Senior Legal Counsel

Business Unit: Legal & Secretariat – Business Banking Legal Team

Salary Range: Competitive

Location: Hybrid- with travel to a hub when required

Contract Type: Permanent

Our Team

We are embarking on an exciting new chapter as Virgin Money joins forces with Nationwide Building Society to create a new modern mutual driven by our purpose - Banking – but fairer, more rewarding and for the good of society. The Legal and Secretariat function is one of the first teams to integrate so it couldn’t be a more exciting time to join the team. The new Business Banking Legal team is tasked with helping the combined Group stay safe whilst it takes Virgin Money's existing offering to UK businesses and evolves it to another level. We work at the heart of a fast-paced and evolving environment, whether it is being part of the teams empowering business customers to succeed or helping leaders navigate complex issues at a portfolio level with confidence and care.

We’re looking for a senior lawyer to join a team that values trust, open dialogue, and practical solutions—and where your voice and expertise will truly make an impact.

What you’ll be doing

• Be an engaged and proactive member of the Legal & Secretariat function.
• Help the leadership of our Business proposition succeed by making sure their decisions are informed by timely and commercial legal advice.
• Helping lead the design of journeys that safely support customer needs in their channel of choice.
• Supporting our efforts to stop people using our accounts to cause harm to us and to society.
• Provide practical support on colleague queries covering the whole business customer journey from the teaser ad on social media to the loan that helps their business grow and everything in between, including support on day to day banking as well as helping out when something doesn’t work out.
• Liaise with external panel firms when required and effectively manage associated costs.
• Take responsibility for your own development by seeking out activities to be involved in.
• Role model our purpose and customer-first behaviours in the way that we deliver our advice and how you interact with your colleagues.

We need you to have

• Appropriate credentials showing that you are a solicitor currently admitted in the UK.
• Broad experience working (either in house or in private practice) in a business lending or recovery team in the UK.
• The ability to get to the right answer and then communicate it in a way anyone can understand.
• Integrity, dealing with matters sensitively and always confidentially.
• Knowledge of the financial services regulatory environment or a desire to learn about it.
• An appetite to get involved in opportunities outside of the day job, providing support to the broader Legal & Secretariat Function as well as playing a role in building an engaged and inclusive culture driven by our purpose.

Red Hot Rewards

• Generous holidays - 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time) plus the option to buy more.
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year.
• Market-leading pension.
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance.
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness.
• And there’s no waiting around, you’ll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

Be yourself at Virgin Money

We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard. As a Disability Confident Leader, we’re committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion. If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team.

It’s important to note that there may be occasions where it’s not possible to interview all candidates declaring a disability who meet the essential criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as receiving a high-volume of applications, we may need to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled and non-disabled applicants.

Now the legal bit

Our approach allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we’ll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK. If you’re successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years’ worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we’ll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you’ll be subject to periodic employment checks.