pay plus incentive compensation, a company-sponsored pension plan, 401(k) savings plan with matching employer contribution, a choice of medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, and life insurance programs, as well as skills development training with tuition reimbursement. Please visit our website at www.firstenergycorp.com to learn more about all of our employee rewards programs. FirstEnergy proudly supports workforce diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with a disability. No recruiters or agencies without a previously signed contract. Unable to sponsor or transfer H-1B visas at this time.

Safety

Safety is a core value for FirstEnergy and is essential to all of our business activities. We ensure employees have the tools, information, and processes to perform their duties in a manner that assures safety for themselves, their co-workers, our customers and the public. Our goals are to provide a safe work environment, to maintain an accident-free, injury-free workplace, and to promote and maintain public safety. To meet these goals, we dedicate ourselves to achieving world-class safety standards.