Senior Legal Counsel

UCL is a global top 10 university with c.50,000 students and 16,000 staff, operating in a complex and highly regulated environment. The Office of General Counsel provides strategic legal, governance and risk advice to support the delivery of UCL’s mission, research and global partnerships. Legal Services plays a central role in enabling major institutional initiatives and managing legal and commercial risk across the university.

As the Senior Legal Counsel, you will be a key member of the Legal Services department, supporting the delivery of a high-quality, pragmatic and solutions-focused legal service across UCL. You'll provide advice across a broad portfolio of matters, with a focus on commercial and university-related work, including general commercial contracts, IP, strategic partnerships, research matters, and governance. Reporting to the Deputy Director, the role involves leading on complex legal matters and supporting the delivery of institutionally significant projects, working closely with colleagues across Legal Services and wider UCL. You will also contribute to the management of the team, including line management, and deputising for the Deputy Director as appropriate. The role offers the opportunity to engage with stakeholders across UCL on high-impact matters and contribute to key institutional initiatives, ensuring legal risk is effectively managed in line with UCL’s objectives.

To succeed in this role, you will be a qualified solicitor or barrister with strong post‑qualification experience and a track record of advising on complex legal matters within a large or complex organisation. You will have strong experience in general commercial legal work, including drafting and negotiating complex agreements and providing pragmatic, solutions‑focused advice. Given the breadth of stakeholder engagement involved, experience in areas such as intellectual property, research, life sciences, governance, and corporate structuring, may be beneficial but is not essential. You will have demonstrable experience of contributing to legal project management and delivering outcomes in cross‑disciplinary projects involving both legal and non‑legal stakeholders. You will also have a proven ability to build and manage effective stakeholder relationships and to influence decision‑making at an operational and management level. You will be able to manage a varied workload independently, demonstrate sound judgement, and bring strong commercial awareness. Experience of managing and developing teams of qualified lawyers, and the confidence and credibility to operate at a senior level within a large, complex institution, is important.

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave, 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.