Lawyer/Legal Counsel

British Olympic Association and Team GB

Team GB is the British and Northern Irish Olympic team – one of the nation’s most successful teams and one of its favourite brands. Run by the British Olympic Association (BOA), Team GB competes at Olympic and Olympic Winter Games and other events such as the European Games, Youth Olympic Games and European Youth Olympic Festivals.

The BOA is independent and privately funded. Our success is entirely dependent upon the income we receive from our commercial programmes, including but not limited to sponsorship, fundraising, licensing and events.

Team GB is the public-facing brand of the BOA and with over 3.6m followers across its channels has a highly engaged and passionate audience of fans.

Scope

The role of Lawyer at the BOA is part of the team responsible for all legal aspects of preparing and managing Team GB at all Olympic events.

This is a maternity cover role reporting into the Chief Operating Officer. The Lawyer will divide their time between games specific issues (such as anti-doping, selection policies and related matters), IP and commercial matters (sponsorship, licensing, events and brand protection/IPR) and other ad hoc matters such as safeguarding and data protection.

The Role

Key Responsibilities:

Commercial

• Working closely with commercial team on sponsor deals and leading on drafting of sponsorship agreements;
• Event contracts and associated documentation (terms and conditions etc);
• Licensing agreements across all BOA appointed licensees;
• All other commercial contracts and agreements as necessary (i.e. supplier contracts).

IP/Brand Protection

• Guardian of BOA IP portfolio (trademarks, domain names etc);
• Liaising with the IOC to protect IOC IP rights in the United Kingdom;
• IP infringement issues.

Policy and Governance

• Assisting on legal aspects of policy and legacy development (International Federations, National Governing Bodies, political) and stakeholder management;
• Assisting with company secretarial duties and other corporate governance issues;
• Assisting on employment law matters as required;
• Assisting on data protection and privacy matters.

Games specific (no prior experience required)

• Drafting of Team Members Agreement;
• Reviewing National Governing Body selection and appeals policies;
• Assisting in management of Olympic Qualification System process;
• Youth Olympic Games and European Youth Olympic Festivals;
• Applying working knowledge of anti-doping rules and procedures;
• Managing appeals;
• Dealing with all change of nationality issues.

Athlete welfare / safeguarding (no prior experience required)

• Responsibility for review of policy and maintaining best practice in relation to child protection;
• Overseeing Welfare and Safeguarding Policy in relation to all Olympic events.

British Olympic Foundation

• Providing ad-hoc legal support to the BOA’s charitable arm, in particular its work on the Get Set Programme.

Key Challenges in Delivering the Role:

• The BOA legal team deals with varied work incorporating a wide range of tasks so the ability to manage a broad workload will be essential.
• Balancing the demands of numerous internal and external clients/stakeholders.
• Dealing with complex issues not normally dealt with in general legal practice.
• Keeping abreast of continual developments in IP matters such as athlete image rights and digital media and staying on top of key legal developments in these areas.
• Gaining a robust working knowledge of IOC specific provisions (e.g. Olympic Charter, Olympic Qualification System) as well as Olympic/International Federation/National Governing Body structures.

Relationships and Interfaces:

• Reporting directly to the COO.
• Working across all functions of the BOA.
• Contact with all key stakeholders including UK Sport, DCMS, British Paralympic Association.
• Relationship with all NGBs and IFs for Olympic sports (both summer and winter).
• Contact with the Legal Department of the IOC (especially in relation to IP issues).
• There will also be instruction of external lawyers.

Person Specification:

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Excellent written and oral skills. Confident and proactive in providing sound legal advice.
• Commercially aware. Capable of working independently. Able to handle large and varied workload.
• Current legal experience.
• Qualified lawyer (UK)
• Minimum 1-4 years PQE (private practice or in house) preferably in a commercial/IP or corporate environment (with experience of dealing with IP matters).
• Team player, good communication and inter- personal skills.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Exposure to/experience of working in the sporting landscape.
• Experience of some or all of commercial, corporate, IP, data protection and employment law.
• Genuine interest in sport and the Olympic Movement. Be prepared to take on other roles of a non-legal nature within the organisation to assist colleagues.

How to Apply

To apply for this role, please submit a CV and cover letter outlining the skills and experience you can bring to the role. Your application should be sent to recruitment@teamgb.com.

This role will be considered on a part-time basis, if this is your preference, please highlight this in your application.

The deadline for applications is Sunday 9th February with interviews expected to take place between 17th and 28th February.

We are unable to reply directly to all applications but if you have any questions about the role, please submit them to recruitment@teamgb.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.