General Counsel
- Employer
- Hays Legal
- Location
- England, Norfolk
- Salary
- £150000.0 - £200000.0 per annum
- Closing date
- 19 Feb 2025
- Reference
- 4650976
View more categoriesView less categories
- Vacancy Type
- Barristers, In-House
- Experience Level
- Senior Executive
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full Time
- Practice Areas
- Company/Commercial
Job Details

We are currently working with a highly regarded business looking for a General Counsel to head up their legal function. The business operates as a high-performance company, and a household name.
The role will be responsible for leading a legal team while also ensuring the business receives effective and efficient legal support across its various functions. You will be responsible for the management of circa 5 individuals with the potential for growth.
Reporting to the CEO, the General Counsel will be a part of the executive team and work closely with senior management. You will be instrumental in defining the company's legal framework guaranteeing adherence to pertinent laws and regulations, while minimising legal risks. Your leadership and guidance will contribute to formulating the long-term legal strategy in alignment with business goals. This role calls for a leader with extensive experience in managing legal risks, resolving strategic issues, and developing legal talent.
What you'll do:
- Craft and execute legal strategies that align with the company's goals, ensuring thorough attention to detail.
- Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and industry standards.
- Guide, mentor, and oversee the in-house legal team to promote growth and deliver outstanding service.
- Work collaboratively on an international scale to maintain uniform legal practices and strategies.
- The key focus of the role is to oversee contract management, including negotiation, drafting, and review of complex commercial agreements.
- Ensuring the Legal Department continues to build and maintain a good working relationship with their internal stakeholders, learning of their business needs and engaging with them on how the Legal Department can best help them within their business areas.
- Offer strategic legal advice to executives and senior leaders, assisting with understanding of legal risks and consequences of their decisions.
- Ensure adherence to all relevant laws and regulations, especially in corporate governance and industry standards.
- Oversee litigation and work with external counsel to resolve complex legal disputes.
- Manage the company's intellectual property, including trademarks, patents, and copyrights.
- Oversee due diligence and offer legal assistance for mergers, acquisitions, and other major projects.
Qualifications / experience:
- Ideally, an England & Wales or Commonwealth qualified lawyer, 8+ PQE by way of a guideline only.
- Strong people-leadership experience, with a proven ability to build, lead and develop high-performing teams.
- Ideally, I have worked within a larger international company.
- Broad legal experience across a range of issues typically encountered by an in-house legal function.
- Experience in streamlining processes and implementing new processes.
- Good commercial acumen and a pragmatic individual who is confident in exercising judgment in a complex business environment.
- Passionate about leading a Legal team who are true enablers to delivering on the business' strategic objectives in a sustainable and responsible way.
- Must be able to drive and be accessible to the East of England.
The compensation package is circa £150,000 - £200,000.
This is an exciting opportunity to make a difference within a really dynamic organisation. You will be well remunerated, as well as having fantastic exposure to the board and senior stakeholders. Working with the CEO, you will have a direct impact on the business and be a key decision maker.
If you are interested, please click "apply now". Please do appreciate that these roles tend to generate a high number of applications, so please allow for some time before hearing back from us.
Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk
Company
Hays Legal provides an integrated recruitment solution to the UK's Legal and Company Secretarial sectors. Working across a nationwide network of offices, we offer employers and jobseekers a highly specialised recruitment service for permanent and interim positions across all business sectors, skill sets and levels of seniority.
We have a proven track record spanning almost 20 years in all areas of Legal and Company Secretarial recruitment, from one-off contingency requirements through to large-scale recruitment campaigns and wider employee management solutions.
We offer confidential, expert advice on job opportunities, compensation, business plans and exit strategies pertinent to professionals considering a move. We have the ear of key decision makers across all our clients and we have been instrumental in introducing and placing hundreds of fee earners and company secretaries into a vast array of organisations. From blue chip corporates, national and international firms through to niche practices, we have deep knowledge of the legal company secretary market.
If an organisation has strategic growth plans or needs incisive market analysis, we are often consulted as a first point of contact.
- Website
- https://www.hays.co.uk/job-search
- Telephone
- 020 3465 0139
- Location
-
107 Cheapside
London
EC2V 6DN
United Kingdom
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