Hybrid In-House Legal Counsel in Newbury

We’re looking for an experienced full-time In-House Legal Counsel to join the team supporting two very different, but equally entrepreneurial businesses — Signet Collection, our growing hospitality business, and Coterie, our fine wine and logistics business.

On one side, there’s Signet Collection — a growing collection of wonderfully individual hotels and hospitality businesses, doing things a little differently. On the other, there’s Coterie — our fine wine and logistics business, operating in a completely different world, but with the same entrepreneurial spirit. Two businesses. Two sectors. Plenty of variety. And one newly created legal role sitting right in the middle of it all.

If you’re the sort of lawyer who enjoys a good commercial challenge, gets bored doing the same thing every day and would rather solve a problem than simply point out that there is one, we should probably talk.

You’ll be our key UK legal resource across Signet and Coterie, working closely with our General Counsel in Taiwan, Executive Chair of Coterie and Managing Director of Signet, as well as our wider leadership teams. You’ll have a genuine seat at the table — helping shape decisions, structure deals, manage risk and, occasionally, explain to everyone why the thing they really, really want to do probably needs a slightly different approach.

This isn't a role where you'll spend your days buried in contracts. Although there will be contracts. Lots of them. You’ll also be involved in acquisitions, property, governance, employment, data protection, regulatory matters, disputes and pretty much anything else that requires a sensible legal head.

What will you actually be doing? A bit of everything, including:

• M&A, investments & corporate structuring: Supporting acquisitions, disposals, investments, due diligence, corporate structures and strategic transactions.
• Commercial contracts: Drafting, reviewing and negotiating supplier, customer, partnership, procurement, services and other strategic commercial agreements.
• Property & real estate: Supporting hotel acquisitions, disposals, leases, licences, developments, refurbishments and the many other joys of property law.
• Hospitality, wine & regulatory matters: Providing practical, commercial advice across the regulatory environments in which both businesses operate.
• Employment & people: Working alongside HR and senior leaders on employment-related legal matters, policies, employee relations and risk.
• Data, technology, cyber & AI: Advising on GDPR, data sharing, technology agreements, systems, AI and the increasingly interesting legal questions that come with them.
• Intellectual property, brand & reputation: Helping protect our brands, intellectual property, partnerships and commercial interests.
• Disputes, claims & insurance: Managing and resolving disputes, claims and incidents, bringing in external specialists when they're needed.
• Governance & company secretarial: Supporting boards, statutory requirements, corporate records and good governance — making sure we're doing the right things in the right way.

This is a hybrid role, where you can work across home, our soon to be live Mayfair office, and any Coterie or Signet location. We’re looking for someone who enjoys being close to the business and the people making things happen — not someone who wants to disappear into a legal cave with a stack of contracts.

About you: You’ll be a qualified solicitor in England & Wales, ideally with 10+ years’ PQE, with a strong grounding in both private practice and sophisticated in-house legal work.

Experience in hospitality, hotels, leisure, property, luxury, wine, logistics or another fast-moving, consumer-facing environment would be fantastic. But actually, we're more interested in how you think than where you've worked.

You’ll probably fit in rather well if you:

• See solutions, not just problems.
• Think commercially.
• Are comfortable being independent.
• Know when something stays in the room.
• Don't panic when things get complicated.
• Can challenge people without being difficult.

You're approachable, curious, resilient and have a sense of humour.

Why Signet & Coterie? Because this isn't your standard in-house legal role. You'll have two businesses, multiple sectors, senior-level exposure and a genuinely varied workload — with the opportunity to build something rather than inherit a legal function that's been doing the same thing for 15 years.

You’ll have:

• Real influence: Your advice will directly shape significant commercial decisions.
• Variety: Two businesses. Multiple sectors. Very few boring days.
• Senior exposure: Direct access to leadership and strategic decision-making.
• Interesting problems: We'd much rather you helped us solve things than simply tell us why we can't.
• The chance to build: This is a newly created role, so you’ll have the opportunity to shape how legal support works across both businesses as we grow.

And, of course... An excellent starting salary and benefits package, to be discussed and agreed with the right person based on skills and experience. Discounted rates across our hotels and restaurants for you, your family and friends. Two businesses. Plenty of opportunities. And probably a few interesting conversations along the way.

Ready for something a little different? If you’re an experienced lawyer looking for a role where you can combine strategic thinking with sleeves-rolled-up legal work, where commercial judgement matters just as much as legal knowledge, and where you can genuinely influence the direction of two growing businesses... We’d love to hear from you.

Bring your legal brain. Bring your commercial instinct. Bring your curiosity. And definitely bring your sense of humour. Come and help us make sure the legal side of Signet & Coterie is every bit as ambitious, entrepreneurial and commercially minded as the businesses themselves.