Regional Legal Counsel (Spanish speaking) – Houston, Texas

Regional Legal Counsel (Spanish speaking)

A FTSE 250 global manufacturing business is looking to appoint their first Regional Legal Counsel responsible for the US, Canada and South America. Fluency in Spanish is essential. The role is ideally based in Houston, however can also be based in North Carolina or New York State.

This new role will assume significant responsibility within the legal department in the provision of legal advice and assistance across the US, Canada and South America plants and operations of the group.  Pro-actively advising CEO and directors on legal matters and taking a hands-on lead in case work. 

Main Responsibilities

• You will assume responsibility for a diverse load of legal matters which will include key areas of high significance and / or risk to the group.
• You will be reviewing, revising and negotiating contracts for large projects and ancillary documentation for group divisions and subsidiaries across US, Canada and South America will be an important part of this work.
• The work will also cover all areas relevant to international trading and therefore enquiries can include all of the following examples: agent and distribution agreements, collaboration and  non disclosure agreements, company incorporations, freehold and leasehold property acquisition, standard terms enquiries or reviews, export control, bribery and corruption issues, intellectual property rights, disputes and infringements, employment issues,  commercial disputes and managing litigation in other jurisdictions, banking and lending related matters.
• You will be leading day to day legal matters
• You can expect a leading role in offering initiatives and insights to develop processes and shared best practices
• You will be the sole counsel for this region for the first few months and you will be responsible for developing the legal function by hiring a junior legal counsel later in the year

Minimum requirements:

• At least 7 years commercial legal experience ideally both in private practice and industry.
• Fluency in Spanish

• Be able to reference skills and successes in a range of legal projects and roles, demonstrating effective quality delivery with commercial awareness
• Capable of dealing with and managing a large, diverse heavy caseload prioritizing where required whilst managing the expectations of relevant managers and directors
• Experience of managing others would be beneficial
• Capable of quickly gaining trust and confidence of managers and directors across the group

* We do not preclude applications on PQE level and all applications will be reviewed on merit.