Interim Legal Counsel
Location: London, Hybrid (Min. 2 days per week in the office)
Contract: Full time, 12 month FTC
About Springer Nature Group
Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities - enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.
We help authors to share their discoveries; enable researchers to find, access and understand the work of others and support companies and institutions with innovations in technology and data. Our Macmillan Education division has a local presence in over 120 countries, and we work closely with students, teachers, institutions and educational authorities to advance learning.
About the Role
An exciting opportunity for an individual seeking a one year, fixed term mid-level position within the Legal Department of Springer Nature.
Role Responsibilities:
- Lead legal business partner supporting the Global Procurement function with a range of Indirect/IT, Pre-press, Printing and Warehousing, and Transportation procurement matters, including full lifecycle tender processes, one-off contract negotiations and day-to-day supplier management.
- Providing legal support for Springer Nature's Global Technology function, as the lead legal business partner supporting the Global Technology department.
- Providing ad hoc legal support across the Macmillan Education and Springer Healthcare divisions, working closely with counterparts in Spain, Asia, South America, southern Africa, Germany and the US.
Key Tasks:
- A particular focus is advising on technology contracts, and in particular third party SaaS contracts, software licensing, cloud based data hosting agreements and professional services consultancy contracts.
- Reviewing, drafting, negotiating and advising on a wide range of commercial contracts and IP-related agreement
- Pro-actively considering and implementing continuous strategic improvements to legal business partnering processes, efficiencies and Legal Ops, including through the use and development of standard contracts, minimum terms and legal review thresholds.
- Working largely autonomously, with a range of colleagues, providing objective analysis of risks relating to commercial and consumer law, copyright and other intellectual property matters, and providing solutions to satisfy legal and business requirements.
- Leading projects with notable risk and complexity, and developing strategies for project execution.
- Communicating with and managing diverse stakeholder groups inside and outside of Springer Nature.
- Acting as mentor to more junior colleagues across the General Counsel's Office.
Key relationships:
- In-house clients in the business and international departments (including Procurement, Technology, Data Protection, Editorial Rights, Tax and Finance);
- Colleagues in the General Counsel's Office and Group Compliance.
- External advisers.
Experience, Skills & Qualifications:
Essential- Minimum 5 years' PQE with a general commercial background, with an IT focus.
- In-house experience (may include secondments).
- Experience in intellectual property matters, especially copyright and licensing.
- Experience and interest in publishing/media, particularly academic/scientific publishing.
Key Requirements:
- A qualified solicitor/barrister with a current practicing certificate and member of the Law Society or Bar.
- Strong technical legal skills, including research, analysis, and drafting.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks and responsibilities simultaneously.
- Enthusiasm and resilience to work in a vibrant, fast-paced and busy environment.
- Able to work with a significant degree of autonomy and responsibility, but with strong judgment as to when to raise key issues with senior colleagues and key stakeholders.
- Demonstrated leadership and project management skills.
- Excellent communication skills (verbal, written and presentation) with an open communication style and willingness to engage in constructive debate.
- Experience of working, building relationships and being able to communicate with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, at all levels of seniority and experience.
- Excellent commercial awareness.
- Efficient, rigorous, and well-organized, with excellent attention to detail.
- A desire to form part of an energetic and well-respected team and to contribute to the team's future success and strategic goals.
- Creativity and persistence in problem solving.
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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 SpringerNatureUKCareers@springernature.com so we can make any necessary arrangements.
At Springer Nature we value the diversity of our teams. We recognize the many benefits of a diverse workforce with equitable opportunities for everyone. We 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.
Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here [...]
For more information about career opportunities in Springer Nature please visit https://careers.springernature.com