Legal Administrator

At Fogo de Chão, we strive to give our guests an unforgettable dining experience of discovery while showcasing the Culinary Art of Churrasco. Our mission is to ignite fire and joy to care for our team, our guests, and our communities. We believe better futures start when we bring our best to the table every day to Feed a Purposeful Future – starting with our team members.

We feed our teams with fulfilling job opportunities, making space around the table so everyone feels welcome. At Fogo, we’ll provide you with a fulfilling career with professional and personal growth opportunities at every level. Our values of teamwork, integrity, excellence, humility and Deixa Comigo (we’ve got you!) are more than just words, it’s how we do things every day.

Position Summary:

The Legal Administrator reports to the General Counsel and supports the Legal Department by keeping records, trackers, filings, permits, licenses, invoices, and deadlines organized and up to date across Fogo’s multi-state restaurant footprint. This role helps coordinate legal operations, new restaurant permits and liquor license applications, third-party licensing administrator activity, and department documentation for both existing locations and new restaurant openings, including expansion into states and jurisdictions where Fogo may be entering for the first time.

The ideal candidate is a proactive, highly organized self-starter who is detail-oriented, digitally proficient, and able to manage confidential administrative workflows with accuracy, urgency, sound judgment, and follow-through. This person is expected to take initiative, keep work moving with limited direction, manage competing priorities, and recognize when to escalate deadlines, risks, or missing information.

Key Responsibilities:

Administrative and Legal Operations Support:
Provide day-to-day administrative support to the Legal Department, including scheduling, signature coordination, invoice and fee processing, mailing/courier coordination, notarization coordination, meeting support, and other department needs.

Permit and License Applications:
Prepare, coordinate, and track permit and liquor license applications and related filings for new restaurants across multiple states and local jurisdictions, including existing markets and new states or municipalities where Fogo may not have previously operated. Work with agencies, municipalities, licensing consultants, outside counsel, and internal stakeholders to support timely submissions, follow-ups, and approvals.

Third-Party Licensing Administrator Management:
Coordinate renewal activity for restaurant licenses and permits across multiple states and jurisdictions, including status, deadlines, documentation, fees, escalations, and completion of filings.

Legal Document Library and SharePoint Management:
Save, organize, and maintain legal documents, naming conventions, folder structures, searchable files, permissions coordination, and active and historical records.

Trackers, Calendars and Reporting:
Maintain Legal Department trackers, including Smartsheet-based trackers, for contracts, permits and licenses, entities, deadlines, responsible parties, approvals, fees, renewal dates, filing dates, jurisdiction-specific requirements, new market application milestones, agency follow-ups, and supporting documents.

Payment, Invoice and Fee Processing:
Process licensing consultant invoices, outside counsel invoices, and other Legal Department payments.

Qualifications:

High school diploma required; associate's or bachelor's degree in Business, Legal Studies, Paralegal Studies, Records Management, or a related field preferred.
3-5 years of legal administrative, executive assistant, licensing coordinator, or comparable administrative experience.

Experience in-house, in a law firm, restaurant/hospitality, retail, multi-unit, franchise, multi-state, new market expansion, or consumer-facing business environment preferred.

Experience with multi-state liquor licensing, permitting, government filings, renewals, new location openings, new jurisdiction research, or state and local regulatory processes strongly preferred.

Strong organization, attention to…