Solicitor in Slough

Footballco is the world's leading football media company, built for the next generation of fans. Our mission is to give fans more of the game by building football communities that entertain, inform, and inspire action. We cover everything in football from news and analysis, original reporting, and social media content, to web stores, video, podcasts, newsletters, and live scores. With over 1 billion video views per month, 100 million social followers globally, and a reach of 800 million across web, social, and video platforms, Footballco is the world’s largest football media company and one of the largest digital media companies in sport globally.

About the Role

Footballco has a small but dedicated in-house legal team. The purpose of the Solicitor / Barrister role will be primarily to provide practical legal advice on commercial contracts across the Football Group of companies around the world. In addition, as an in-house lawyer flexibility will be required to provide legal advice on a wide range of issues to ensure compliance with applicable law, regulations and best practices. The successful candidate will also need to undertake a variety of administrative and client relationship tasks.

The Solicitor or Barrister will be responsible for:

• Drafting and preparing documents, undertaking contract reviews and contract management, the management of documents and management of the legal teams reporting systems.
• Supporting our group Legal Counsel with a wider range of matters with a particular focus on commercial contracts but may also assist with intellectual property cases, company secretarial matters, employment and a wide range of legal issues across the group practice.

We are looking for applicants with 0-3 years PQE who have built a solid foundation in contract law. We expect you to be able to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of different types of contract as well as contract terms and also the key legal, commercial and operational issues across a range of contracts. The role will be within our legal team and report to our group General Counsel.

What you'll be doing:

• Reviewing and managing contract and commercial agreement reviews on a wide range of matters from high value, long term strategic arrangements to more day-to-day operational agreements and standard form contracts.
• Undertaking legal research on applicable regulations, laws and legal requirements.
• Preparing legal documents, such as contracts, correspondence with other parties and when necessary legal pleadings.
• Handling confidential client or case information.
• Preparing reports for the group General Counsel, Senior Solicitor and or other employees of FootballCo.
• Conducting meetings with internal clients and providing them with legal information and taking instructions.
• Monitoring changes to government guidelines or regulations and submitting reports on pertinent changes.
• Organising legal files and administration of work flow and case management systems.
• Maintaining contracts databases.
• Arranging meetings with clients and other lawyers.
• Attending to general administrative duties and basic clerical tasks.
• Archiving and disposing of documents following department protocols.
• Liaising with external agencies to organise translators, notaries, and transcribers.
• Liaising with external legal and company secretarial services providers.
• Providing support to the legal, Finance and Human Resources teams in implementing training new policies and procedures and operational and organisational objectives.
• Complying with all relevant internal rules, policies and procedures.
• Undertaking any other such duties or general tasks and hours of work as may reasonably be required and to work in other locations within the Company.

What you have:

The ideal candidate will be meticulously organised, an outstanding communicator and excellent at managing and prioritising multiple responsibilities. This role will work very closely with the General Counsel and Senior Solicitor and will need to build strong working relationships with employees at all levels across the FootballCo Group. A desire to learn and develop as well as a can-do attitude are essential for this role.

In addition to this, the successful candidate will have the following experience:

• Professional Qualifications: Qualified as a Solicitor or Barrister or Chartered Legal Executive in England and Wales. Solicitors, Barristers or Chartered Legal Executives must have completed a training contract/pupillage/qualifying employment or have been exempted from this by the Law Society, the Bar Council or CILEx.
• Essential: Good technical and drafting skills with a high level of attention to detail. Sound Knowledge of Law and Legal System. Excellent Verbal and Written Communication Skills. Experience using Microsoft packages including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Excellent organisational skills with acute attention to detail. A motivated self-starter who is a good team player. Highly organised and efficient in time management. Strong legal research skills and be familiar with the use of precedents and external legal resources. Comfortable handling large workload under time constraints with the ability to deal with the competing demands of different areas of the group which arise from involvement in a number of separate transactions at once and have the ability to work flexibly to tight deadlines. Commercially aware and willing to participate in group training and know-how.
• Desirable: 0-3 years post-qualification experience, (preferably in commercial contracts); Experience working in an in-house legal team; Experience negotiating terms of commercial agreements from a B2B perspective; Familiar with Electronic Document Management and Filing Systems and or contracts management systems.

Footballco is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, colour, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category.