Legal Counsel

Save the Children UK is looking for an experienced Legal Counsel to join the team in a key role providing expert legal advice, supporting compliance, and managing legal risk across the organisation. If you are a qualified lawyer with relevant experience looking to take on an exciting new challenge and create meaningful impact, we would love to hear from you.

About us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the role

As Legal Counsel, you will provide high-quality, pragmatic legal advice across a broad range of charity, commercial, contract and regulatory matters. Working within an experienced legal team collaborating on complex and high-impact legal matters, you will support SCUK's legal and compliance obligations, assist with risk management, instruct external counsel when needed, and contribute to a culture of ethics, integrity and safeguarding. You will also support the development of legal tools and training to empower colleagues to operate with confidence and compliance.

In this role, you will:

• Provide pragmatic, risk-based legal advice across contract, commercial, charity law and regulatory compliance matters.
• Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of contracts, including donation agreements, grant agreements, partnership agreements, service agreements and NDAs.
• Support compliance with legal obligations including data protection, safeguarding, anti-fraud, anti-bribery, sanctions, and charity law.
• Support external counsel management and liaise with SCUK and SCI legal teams.
• Deliver training and guidance to staff and volunteers to embed legal awareness and self-service across the organisation.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments relevant to the charitable sector, assess their impact on SCUK and ensure that staff are aware of and comply with changes and updates.

About you

To be successful, it is important that you demonstrate the following:

• Qualified lawyer in England and Wales (or equivalent jurisdiction) with post-qualification experience advising independently on a broad range of commercial, contract and/or charity law matters.
• Experience in at least 1 of the following areas: general corporate / commercial / contract, regulatory compliance, charity / not-for-profit.
• An understanding of the UK charity regulatory framework and the UK's bribery and anti-terrorism laws and practice, including the way in which they may impact an international NGO.
• Demonstrated ability to draft, negotiate, and advise on a broad range of contracts, plus experience of advising on compliance issues.
• Ability to engage effectively with a wide range of stakeholders, and to explain complex legal issues clearly and pragmatically to diverse audiences.
• Strong ethical judgment, flexibility and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.
• Efficient, highly organised, self-motivated, and able to prioritise effectively under pressure.
• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance. We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work. We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day.

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately, once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building. Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.

Flexible Working

We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be 'Free to Be Me'. We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.