Commercial 4+

Unique opportunity to be the 2nd commercial lawyer at a leading FMCG in team that includes IP and Risk within EMEA. This company is a market leader in several categories within an extensive range of products. Reporting to the EMEA General Counsel, you will come to the London Office at least once a week and also be comfortable working remotely.

Main Responsibilities

The Legal Counsel's main responsibilities will be to provide in-house professional legal services, as instructed, and with integrity and responsibility, including as follows:
* General
o Reporting to the EMEA General Counsel on delegated legal and compliance matters;
o Giving accurate and timely legal and compliance advice to colleagues across EMEA;
o Creating, monitoring and implementing compliance policies and training staff on them;
o Establishing collaborative relationships with all stakeholders;
o Proactively identifying legal and compliance issues and suggesting solutions;
o Supporting the team in providing regular Group regional meetings.

Summary of Responsibilities

o Legal Advisory and Research -
 providing prompt and practical legal advice on a wide range of commercial legal issues (including labour law, liability under contracts and leases, establishment and closing of legal entities, competition law, anti-bribery, data protection, etc.). It is particularly important to be able to explain legal issues in simple language that staff across the group can easily understand and act on;
 assistance in developing the team's legal support materials (including creating and collating precedent legal documents, legal practice and guidance notes, legal research summaries and legal updates);
 providing legal support to other regional HQ professional service departments (including Directors, finance department, HR department, IT department etc.);
 providing training and awareness raising to staff on legal issues.
o Commercial Legal Drafting and Negotiation -
 providing prompt and practical review and advice on, and/ or drafting and negotiation of, a wide range of legal documents to ensure the company and its rights are adequately protected and contractual risks are reduced (including commercial contracts, side letters, purchase orders and Ts&Cs, building and equipment rental contracts, domestic tenancy agreements, legal forms, certificates and registers etc.);
 support, where necessary, on drafting, negotiation and completion of legal and regulatory applications and registrations;
 support, where necessary, to review and negotiate other legal or compliance documents (including supplier declarations for customers, restricted substance lists, legal forms supporting sales responses to requests for quotations (RFQs) etc.
o Compliance -
 designing, drafting, implementing and maintaining internal regulatory compliance and governance company policies, regularly monitoring compliance activities, advising the region's Compliance Officers on regional and local compliance issues as they arise;
 supporting strategies to monitor and track corrective actions in compliance, including supporting compliance audits at operating companies in the region and assisting with follow-up;
 supporting in the conduct of compliance investigations and surveys (e.g. investigating whistleblowing reports etc.);
 providing training and awareness raising to staff on compliance issues, including supporting the team's administrative Legal Assistant in creating and updating new e-learning compliance modules for the region on compliance topics.
o Preparation and Contribution to Group and Team Meetings -
 supporting the team in preparing and delivering certain regular EMEA Group meetings and related content (including quarterly Compliance Committee Meetings, Annual Group Shareholders Meeting, EMEA Annual Compliance Meeting, contributions to Annual Global Legal and Compliance Meetings etc.);
 contributing to Legal, Compliance, Risk Management and IP team monthly meetings and completing actions from such meetings;
 where necessary, providing legal and compliance training to other Group meetings (e.g. Annual Business Planning Meeting etc.)

Ideal Candidate

* High level of professional ethics and integrity;
* Excellent legal/ compliance knowledge and understanding of commercial law/ procedures;
* Ability to adapt, and formulate and provide practical legal advice;
* Sound judgment and ability to analyse complex situations and information

Currently working at a leading law firm or in-house and seeking a new challenge, you will be keen to work in an international environment and have regular interaction with key decision makers.

For additional information, please contact Brian Littleton at Chadwick Nott on 0203-096-4549 or 07919-293351 or at brianlittleton@chadwicknott.co.uk

*Where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.

Chadwick Nott Ltd is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.