F1 - Legal Counsel

F1 are seeking two highly motivated commercial lawyers with 1.5 to 3 years post qualification experience. One role is to join the Commercial Legal team, and one role is to join the Motorsport Legal team.

Commercial Legal Team
Formula 1’s Commercial Legal Team is responsible for the legal work associated with supporting Formula 1’s revenue generating agreements with broadcasters, sponsors and licensees (including experiential and gaming partners), its marketing activities, operation of streaming platform F1TV and agreements with key service providers.
You will join a team of seven lawyers and two paralegals, overseen by the Chief Counsel, Commercial, and will report into one of the senior lawyers within the team.
Motorsport Legal Team
Formula 1’s Motorsport Legal Team is responsible for a wide range of commercial agreements in respect of support races including the FIA Formula 2 Championship, the FIA Formula 3 Championship and the F1 Academy (the all-female series launched in 2023), premium hospitality offerings (such as Paddock Club and F1 Garage), fan events and activations, as well as environmental, social, and governance.

You will join a team of two lawyers and a paralegal, overseen by the Chief Counsel, Motorsport, ESG and Ethics, and will report into the Lead Counsel, Motorsport within the team.
What you can expect to work on:
As a lawyer in the Commercial Legal team, you will be responsible for drafting and negotiating:

• sponsorship agreements with existing and prospective partners of Formula 1;
• media rights agreements, in particular those relating to Formula 1, as well as those relating to Formula 1’s various support series including F2, F3 and F1 Academy;
• digital media rights agreements relating to the distribution of Formula 1’s OTT service, F1 TV, including distribution agreements and syndication agreements;
• licence agreements with (i) game developers in relation to interactive games; (ii) licensees in relation to F1-themed experiential licensing projects;
• complex services agreements, such as those relating to website development or those relating to broadcast delivery.

As a lawyer in the Motorsport Legal Team, you will be responsible for drafting and negotiating:

• sponsorship agreements with existing and prospective partners of F2, F3 and F1 Academy;
• race promotion agreements;
• team entry and supply agreements for F2, F3 and F1 Academy;
• support race agreements and guidelines with other motorsport series and on-track activations;
• hospitality activations and ticket reseller arrangements; and
• intermediary, consultancy, presenter and ambassador agreements.

Both roles will also support on the following workstreams:

• ad hoc advice and agreements supporting the Marketing, Advertising Sales and Digital teams;
• supporting the Procurement team in relation to agreements for the provision of goods and services, including reviewing and negotiating F1’s and supplier standard terms and conditions as well as data processing addendums;
• supporting relevant internal stakeholders in providing data protection advice;
• responding to day-to-day enquiries from internal clients and external counterparties and providing commercially-minded legal advice;
• supporting commercial teams in their management of the above contracts (including acting as the Legal team point of contact on the matters you are working on);
• preparing know how/research notes on relevant legal/contractual issues and running department-wide training sessions to share know-how; and
• updating template documents and “playbooks” that aim to make workstreams more efficient.

Candidates for both roles will be able to demonstrate the following experience:

• have trained and qualified as a lawyer at a leading law firm (e.g. City, US or West End law firm) and benefited from a high quality training and supervision;
• following qualification, have worked as a junior lawyer within a leading law firm or as part of an in-house legal team;
• experience of working across a variety of commercial contracts, intellectual property and data protection workstreams and solid experience of legal drafting;
• helpful if you’re able to demonstrate experience of working across media licensing and/or sponsorship agreements; and
• able to demonstrate experience of negotiating and an able to appreciate which points are likely to be negotiation points in the context of different agreements; and
• strong knowledge and understanding of English law.

We would like to meet candidates for both roles who:

• thrive in a fast-paced environment, are agile, and can manage multiple workstreams simultaneously and deliver results under pressure to a deadline;
• have excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate legal concepts to non-legal stakeholders;
• pride themselves on having a high degree of attention to detail;
• are team players and understand of the importance of building relationships with internal clients, peers and external partners;
• are enthusiastic, have a can-do attitude and a willingness to expand their skillset;
• take responsibility for their own workstreams and are solution-orientated problem-solvers; and
• are prepared to invest in learning about the business of Formula 1 (recognising it will take time for new recruits to fully understand Formula 1’s various revenue streams and how Formula 1 contracts with its various partners).

If you would like to learn more about these roles before applying, please reach out to Cameron McCammon at the Hydrogen Group

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