Corporate Counsel

ICF; London; Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 100,000

Job description

ICF is a growing, USD $2 billion strategic advisory and digital services provider (NASDAQ: ICFI), but we are not your typical consultants.

Founded in 1969, ICF is a purpose-driven company with a strong culture and underlying values that prize collaboration, open communication, opportunity for growth, and mutual respect. Smart, compassionate, innovative, and committed, we combine unmatched expertise with cutting-edge engagement capabilities to help our global clients crack their most complex challenges, navigate change, and shape the future. Working at ICF means applying a passion for meaningful work with intellectual rigour to solve the leading issues of our day; we are in the business of Making Big Things Possible. Guided by our deeply held values and enduring commitment to corporate and global citizenship, we share a passion for building a more prosperous and resilient world for all.

The Corporate Counsel – Europe & Asia, provides generalist in-house legal and business counsel to ICF’s Europe & Asia (E&A) business which works primarily in the United Kingdom (UK), Belgium, Spain, India, but also beyond, with a focus on work for the European Commission (EC) and the UK government. ICF provides services in wide-ranging geographic markets, subject matter areas, and clients. As such, we seek a practical, experienced lawyer/solicitor (notably with demonstrated experience of working in-house within the industry) willing to provide legal operations support throughout the diverse ICF E&A business and across wide-ranging legal topics.

The Corporate Counsel will report directly to the Assistant General Counsel, Senior Director E&A within ICF’s Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) who is based in London. This position is based at the company’s Europe & Asia headquarters in either London or Brussels and is open to hybrid or remote work arrangements for the right candidate. The role does require SRA admission to practice as a Solicitor (PQE 4+) or equivalent in Belgium. It is a fast-paced, rewarding position, and you will work with a fantastic legal team and outstanding business leaders in ICF E&A.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

You will interact directly with ICF business leaders and corporate professionals to support work with government clients (national, state/province, and local), commercial clients, inter-governmental clients, and NGO clients of ICF. We seek a candidate with experience and interest in operating independently to effectively partner with business leaders, contracts and procurement professionals, human resources, other in-house lawyers, finance and tax professionals, and various stakeholders within the company, as well as externally with clients and in managing outside counsel. You need excellent judgment, integrity, and the ability to build strong relationships of trust.

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience reviewing and advising on legal matters involving government contracts, as well as commercial clients. Some international experience is also desirable. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Legal
• Serving as a legal advisor on all legal matters facing ICF’s E&A business and ICF’s contracts team, including coordinating with other in-house and external counsel, to offer pragmatic legal and business advice to leadership and corporate functions.
• Providing legal advice to ICF business and contracts professionals on work with the European Union/Commission and the variety of Directorates-General (DGs) particularly including advising on EC procurement matters, challenges to EC procurement decisions, client and subcontractor disputes, meeting EU regulatory requirements, conflicts of interest, hiring of former government employees, and helping to defend the company’s business, legal, and contractual interests.
• Familiarity with managing cross-border legal matters and providing legal and corporate governance support to remote ICF offices: Exploring legal entity registrations in new jurisdictions; evaluating legal and employment implications of short-term projects in foreign jurisdictions; providing general support on local governance matters; issue-spotting cross-border compliance matters (anti-corruption, sanctions, trade, tax, etc); and obtaining local counsel advice.
• Supporting with any litigation, legal demand letters, legal disputes, or similar that may arise within the ICF E&A business, and utilizing the assistance of external litigation counsel and OGC leadership as appropriate.
• Providing high-level employment law advice or comfortable in coordinating employment-related legal matters with a strong internal Human Resources team and external employment counsel, as appropriate.
• Where needed, supporting the strong ICF Contracts, Subcontracts, Procurement, Facilities, Human Resources, and other ICF corporate teams in their review of a wide range of business agreements, lease agreements, consortium agreements, non-disclosure agreements, employment-related agreements, subcontract documents, and client contracts with commercial, government, and inter-government clients.
• Supporting corporate transactional matters, including M&A due diligence and integration activities and coordinating corporate governance matters.
• Staying current on assigned regulatory and legal issues affecting the company.

Compliance
• General support to the overall execution of the ICF Ethics and Compliance program, particularly in relation to UK and EU government compliance (strong familiarity with UKBA), and applicable inter-governmental compliance requirements (ie EC).
• Where appropriate, assisting HR and ICF Compliance teams on internal reviews of employee misconduct.
• Working with leadership to develop legal policies and procedures.
• Providing targeted live training on key legal, regulatory, and compliance topics.

Basic Qualifications
• Appropriate law degree level, legal accreditation, and active qualification for the jurisdiction in which you are qualified to practice law (UK, with Belgium considered). If you are located in or qualified in Belgium, experience is required in English Law.
• Minimum of four (4) years of professional legal experience or similar PQE experience, with a mixture of law firm and/or in-house experience preferred.
• General experience with EU and UK regulatory laws, public procurement law, litigation/dispute process, competition law, anti-bribery legislation, data privacy law and commercial contracts law will be needed to varying degrees (further support will be available through specialist in-house and external law firms).
• Proven experience delivering legal advice to support business needs.
• Demonstrated ability to work within time constraints, prioritise numerous deadlines, and work independently, as well as in a team environment.
• Strong legal experience capable of working with a high degree of autonomy.

Professional Skills/Abilities:
• Proficiency in French is preferred, but not essential.
• Intellectual agility, curiosity, and confidence to learn quickly on the job and learn to manage legal issues outside your current experience and skill set.
• Demonstrated ability to implement sound solutions and effectively and professionally resolve complex business and legal issues.
• Flexibility of style and willingness to engage and balance a wide variety of tasks as a member of a multi-disciplinary team.