Corporate & Data Protection - Principal Counsel - Energy Giant

This would be an excellent opportunity to join a well established and highly regarded in-house legal team. You will ideally be between 7-12 years PQE, having trained and qualified in a city law firm, ideally with some management experience and gained data protection or corporate experience, looking to further develop this in a dynamic in-house legal team.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Provide high quality effective and commercial legal advice to a variety of internal and external stakeholders on matters relating to the day to day management of legal activities (in particular, corporate transactions and R&D activities but excluding Supply Chain, Pensions and HR matters) and data protection.
• Responsible for the line management of certain Solicitors in the Legal team including objective setting, performance plans, performance management, development and coaching and the organisation and distribution of workload.
• Lead on and support any company initiatives, projects and transactions including mergers, acquisitions and disposals, joint ventures, collaborations (in particular R&D activities), corporate restructuring, financing, data protection, compliance projects and other legal issues facing the legal team (excluding Supply Chain, Pensions and HR matters). Provide high quality, effective and commercial legal advice to the company on company law, contract negotiations, data protection, corporate governance and legal compliance and to prepare and recommend documents, contracts and resolutions for signature where appropriate.
• Lead on all DPO issues associated with the Business Units to ensure all data protection risks impacting the Business Units are appropriately identified, managed and mitigated. Directing the team by acting as the first point contact on all DPO matters and deliver a cost effective DPO service to the Business Units through the control of the allocated annual budget and other financial expenditure.
• Support the Head of Legal and the General Counsel on specific policy and other legal team-wide projects; working with representatives from within the Governance & Legal Affairs Directorate to enable timely and effective implementation of policy within business areas. In addition, together with the other DPO contacts across the Group, work collaboratively to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing of resources where appropriate with a view to ensuring consistency of approach and minimisation of duplication and costs.
• Co-ordinate the procurement of external legal resources if and when required by the business to fill peaks in demand or where specific specialist legal advice is considered appropriate. To also support in managing fees quoted and charged for external instructions.

Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Qualified solicitor admitted in England and Wales or Scotland.
• Significant post qualification experience as a solicitor, with knowledge and experience in company law, corporate governance, negotiating commercial contracts, data protection and other compliance areas.
• Experience of working 'in-house' preferred.
• Management skills and ability to adapt management style to the individual and situation. Line Management experience, including coaching, guidance, prioritisation, planning and organising workload preferred.
• Strong commercial acumen that can identify risk, risk mitigations and prevent suitable options to the business balancing risk and reward.
• Strong coaching and presentation skills, with the ability to tailor the communications style to suit a variety of audiences, including the ability to communicate complex legal concepts to a range of audiences both verbally and in writing.
• Able to establish credibility and build relationships within business and external regulatory bodies.
• Organised and methodical approach and able to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• A strong team player and experience of leading a team on significant projects, including remote teams across multiple locations.