General Counsel

General Counsel

Home Counties

£98,000 - £112,000 per annum

A highly reputable Education Provider in the Home Counties is seeking a General Counsel to join the team on a permanent basis. This is a fantastic opportunity to join a supportive and growing team on a full-time basis. This is a hybrid working position with remote working included.

The General Counsel role

Key duties of the General Counsel will include:

• Provide overall leadership for all legal activities across the University and manage a full and diverse number of legal matters always taking a risk-based approach.
• Direct which matters require legal input and whether this should be provided internally or externally.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships, working with a broad network of staff across the University as a trusted and respected adviser, helping to position the Legal Services Team as a key strategic partner within the organisation.
• Manage and supervise the work of the inhouse team and direct and prioritise its work, to ensure quality of service and that all deadlines agreed with stakeholders are achieved.
• Provide legal advice to Council and the Executive to enable it to discharge its responsibilities legally and effectively.
• Provide legal advice to the University's subsidiary and associated companies as required.
• Effectively manage all external legal advice ensuring it is properly instructed, managed, and represents quality and value for money, including the requirement to deliver within agreed budgets. Ensure that all external legal advice is secured in line with the University's Procurement Policy.
• Keep up to date with relevant strategic, policy and service innovations, and relevant legal regulatory changes to inform best practice and continually drive excellence.
• Together with the legal team pro-actively identify legal and practical problems associated with the business of the University and establish methods to reduce potential risk or liability and facilitate communications, systems (formal and informal), measures and controls to ensure that the University fulfils its legal duty.
• Provide strategic legal services and support to the University Secretary, as well as all other relevant stakeholders including senate and VCE and other Committees. Reporting directly to the University Secretary and working across the University, the General Counsel will also lead and have overall responsibility of the Legal team.

About You

The organisation is looking to hire a General Counsel who demonstrates:

• Qualified Solicitor holding a current SRA Practicing Certificate.
• Demonstrable recent post qualification experience with a minimum of 5 years at a senior level. This experience may have been gained outside of the Higher Education sector in the regulatory, commercial, or public sector or in private practice.
• Outstanding technical legal skills and experience in one or more of the following areas: commercial, corporate, and Intellectual property law, with a good understanding of data protection law and with a passion to learn more and train others.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills.
• Able to understand the need for nuance and to deliver innovative and pragmatic solutions.
• Demonstrable experience of leading, managing and developing an inhouse team of lawyers in a collaborative and supporting environment to deliver a high quality service that meets the needs of the University. This should include experience in supervising trainee solicitors and providing training and coaching to the team.
• Resource and budget management experience.

We encourage interested applicants to apply immediately to be considered for short listing. Alternatively, should you require further information or wish to discuss your suitability before applying, please contact Albert Pearson in our Manchester office for a confidential discussion.