Legal Counsel - #1760857

Freightliner Group Birmingham office is looking for a Legal Counsel to join our team on full time permanent contract!

Purpose of the Role:

This is a general in-house role working with, and reporting directly to, the Head of Legal/Company Secretary, providing legal advice to all parts of the business to help the company grow and achieves its goals. As part of a small legal and compliance team, it allows for exposure to a wide range of activities, both strategic and operational, across all the business and both the executive team and the board.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Supporting the Head of Legal in managing the legal risks within the business;
• Regulatory and Compliance – assisting with governance and compliance around areas such as data protection, anti-bribery and modern slavery;
• Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts;
• Supporting M&A activity as it arises;
• Assisting with any litigation matters;
• Assisting the Head of Legal in elevating the legal team by engaging with stakeholders and providing training to the business as required, papers and research, face to face training;
• Attending business unit meetings as legal representative as may be required from time to time;
• Deputising for the Head of Legal in periods of absence;
• Supporting the group legal function as required and liaising with counsel across the UK/Europe Region;
• Managing external counsel;
• Undertaking Company secretarial duties as required from time to time;
• Supporting and driving adherence to documented controls as they relate to the function;
• Ad hoc projects as may be required from time to time;
• Maintaining the trademark portfolio, negotiating trademark licence agreements and liaising with external IP advisors
• Maintaining the contract repository
• Maintaining the legal template library and looking for other ways in which the business might be encouraged to self help

Key skills/job requirements:

• Educated to degree level, or hold relevant qualifications and experience relevant to legal and compliance;
• Experience in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts;
• 4-7 years post qualification experience either gained in a reputable commercial legal practice or in an house-role. Candidate from practice should have gained extensive in-house experience on secondment;
• Confident and enthusiastic about learning new areas of law;
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal;
• Good team player;
• Diplomatic and tactful approach to resolving contentious situations or disputes should they arise;
• Strong customer service focus with the ability to demonstrate negotiation, influencing and problem solving skills;
• Commercially astute, articulate and technically strong with the ability to operate at both a strategic and an operational level;
• Ability to build healthy working relationships with key business stakeholders (internal and external) while exhibiting independence and objectivity in thought and action;
• Solid analytical skills with the ability to digest and disseminate information;
• Ability to multitask and work well under pressure, prioritising tasks and workload and managing conflicting demands and tight deadlines;
• Has great attention to detail but is comfortable taking a pragmatic, risk based approach;
• Well organised with a focus on identifying areas of improvement in legal process;
• Good IT skills (Microsoft);
• Proven track record of working independently; a confident, self-starter;
• Specialist knowledge in compliance / Data Protection would be desirable;
• Regular travel across the UK may be required.

Behavioural Competencies:

• Attacks goals and objectives with drive, energy and enthusiasm;
• Proactive approach to work and uses own initiative to implement improvements;
• Ability to work collaboratively
• Persistence and determination in the delivery of required outputs;
• Embraces new challenges, is hands on and gets things done;
• Sets high standards of work for self, and team, and consistently achieves these;
• High level of integrity and openness, combined with commitment to good governance;
• Energetic, highly motivated, with an enquiring mind and passion for excellence and innovation, in pursuit of business growth and success;
• Leads by example and provides honest and clear leadership that helps drive results;
• Listens attentively to others’ perspectives and provides constructive feedback and coaching;
• Exhibits and lives the Group’s core values