Commercial Legal Counsel

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams leading them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

The Quality and Risk Management Team (QRM) provides leadership, guidance, and tools to help partners and staff manage quality and risk matters. The team is comprised of an Advisory and Compliance Team, a Chief Information Security Office Team, an Economic Crime Team, a Legal Team including a Commercial & Contracts Team, an Ethics Team plus the Quality Monitoring Team. The team works closely with the firm’s Technical Standards Group and the firm’s leadership.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

BDO’s QRM Team includes a number of lawyers and legal professionals that provide dedicated support on all legal matters arising from our business including commercial contracting, litigation, regulatory proceedings, operations including mergers and acquisitions, governance and partnership matters and supplier contracting.

Overview

A vacancy has arisen for a Commercial Legal Counsel role within BDO's Legal Team.

The purpose of the role is to provide commercial contracting advice to BDO’s client-facing teams to help win and deliver professional services engagements within acceptable risk parameters and ensure that the Firm complies with applicable laws and regulations in doing so. The role s based at our London hub.

Responsibilities

Delivery of legal advice to BDO’s partners and staff:

developing strong relationships with relevant client-facing partners, staff and risk management professionals across multiple business units, leading legal support to the Business Services and Outsourcing business unit

reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements with BDO’s key clients e.g. master services agreements, framework agreements, strategic partnership agreements etc.

supporting more senior members of the Legal Team with key matters (client and supplier facing) and projects, working with junior members of the team to coach and develop them

guiding client-facing teams in dealing with legal queries from clients, their lawyers and procurement teams, including providing real-time advice to project acceptance panels

contributing to the development and delivery of contracting training to relevant stakeholders to develop awareness of legal issues

interpretation and application of legislation, case law, regulations and professional standards relevant to BDO’s business

building strong working relationships across the Quality & Risk Management department and with other practice management departments (Finance, Comms etc.).

Review, draft and negotiate supplier and reseller contracts (SaaS, professional services etc.) ensuring legal, commercial and regulatory risks are identified and mitigated or escalated as appropriate. 

Managing BDO’s contract precedents and processes:

reviewing and updating relevant templates, guidance, policies and procedures to keep them up to date with legal and regulatory developments

drafting new template contracts for new service lines that mitigate the risks involved in delivering them

identifying opportunities to accelerate and/or improve the contracting process and seek innovative solutions to new problems

Requirements

Essential:

England and Wales qualified, or experience practising the laws of England and Wales, with multiple years’ post qualification (or equivalent) experience

experience of advising on/negotiating/drafting/managing commercial contracts (preferably within the professional services and/or technology markets)

good understanding of standard commercial boilerplate clauses

familiarity with data protection law (UK GDPR)

strong written and oral communication skills

ability to confidently interact and influence at a senior level

ability to prioritise and manage own workload

high degree of personal responsibility

excellent attention to detail

 Desirable:

experience of advising on data protection law

experience of drafting policy and guidance

experience in an in-house legal role at a large commercial organisation, or practising commercial law at a law firm

experience of preparing and delivering legal training

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to our business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer everyone the opportunity to work in ways that suit them, their teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture.  From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another.  At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value and satisfying experiences at work, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices.  BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences.  With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO.

We’re looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions.

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.

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