Ideas | People | Trust
We're BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today's changing world.
We work with the companies that are Britain's economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high-growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams leading them.
We'll broaden your horizons
The Quality and Risk Management Team (QRM) provides leadership, guidance, and tools to help partners and staff manage quality and risk matters. The team is comprised of an Advisory and Compliance Team, a Chief Information Security Office Team, an Economic Crime Team, a Legal Team including a Commercial & Contracts Team, plus the Quality Monitoring Team. The team works closely with the firm's Technical Standards Group, Ethics Team, and the firm's leadership.
We'll help you succeed
Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.
You'll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO's partners to help businesses effectively. You'll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.
Overview
BDO's Legal Team is looking for an Associate Legal Counsel – Commercial to join the team to support supplier contracting activity with a focus on digital products and services. The role will involve reviewing, drafting and negotiating supplier legal contracts with the objective of managing the firm's risk exposure. The role will also support more senior lawyers in the team on complex contracts and legal issues where appropriate.
Responsibilities
- Review, draft and negotiate supplier and reseller contracts (SaaS, professional services etc.): Ownership of less complex contracts or components of complex contracts, ensuring legal, commercial and regulatory risks are identified and mitigated or escalated as appropriate.
- Contract management: advise and support stakeholders with contract management activity, including variations, terminations and vendor management.
- Build relationships with key stakeholders: Become a trusted adviser to relevant stakeholders, in particular with the other Quality & Risk sub-teams, plus the firm's Digital business, IT and Procurement.
- Provide guidance and training: Keep the Legal Team's guidance and playbooks updated to contracting self-service. Provide guidance to Procurement on legal matters within their procurement categories.
- Improve efficiency: Identify opportunities to accelerate and/or improve the contracting process and seek innovative solutions to new problems.
- External Legal Counsel: Communicate effectively with external counsel, including providing instructions on matters that require external review, whilst managing timescales and fees.
- Projects: support the senior commercial lawyers in the delivery of strategic projects and initiatives.
- Knowledge: Keep abreast of the latest industry standards and regulations, share knowledge with the team.
Requirements
Essential:
- law degree;
- qualified to practice law in England and Wales or equivalent experience practising the laws of England and Wales;
- experience of advising on/negotiating/drafting commercial contracts and transactional documentation;
- working knowledge of commercial law;
- strong written and oral communication skills;
- ability to interact at a senior level;
- ability to prioritise and manage own workload; and
- good attention to detail.
Desirable:
- experience of commercial contracting in a professional services firm and/or regulated business;
- understanding of data protection law (UK and EU GDPR), intellectual property law and experience delivering related legal advice;
- experience of technology contracting (SaaS, PaaS etc.).
You'll be able to be yourself; we'll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to our business. We're committed to agile working, and we offer everyone the opportunity to work in ways that suit them, their teams, and the task at hand.
At BDO, we'll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.
We're in it together
Mutual support and respect is one of BDO's core values and we're proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we'll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you'll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.
We know that collaboration is the key to creating value and satisfying experiences at work, so we've invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO's people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we'll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you'll never stop learning at BDO.
We're looking forward to the future
At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we're always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions.
We've got a clear purpose, and we're confident in our future, because we're adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integri