Legal Counsel (Mat Cover FTC)

Department: Legal

Reports to: General Counsel

Direct Reports: None

Location: Central London

Hybrid working: 3 days in office, 2 days from home

12-14 month fixed term contract, starting late October / November 2026

Our Values: Every day the energy, creativity and passion of Manolo permeates through our business. We believe in the artist and the artisan; we are innovative while still protecting our heritage. We strive for timeless beauty and quality craftsmanship. We celebrate curiosity and believe in working proactively and being solution focused. We believe in upholding family values; we treat everyone with honesty, respect and kindness while nurturing our teams to deliver excellence. We believe in making people smile.

Purpose: Advising and safeguarding the Manolo Blahnik group on legal, risk and compliance issues with a key focus on real estate matters across our store and office locations globally. Acting as a commercial and strategic advisor to all divisions in the global business. Proactively managing capacity, workload and matters to meet deadlines. Working independently and supporting all members of the Legal department on a variety of projects and tasks to deliver department and company objectives.

Responsibilities:

• Real Estate: Supporting global expansion strategy across all new store and office openings. Managing end to end complex UK and offshore transactions and supporting internal stakeholders across all levels of the business. Review and negotiation of acquisition and lease agreements and associated professional appointments including architects and general contractors together with ancillaries. Engaging, managing and coordinating external counsel dealing with invoices and approvals and tracking department spend and budget. Managing existing real estate portfolio including all renewals, assignments, variations and terminations. Dealing with real estate queries, training, advice, planning and compliance for the global business as required from time to time.
• Wider Business: Commercial – supporting international franchise expansion, maintaining template distribution terms and agreements, advising on consumer rights and retail queries and competition issues. Corporate – assisting with company incorporations, group restructuring and general commercial work. Company Secretarial – supporting global company secretarial workstreams including board meetings and approvals. Digital, Systems and IT – reviewing and negotiating service provider and SaaS terms, assisting with data protection and information security advice. Internal Control – reviewing and revising policies and procedures and supporting on compliance issues. Finance – reviewing and advising on banking and tax documents and filings. Dispute Resolution - general contentious and dispute resolution support. Supervision – support supervision and development of junior members of the team.

Skills and Experience Required:

• 4-8 years PQE in-house or private practice with substantial secondment experience.
• Real Estate experience essential with a strong desire to cover commercial and corporate work.
• International real estate experience and/or construction experience highly desirable but not essential.
• UK Qualified or right to practice in England and Wales.
• Strong analytical skills along with accuracy and attention to detail.
• Commercial and pragmatic problem solving and solution focused.
• Ability to prioritise and ensure delivery of results to meet specific deadlines.
• Communication of legal advice to non-lawyers within the business.
• Proactively managing matters and deadlines, contributing to precedents and management of departmental workflow, preparation of contract summaries, correspondence and filings and general administration support.

Our Benefits:

• 4 pairs of Ambassador Shoes per year.
• 50% Friends and Family Discount.
• 25 days holiday with an additional day off for your birthday, plus bank holidays.
• Option to buy an additional 5 days holiday.
• Hybrid working model (core hours 10-4pm).
• Pension Contribution.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• 2 Executive Coaching Sessions per year.
• Enhanced Family Friendly Policy.
• Workplace Nursery – salary sacrifice based childcare scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Employment Engagement Calendar.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion: Manolo Blahnik is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to preserving a caring, diverse and inclusive culture with people who feel a real sense of belonging. We recruit and reward based on capability and performance. Our diverse and multicultural teams ignite our creativity and we celebrate the differences that we collectively bring. We are committed to equal employment and progression opportunities and the elimination of any form of discrimination. We all hold a responsibility to recognise and respect our diversity and to support this in our words and actions. If you need reasonable adjustments at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.