Senior Commercial Legal Counsel

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

Grant Thornton UK LLP is part of a global network of independent audit, tax and advisory firms, made up of some 58,000 people in over 135 countries. We're a team of independent thinkers who put quality, inclusion and integrity first. All around the world we bring a different experience to our clients. A better experience. One that delivers the expertise they need in a way that goes beyond. Personal, proactive, and agile.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals. The Office of General Counsel is Grant Thornton UK’s legal function, comprising two sub teams – Disputes and Contracts. The Contracts Team works with all of GT’s service lines and business functions to enable growth whilst managing risk across all our commercial relationships. We work closely with our client-facing colleagues to help deliver the best outcomes for our firm and our clients.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

A look into the role:

• Manage and deliver our core support to the service lines: drafting and negotiating commercial contracts with key clients, including master services agreements and public-sector framework agreements, and key suppliers, subcontractors and third parties, ensuring risks are appropriately identified and managed.
• Lead our relationships with key stakeholders across given service lines and support functions.
• Work cross-functionally with the firm’s other Quality and Risk teams, client-facing partners and staff on legal issues and emerging risks faced by the firm’s business.
• Manage and develop our team to maximise performance and realise potential, actively seeking to improve ways of working (e.g. augmenting legal advice delivery via AI tools).
• Act as a decision maker, a subject matter expert for core areas of expertise, an escalation point for junior team members, supervising junior team members where required.
• Help protect the firm whilst enabling it to deliver excellent services to our clients.

Knowing you’re right for us:

Joining us as a Senior Commercial Legal Counsel, the minimum criteria you’ll need is to be a qualified lawyer with significant commercial contracting experience gained within a regulated professional services business. It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way.

• Extensive experience of the legal and risk management issues faced by professional services businesses.
• Experience of supplier-side public sector contracting.
• Knowledge of adjacent areas of law, such as data protection, intellectual property etc.
• Proven track record of collaborating effectively with related teams/functions (e.g. procurement, financial crime, ethics, data office).
• A pragmatic and commercial, solutions-based approach.
• A self-starting attitude and the ability to manage conflicting demands.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the drafting of contractual terms.

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

We’re also committed to supporting you through different life stages, with a range of family friendly and wider leave policies. You can find full details of our reward, benefits and leave policies on our website.

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society. It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves.