Legal Services

In SGN Legal Services we put people, relationships & culture at the heart of what we do.

We strive to always innovate and find solutions that deliver impactful outcomes.  We also recognise the integral role we play in governing and protecting our stakeholders, communities and company.  With this in mind, we promote compliance, ethics & governance and provide advice that enables informed decision-making to reduce risk and protect the organisation. We are passionate and energised about transformation to deliver continuous improvement.

Our vision is to be your legal service provider of choice by always delivering service excellence, providing the best experience to everyone who connects with us and thriving as a team.

WE NEED YOU

An excellent opportunity has become available to join our growing in-house legal team and Scotia Gas Networks Limited’s group of companies (SGN) at an exciting time in which you will help us build our shared future and transform the future of gas.  As part of this, you will provide strategic and transactional support to the SGN ’s group by providing high-quality business led advice to enable SGN to lead the way in low carbon energy delivery by making gas green.

TEAM

Our Legal Services team is headed up by Nicola Graham-Shand, Director of Legal Services and Group Company Secretary for SGN. Nicola reports into the Chief Executive Officer and is a member of the Executive Committee which puts her in a pivotal position to lead the team.

The team itself is split into the following divisions: Governance & Company Secretary, Risk, Audit & Compliance, Land Rights and Legal. Legal is spilt into Property & Networks, Commercial & Construction and Corporate Services and IT.

Company

We’re on a journey to transform the future of gas. Keeping our customers safe and warm is what we do but beyond that, we want to make the world a better place, which is why we’re passionate about helping in our communities, reducing our carbon footprint and driving innovation in our industry.

At SGN, we strive to sustain our world through managing the network that distributes natural and green gas across Scotland, Southern England and Northern Ireland. We are responsible for keeping the gas flowing to 14 million people in homes and businesses across our network. Your work directly impacts SGN’s commitments to keeping our customers’ homes and businesses safe.

SGN also has a number of rapidly growing unregulated business’ spanning across renewable energy, property development and disposal, smart metering and field force digital transformation.

THE ROLE

You will provide key legal support to SGN’s expanding group of companies by the delivery of high-quality commercial legal advice dealing with both contentious and non-contentious matters. The role will primarily focus on supporting the IT and procurement functions across the regulated businesses. You may also have opportunities to be involved with supporting the Corporate functions which include Finance, Treasury, Regulatory, Stakeholder and HR.  You will have opportunities for interaction with individuals at all levels of the business including the Executive.

Key Responsibilities:

People First

• Establish strong relationships and ways of working with business partners.
• Liaise with and influence senior managers and Directors putting forward recommendations/solutions to assist with business decisions.
• Develop strong relationships with the legal panel and manage external resources as required.
• Support in the learning and development of the wider team and supervise work where required.

Service Excellence

• Provide legal support across the business with a focus on IT, procurement, finance & regulation. 
• Provide effective, pragmatic and efficient legal advice aligned with SGN’s strategy/risk appetite on all aspects of IT contracts mainly within the regulated business.
• Lead, review, draft and influence the negotiation of a wide variety IT commercial contracts and legal documentation, including SAAS, hardware and software agreements, licences, MSAs, outsourcing agreements and framework agreement. 
• Provide pragmatic and robust contract management and dispute resolution support.
• Identify and respond to utility procurement, regulatory and antitrust issues, finding solutions to support SGN’s strategy. 

Govern & Protect

• Ensure that all business is conducted in accordance within its statutory powers and licence, internal governance and other applicable laws and regulations.
• Make legal recommendations to enable informed decision making and assisting the business assess and manage associated risk.
• Assist the business identify and reduce risk by promoting Risk, Compliance, Ethics & Governance
• Educate and upskill the business in relevant legal issues and raising awareness across the group.
• Attend internal and external meetings to provide advice and providing training & awareness.
• Support the Company Secretary team on corporate governance matters as and when required.
• Ensure legal services are delivered to professional, ethical and quality standard.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive transformation priorities across the team and SGN group.
• Develop processes and documentation that ensure legal services as a function is more efficient and effective including a move towards greater self-service.
• Draft, update and maintain standard form documentation/guidance notes, ensuring the retention and dissemination of knowledge.
• Enhance the team’s core technical expertise by continuously developing in your area of expertise and expanding your knowledge and understanding in other areas across the function.
• Cross flex across the team and support in other non-specialise areas as necessary.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

• Experience of successfully managing a portfolio of legal matters and multiple stakeholder management in IT and one or more of commercial law, dispute resolution, contract management, supply chain issues and procurement law. 
• Experience of providing legal services/expertise on commercial contracts and Utility Procurement Regulations. Familiarity with the regulatory sector and an in-house legal environment

• Qualified Lawyer in England in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland with 6PQE+

Skills

• Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and manage well at all levels of the organisation
• Skilled and credible in presenting to internal and external stakeholders both verbally and in writing   
• Strong problem-solving skills, a thoughtful and practical approach with the ability to make decisions based on accurate and timely analysis;
• Strong negotiating skills and resolution skills, ability to deliver pragmatic commercial solutions to the wider business on complex issues

*The above PQE is a guideline only and anyone with the necessary skills to succeed may apply.

Culture & Values

The successful candidate will be someone that relates to and can buy into our legal team culture and values designed to guide decisions and actions

• Thriving: making thriving contagious by inspiring, including, motivating and looking out for each other
• Innovative: turning ideas into solutions that add value
• Trusted: being honest, open, and transparent so you regard us as a trusted adviser and colleague 
• Dynamic: seeking out ways to do things better to deliver positive change
• Sustainable:  minimising our carbon footprint in conjunction with providing long term legal solutions which are sustainable.

INCLUSION

Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture and embracing differences is something we pride ourselves on. You will be empowered to be yourself and work with people from different backgrounds and points of view to achieve positive results.  We also know that everyone has a life outside of work so we’re happy to discuss flexible working. 

Benefits

This position offers a market rate salary and annual discretionary performance award with company benefits, including: 25 days holiday (with opportunities to extend under HolidayPlus) plus public holidays and bank holidays; private pension, retail & leisure discounts, Cycle2work scheme, gym & mobile discounts and more.

Why Wait?

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your career in an innovative, business focussed and vibrant legal team at one of the UK’s leading energy providers.  Apply now to have a career defining experience with SGN and be part of a brilliant team.

We’re quick to deliver and we may not always wait until the job advert expires before reviewing applications. We recommend you submit your application as soon as possible so we can continue the conversation…