In-House Legal Counsel (4-10 PQE) - FORTUNE 100 Technology - London or Thames Valley
- Recruiter
- Found Legal Ltd
- Location
- Central London | West London | Thames Valley
- Salary
- Salary above market, medical & life insurance, disability cover, pension, profit sharing
- Posted
- 14 Oct 2018
- Closes
- 29 Oct 2018
- Ref
- 20181
- Job Title
- In House Counsel
- Practice Area
- Company / Commercial, Information Technology, Telecommunications
- Contract Type
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
In House Legal Counsel
Fortune 100 technology company
Location: either Thames Valley, M3-M4-M25 triangle or Central London
Commutable from London, Richmond, Citi, Slough, Bracknell, Reading, Hounslow, Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames, Wokingham, Newbury, possibly from Swindon.
Company
Our client is one of the biggest IT-companies in the world with a multi-billion dollar turnover making for a busy 400-strong global legal team. A highly sought after Fortune 100 employer consistently leading Best Companies to Work For lists.
New vacancies
Due to the continuous business growth and internal promotions this multinational organisation is looking to hire several lawyers across EMEAR including a talented lawyer for their UK & Ireland team.
This is an excellent chance to join a highly regarded legal team that is central to a dynamic, fast moving global technology business in an exciting and varied commercial role, supporting the business on a broad range of commercial matters.
Both the company and the legal team are growing. The hiring manager has been promoted twice and now has a team of 11 to manage with no time to focus on customer deals.
Essentially you will be the right hand of the hiring manager.
Here is more info for you to consider.
People and Culture
This cutting-edge tech industry leader has managed to create an exceptionally supportive and collaborative corporate culture that helps people thrive.
The quality of people is outstanding – the organisation is very selective. 92% of employees are proud to tell others they work there. Most of the people who have worked here consider their years at the company to be the best years of their lives.
There is a strong focus around culture, integrity and respect for the individual – the atmosphere is trusting and empowering.
Legal Team
What can I say… the General Counsel has been accused of assembling a dinner party, not a legal department!
This legal team is known for its remarkable collegiality. There is great camaraderie at all levels, people are friendly and helpful. The team like each other and there is a very low level of politics.
You will work with some of the brightest legal professionals in technology. The scale of the team allows for huge expertise in every area. The legal department follows the company structure which is organised by function which ensures the people with the correct experience are handling each matter.
GC
The GC is held in awe and admiration by his team - he is funny, strategic, intelligent and hard-working. His philosophy is to “hire people smarter than himself”. This attitude is cascaded down to Regional Legal Directors and the GC acknowledges that the team members are the pillars of the success of the legal function.
Legal Innovation
The legal team are a truly innovative bunch and a benchmark for in-house legal innovation, having started using advanced technology for legal processes already back in 2005.
Today they live the dream of Internet connectedness. As a new member of the team you will find the degree of sharing of knowledge and resources truly amazing.
Every conceivable task has been automated. The tracking of contracts is brilliant; the approval process is totally automated; no lawyer has touched a standard NDA since 2005 and no lawyer ever has to chase a contract signature or copy – it is all taken care of by a specialist global function.
There is constant sharing of information and experience.
Value of in-house counsel
In-house counsel here are business enablers and often the people recommending a decision to their executive teams — and in some cases making the judgment calls themselves. The legal team is viewed and respected as business enablers, strategic agents and opportunity makers.
Role
In this role you will support UK & Ireland Regional Legal Manager in all global commercial legal matters for a number of high ranking company clients including leaders of FTSE 100 index.
The work is varied and exciting – the company operates at the absolute forefront of internet, network and cloud technology.
Development and career
From day 1 together with your manager you will develop a clear career path. Your progress will be supported with regular coaching sessions focusing on developing your strengths, making sure you are making the most of the opportunities, enjoying your work and using your true talents.
This is a perfect company in which to really develop and push yourself. The legal team enjoys excellent regular training, coaching and mentoring from the managers and huge personal development opportunities.
If you are interested in progressing in your career, moving abroad or have an interest in another legal area, it is easy to do so.
Role
You will become essentially the right hand of the hiring manager to shape and negotiate the deals.
This is a big role shaping hugely complex deals across dozens of jurisdictions. However you are not expected to know every law in every country as everything is under English law so who they need really is just an England and Wales qualified lawyer.
The team have a central contract / base agreement in English law in the English language. For local deals the team introduces specific amendments - for which you can call on colleague lawyers in other countries.
The position is not just about supporting but actively shaping deals with customers.
This team is responsible for a particular global FTSE 50 client who often acts as a ‘guinea pig’ for new product launches - so in this role the lawyer does a lot of learning, modelling and setting the boundaries for the wider business unit.
There are junior team members and interns doing the admin and more simple work.
All in all, 80% of the role is about supporting complex high value global customer deals and 20% are legal team projects, for example:
- Digitizing legal (e.g. currently the team are developing a dashboard to sit on your home screen with an overview of all key contract info - so you do not have to manually go through contracts)
- Catching the legal know-how
- Being part of global legal innovation team - how can we do better what we do and what does not work?
- These projects are not compulsory however present an excellent opportunity to quickly learn how the company works and are gain visibility across legal and the business which usually leads to quicker promotions.
Once you join
You will grow into your responsibilities gradually with a lot of support from the manager and more senior highly regarded mentors on the legal team. You will start with shadowing the hiring manager gradually taking on pieces of work with the end goal to take on their previous role completely.
Requirements
Given the high value / high quality work on offer we are looking for the following skills and experience
- England and Wales qualified lawyer
- 4-10 PQE in tech / telecoms / software (not hardware)
- In-house experience preferred, private practice experience is a bonus
- Cloud / SaaS experience would be of value
- Commercial acumen
In return, you can expect
- A clear career path right from the start
- Unlimited training opportunities and ongoing mentoring from some of the best lawyers in the industry
- Quarterly career development coaching sessions focusing on developing your strengths and matching your responsibilities to those strengths and preferences
- Only high quality high value transactional legal work (admin and routine tasks and contracts such as NDAs are either automated or outsourced to a supporting team)
- Opportunities to move into roles overseas
Remuneration and benefits
Excellent base salary, bonus, medical insurance for you, your spouse/partner and dependent children, life assurance, long term disability cover, pension, profit sharing participation, meal vouchers, employee stock purchase plan etc.
25 working days annual leave (+8 days public holidays) = 6.5 weeks a year.
Commute and flexibility
You can work from one of (or rotate between) the three offices: 1) M3-M4-M25 triangle 2) Thames Valley 3) Central London. If you journey would involve considerable commute, there is no problem to work the first hour from home to avoid the rush hour. Working from home on Friday is widely accepted. Later on it is possible to work from home 2 days a week.
What is important to the manager is that the work gets done, and not how long you spend in the office - and this attitude shared by the legal team globally.
Next steps
To learn more, please apply below.
The recruitment process is fast and efficient with immediate feedback from interviewers.
Once shortlisted, will receive extensive preparation and guidance for every interview.
Found Legal practice strict confidentiality in all communication and never share your CV or any other details with any third party until we discuss the opportunity with you.
We look forward to hearing from you. If the role is not right, get in touch for other opportunities via website.
Suppliers to Fortune 100 and FTSE 100-350 organisations, Found Legal put you in front of dream career opportunities across EMEAR. To keep updated on new vacancies *follow* our feed on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/found-legal