Legal Counsel (Data Protection)

We have an exciting opportunity for a Legal Counsel focused on Data Protection to join the General Counsel team in our Birmingham office.

As Legal Counsel, you will play a key role within both the Compliance and General Counsel teams, supporting the firm on data protection and privacy matters. Acting as a subject matter expert, you will provide specialist advice and guidance, ensuring the firm meets its data protection and privacy obligations.

We are looking for someone who is a qualified lawyer with at least three years’ experience, gained in private practice, industry or a regulatory authority, with strong data protection expertise. You’ll be confident interpreting complex legislation and advising on a range of regulatory and compliance matters in a commercial environment. You will be an effective communicator, able to influence at all levels and present complex issues clearly to both legal and non‑legal audiences.

Experience managing data breaches, handling data subject requests and complaints, supporting regulatory notifications and leading privacy audits, ideally within a global business is essential. You will be commercially aware, solutions‑focused and able to balance risk with practical outcomes. Highly organised and able to work at pace, you’ll manage multiple priorities while building strong relationships across teams.

Desirable:

• Privacy certifications (e.g., CIPP, BCS) preferred
• Data governance experience
• International data protection experience; China, Middle East and Europe
• Information security experience

What We Can Offer You:

• The opportunity to work for a firm which has been recognised as one of the best places to work in the UK and has been ranked by Great Place to Work for 26 consecutive years.
• A hybrid approach to office and remote working
• 25 days annual leave, with the option to buy up to a week's extra annual leave
• Free private medical insurance, and the option to add family members
• A generous pension allowance
• Life assurance covering four times your annual salary
• The chance of a three-month sabbatical every five years
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave schemes
• A range of health and wellbeing programmes
• State of the art offices, in the heart of Birmingham City Centre, with an onsite restaurant
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development

Equal Opportunities:

Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment. The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re‑assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity. This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment. At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work. Our aim is to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.