Senior Legal Counsel

Employment Type: Permanent
Contract Duration:

At IATA, we speak for the airlines of the world, serving and supporting over 300 of them across all continents. We are passionate and knowledgeable about the aviation industry, and we strive to make it safer, smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive. We celebrate diversity and inclusion in our workforce, and we respect and value the different backgrounds, perspectives and skills of our employees. We also care about our employees’ wellbeing, and we provide flexible work arrangements, travel benefits, family-friendly policies, equal pay and a day off on your birthday. We believe in giving back to the community and encourage our staff to participate in volunteering activities that support causes they care about. We encourage you to join our global community of aviation enthusiasts, and we will do our best to make you feel comfortable during the interview process. IATA is more than a trade association; it is a vision of a better future for air travel.

About the team you are joining

The IATA Legal Team is part of the Legal Services and Corporate Secretary group (LSCS) and is made up of legal professionals qualified in various jurisdictions, providing legal support across IATA's operations, business activities and advocacy strategies. The team is divided into three workstreams reflecting IATA's core activities: Standards, Advocacy and Commercial, Products & Services (CPS Legal).

The Senior Legal Counsel is a senior experienced legal professional responsible for providing legal advice and support on diverse subject areas to support IATA’s business activities, both internally and externally and the work of the CPS Legal Workstream. The Senior Legal Counsel reports to the Director Legal Services (DLS).

What your day would be like

The Senior Legal Counsel, CPS Legal Workstream, provides independent legal advice on diverse substantive and procedural questions of considerable complexity, on matters relating to IATA's commercial activities, contracts and agreements, administration and management, intellectual property and corporate compliance, through the following activities:

• Prepares and provides to IATA’s business groups independent legal opinions, memoranda and information papers on questions concerning the interpretation or application of law, legal instruments, or legal principles in relation to IATA’s activities across multiple jurisdictions;
• Drafts appropriate responses to correspondence and communication raising legal issues or having legal implications;
• Drafts and advises on agreements, contracts, instruments, governance documents, and policies in the context of IATA's business activities;
• Provides substantive legal advice in and undertakes commercial negotiations (including leading on complex negotiations and dispute resolution and settlement);
• Responds to requests for legal assistance from internal clients and work assignments referred by the DLS or other members of the team;
• Provides support and assistance to and collaborates with the CPS Legal team members;
• Participates in and leads new product development projects;
• Peer reviews work of other team members;
• Develops training and guidance material for IATA staff on various legal topics;
• Delivers training to IATA staff;
• Assists with the development of policies and procedures for the organization where applicable;
• Manages, instructs, and approves the budget for external counsel in accordance with LSCS team processes; and
• Maintains strong relationships with relevant external legal communities.

We would love to hear from you if you have the following skills and experience:

Advanced University degree in law, (LLB, JD, LLM) from an internationally recognized university;
Admission to practice law in a relevant jurisdiction, preferably the UK, EU member state, Canada, US, Australia or New Zealand;
Minimum seven years post legal qualification experience in an organization, government department or law firm with demonstrable commercial contracting experience;
Excellent legal professional client relationship skills and superior written and oral communication skills; and excellent command of English;
Effective, confident communicator and a team player;
Demonstrates ownership of tasks, referring to senior team members for guidance.

Travel Required: Y: 0-5

Learn more about IATA’s role in the industry, our benefits, and the team at iata/careers/. We are looking forward to hearing from you!