Senior Legal Counsel

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Location: Newbury or London, hybrid working
Salary: Excellent basic salary plus bonus and Vodafone benefits
Working Hours: Full time 37.5 hours per week - Mon to Fri

At Vodafone UK we believe that through collaboration and connection with our colleagues we can achieve great things. Our hybrid working approach allows our people to work both in the office and at home, providing the flexibility and resources you need to succeed in your role. We don't require you to be in on specific days; instead, we ask people to come into the office 2-3 days each week, on average 8 days a month. Our "Office in a Box" home working kit will provide you with everything you need, no matter where you are.

Who We Are

At Vodafone UK, diversity isn't just a buzzword, it is core to who we are as a company. We're proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work and are committed to driving inclusion for all; creating a workplace that is fully representative of the communities and customers we serve.

Join us at the heart of Vodafone UK in Corporate, one of the central support functions that underpin our business and keep us moving forward. We provide centralised support, expertise and guidance across our UK and Group operations, continuing to build on our success and trailblazing the way to our next stage of digital growth.

What you'll do

• Senior Commercial lawyer within the UK Legal team advising Vodafone UK on a wide and complex range of commercial contracts and legal issues within the UK Business Deals Legal team.
• Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, and providing legal support of bids / tenders, for the Business Unit of Vodafone UK with a particular focus on large complex deals:
• public sector and private sector contracts / bids / tenders, working with Vodafone terms, customer-proposed terms, and under public sector frameworks; supporting a varied customer portfolio including defence & security, critical national infrastructure, government, major corporates and multinational / international entities, regional and SME accounts, as well as indirect partners / partnerships & alliances;
• covering Vodafone's extensive product portfolio of mobile, fixed, UC, IOT and cloud & hosting solutions.
• Providing solid, pragmatic and commercially minded legal advice, assistance and support (on both a proactive and reactive basis) to:
• relevant business areas / key stakeholders in writing, verbally, by presentations and in meetings;
• other members of the UK Legal team and the Legal, Security and Compliance team on relevant legal issues and on cross-collaboration initiatives and projects.
• In the case of disputes, being first port of call for customer issues / disputes where these relate to business contracts and working closely with the Legal Risk Management team to determine position and strategy, advise the relevant internal customers and achieve resolution.
• Act as a specific point of contact for a business area for any escalations and issues, working to ascertain key business priorities across any quarter and financial year, and assist with appropriate training needs.
• Leading and driving forward Business Deals legal team transformation / ways of working projects and initiatives, and proactively seeking out opportunities for change / improvement within the team, wider legal and overall business as appropriate.
• Obtaining and monitoring advice given by external solicitors and ensuring it is appropriately disseminated to internal customers as appropriate.

Who you are

• Solicitor, barrister or legal executive with significant, demonstrable post-qualification Legal experience, practising in either private practice or in an in-house role.
• Excellent decision-making skills and ability to identify and communicate key risks to internal customers and UK Legal management team.
• Able to think outside the box and to come up with creative solutions whilst minimising risk.
• Strong grounding in commercial law, a strong level of general legal knowledge and excellent commercial judgment.
• Ability to take ownership of projects and drive them to successful completion independently or successfully as part of a wider team.
• Ability to work independently and escalate / brief risks and issues to senior stakeholders within the Legal team and wider business as appropriate.

Worried that you don't meet all the desired criteria exactly? At Vodafone we are passionate about Inclusion for All and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, whatever their personal or professional background. If you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align exactly with every part of the job description, we encourage you to apply as you may be the right candidate for this role or another role, and our recruitment team can help you see how your skills fit in.

What we offer

We believe that taking care of our employees is the key to their success. That is why we offer an excellent remuneration and bonus package with up to 28 days holiday entitlement, in addition to bank holidays and paid leave for charity projects. We offer an extensive benefits package that can be tailored to suit you and your family, including employee discounts, retail vouchers, pension plan and share schemes. We take pride in our commitment to supporting you at every stage of your career by providing top of the range learning and development tools and market leading parental leave policies.

Together we can

Vodafone UK are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and all offers of employment for this role are subject to background checks, including criminal (DBS) and financial checks to meet the regulators standards.

If you require any reasonable adjustments or have an accessibility request as part of your recruitment journey, for example, extended time or breaks in between online assessments, a sign language interpreter, or assistive technology, please refer to the Accessibility section of our Careers website (https://careers.vodafone.com/uk/applying-to-vodafone/) for guidance.

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Vodafone is committed to attracting, developing and retaining the very best people by offering a motivating and inclusive workplace in which talent is truly recognised and rewarded. We are committed to promoting Inclusion for All with the belief that diversity plays an important role in the success of our business. We actively encourage everyone to consider becoming a part of our journey.