Junior Legal Counsel

At McLaren Racing, we’re not just here to try to take the chequered flag. We’re here to excite our fans, inspire our people and deliver for our partners. And we’re also committed to evolving our sport, our industry, and our technology, too.

Purpose of the Role: To provide exceptional legal support across all of McLaren Racing’s racing series. You’ll utilise your legal acumen to advise on a broad range of commercial and contractual activities which in turn enables our team to make prompt, sound business decisions in line with our strategy and achieving organisational goals.

Role Dimensions: This role sits within the Legal function, reports into the Senior Manager, Legal Counsel, and has no direct reports. You’ll work collaboratively with the rest of the Legal team, to empower key stakeholders across the business – this includes senior leaders and managers in the functional areas you support as well as collaborating closely with the relevant Finance and Procurement Partners.

As a commercially savvy and business-orientated legal practitioner, you will cultivate strong relationships by gaining a deep understanding of the team’s operations and challenges and providing practical, high-impact and agile solutions.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Draft and negotiate a wide variety of commercial agreements, including agreements for the supply of goods and/or services, merchandise license agreements and IT agreements ensuring McLaren Racing’s interests are protected, risks are minimised and strong, mutually beneficial partnerships are established and maintained.
• Provide specialised legal support for our marketing campaigns, fan activations, prize draws and competitions, ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations mitigating legal risks, so we can deliver excellent experiences for our fans and partners.
• Assist with data protection compliance, intellectual property, and real estate matters, safeguarding commercially sensitive information or assets, and assuring the organisation adheres to transactional and operational legal requirements.
• Keep up-to-date with relevant legislative developments and case law keeping the team informed of changing landscapes and helping us maintain a competitive edge.
• Support the wider team by carrying out legal research when required.
• Advise on our regulatory requirements across all race series. Help the team stay informed and adapt to evolving regulations.
• Support the legal aspects of our Sustainability and DE&I initiatives, which form core elements of our Strategy and Culture.
• Provide legal and policy training and/or updates tailored to our various internal departments where required.
• Review and update our standard terms and conditions, precedent agreements, and internal policies ensuring they’re relevant and in line with current legislation.
• Assist with the management and smooth resolution of any disputes and litigation.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• A solicitor qualified in England and Wales with at least two years’ post-qualification experience, adept at drafting, reviewing and negotiating a wide variety of commercial agreements, ideally in a sporting context.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proven ability to prioritise and manage competing workload demands.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• In-house and/or sports law experience desirable but not necessary.

Personal Attributes:

• Pragmatic and practical approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced team environment and under pressure.
• Strong emotional intelligence.
• Personable, compassionate and supportive.
• Attention to detail and accuracy.
• Self-motivated, resourceful and proactive.
• A passion for continuous improvement.
• Passion for building deep, meaningful relationships with stakeholders across the business.

What can McLaren offer? We constantly strive to be better tomorrow than we are today. Our ambition is to be the most pioneering and exhilarating racing team in the world, and our collective task is to set the standards for high performance in sport. We show up every day with energy and enthusiasm, ready to play our part. We encourage and support diversity, equity and inclusion. We will actively promote a culture that values difference and eliminates discrimination in our workplace.

McLaren Racing is based at the iconic McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) near Woking. Here at McLaren, we offer hybrid working with 3 days a week based in the MTC. Our state of the art, sustainable campus offers many facilities including a gym, restaurant and indoor and outdoor break-out areas, as well as direct access to park and common land. The MTC is connected to Woking mainline station via regular shuttle buses, from which London Waterloo is a 30 minute train ride. We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including private healthcare, car schemes, life insurance and generous pension contributions.