Legal Adviser - ADS&T Division
- Recruiter
- Atkins Limited
- Location
- Epsom, Surrey
- Salary
- up to £65k + £4.5k car allowance depending on experience
- Posted
- 25 Mar 2015
- Closes
- 22 Apr 2015
- Job Title
- In House Counsel
- Practice Area
- Construction, Corporate, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Telecommunications
- PQE Level
- 2-4
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
Legal Adviser - ADS&T Division
Office based in Epsom with travel to London, Bristol and Aldershot on a regular basis
Job Description
An excellent in-house opportunity has arisen in Atkins for a motivated 2-4 year PQE lawyer from a construction, projects, corporate, disputes or commercial background to work as lawyer to the ADS&T division within the UK segment of Atkins, the largest engineering consultancy in the UK, the largest multi-disciplinary consultancy in Europe and the seventh largest design house in the world.
The ADS&T division brings together the capabilities of our Management Consultants (MC) and Defence, Aerospace and Communications (DAC) teams to provide an enhanced client-side advisory capability, coupled with design delivery. It also extends the engineering expertise Atkins provides into high technology markets such as defence, aerospace and security, plus government, aviation, telecoms and infrastructure.
You will have experience working for a leading private practice law firm and/or have relevant in-house legal experience. You will be working on acquisitions and disposals, setting up complex joint ventures, managing disputes such as PI claims and advising the commercial team on contract negotiations. Your primary role will be as legal adviser to ADS&T but you will also be working alongside a team of lawyers delivering legal advice to other UK divisions and Group functions and so you will be required to take on work from other areas as workload peaks and troughs across the legal team, reporting to the UK Legal Director. You may also be required to take on further businesses in addition to ADS&T as the legal team develops and/or the UK segment restructures.
Requirements
Essential
- Excellent academic qualifications (including degree)
- Training contract with a leading private practice law firm with relevant post qualification experience in-house and/or in private practice
- 2 – 4 year’s PQE
- Requirement to attend all ADS&T board meetings and project meetings across the UK
- Excellent drafting skills and excellent attention to detail
- Sound commercial judgement
- Good organisational and communication skills
- Ability to deal with in-house clients at all levels including the senior management of the organisation
- Ability to thrive in a small, close-knit team
Desirable
- Experience in any of the following areas:construction, corporate, disputes or commercial contracts
- In-house legal experience: relevant secondment or otherwise
- Willingness to be involved in the training of others
Responsibilities
- Reviewing a wide variety of contract documents, including consultancy agreements, industry standard documents (LOGIC, FIDIC, NEC3), collateral warranties, parent company guarantees, confidentiality agreements, and master services agreements.
- Assisting with the negotiation of sale and purchase agreements and the negotiation and drafting of joint venture agreements.
- Assisting in evaluating disputes brought against/by the company and managing the resolution of those claims with the business units and insurers.
- Liaising with and assisting in managing external lawyers on litigation and all other matters including tribunal claims, M&A work, large and complex non-contentious matters and professional negligence claims.
- Advising the HR function on matters of employment law relevant to the businesses (including TUPE regulations) and any new legislation.
- Liaising with other Group Corporate functions (Tax, Treasury, Insurance, Company Secretary, Compliance).
- Assisting in the maintenance, development and drafting of standard terms and conditions and policies, procedures and guidance notes.
- Training of staff within the business on legal/commercial developments or issues.
- Attending board meetings, commercial forum meetings, stage gate reviews and quarterly business reviews in multi locations across Atkins’ offices or wherever required.