Legal counsel

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Job Title: Legal counsel

Location: Kings Cross, London, UK

Full time, permanent role

An exciting opportunity for an individual seeking a junior position within the legal department of Springer Nature, a global publisher dedicated to providing the best possible service to the whole research, professional and education community. We help authors to share their discoveries; enable researchers to find, access and understand the work of others and support librarians and institutions with innovations in technology and data.

This role will be supporting Springer Nature Group across divisions including Macmillan Education, Nature Portfolio, Springer Healthcare and BioMed Central by providing legal assistance and advice on a broad range of commercial, intellectual property, and other publishing law matters.

Responsibilities:

The role of legal counsel is a key position within the general counsel's office at Springer Nature. Your main responsibilities will involve:

• Understanding key commercial and publishing priorities and providing clear, practical and robust advice which facilitates business needs whilst mitigating key risks and challenges.
• Playing an important role in the future success and development of the general counsel's office.
• Reviewing, drafting, negotiating and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts, templates and terms and conditions including distribution agreements, sales contracts, vendor contracts, commercial arrangements and other general commercial contracts. B2B and B2C.
• Advising on structuring, drafting and negotiating publishing and content acquisition and licensing transactions involving the various divisions of Springer Nature both domestically and internationally.
• Working directly with the business, providing objective analysis of risks that relate to commercial and consumer law, copyright and other intellectual property, and other legal matters arising in the publishing context, and to provide solutions to satisfy legal and business requirements.
• Identifying ways to enhance and support internal processes, policies and procedures to support strategic goals and to ensure compliance with applicable rules, regulations and laws (including without limitation GDPR and Consumer Rights Act).
• Providing regular training to the business in a friendly and accessible manner.
• Working in a collaborative and proactive manner with other global members of the general counsel's office to enhance the support provided by the legal team to the business and also in relation to promoting best practice and contributing to the overall performance of the general counsel's office itself.
• Communicating with and managing diverse target groups inside and outside the organisation.

Key relationships:

• In-house clients in the business and international departments (including corporate transactions, tax, editorial rights, company secretariat, IT, HR and finance).
• Colleagues in the general counsel's office and group compliance.
• External advisers.
• Building relationships as “trusted business advisor" to stakeholders and business partners, influencing them in their decision-making.
• Working with legal and business colleagues around the world on a regular basis to provide best-in-class legal support and advice in the rapidly developing field of research, professional and educational publishing.

Experience, Skills and Qualifications:

Experience

Essential:

• A minimum of two years' PQE but other PQE considered.

Desirable:

• In-house experience (including secondments).
• Experience in publishing/media.
• Experience of advising on intellectual property matters especially copyright and licensing.

Skills:

• A collaborative, cordial and accessible manner and the ability to communicate and connect with diverse groups to provide clear, accurate and consistent advice.
• Good legal research, analysis and drafting skills coupled with commercial awareness.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and responsibilities simultaneously and enthusiasm to work in a vibrant and fast-paced environment.
• A desire to form part of an energetic and well respected team and to contribute to the team’s future success.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal, written and presentation) with an open communication style and willingness to engage in constructive debate.
• Efficient and well-organised with good attention to detail.
• Creativity and persistence in problem solving.

Qualifications:

• A qualified solicitor/barrister with a current practicing certificate
• Member of Law Society or Bar

Springer Nature employees in the UK are continuing to work from home at this point in time and a virtual on-boarding will be provided to all new starters. When employees return to the offices a global work from home policy and core hours will be introduced.

At Springer Nature, we’re committed to creating a great working environment which includes the benefits you receive, opportunities for you to develop your skills and ways to get to know your colleagues. Some of these include:

• A core benefits package and a flex fund to put towards financial, health and wellbeing and lifestyle benefits of your choosing.
• Support networks that focus on fostering dialogue around diversity, community building, advice and advocacy.
• Wellbeing initiatives to support in maintaining a healthy work like balance.
• 24 hour access to our learning and development platform Leap to help develop your skills.

Further information about life at Springer Nature and the range of benefits available which you can tailor to meet your needs will be shared during the interview process.

To apply, please submit your CV and cover letter including a paragraph expressing why you have applied for this position here. We are a DEI employer and welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

Springer Nature is a Disability Confident Committed Employer and we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty and wish to submit your application in an alternative format or would like to discuss reasonable adjustments during the application and interview process, please get in touch either by phone on +44 (0)207 014 4020 or by email [email protected] so we can make any necessary arrangements.

At Springer Nature we value and celebrate the diversity of our people. We recognise the many benefits of a diverse workforce and strive for an inclusive workplace that empowers all our colleagues to thrive. Our search for the best talent fully encompasses and embraces these values and principles. https://group.springernature.com/jp/group/taking-responsibility/diversity-equity-inclusion.