The role
We are looking to hire a Senior Commercial Counsel to join our Legal team on a fixed-term basis (12 months maternity cover) in London.
Working at WGSN
Together, we create tomorrow
A career with WGSN is fast-paced, exciting and full of opportunities to grow and develop. We're a team of consumer and design trend forecasters, content creators, designers, data analysts, advisory consultants and much more, united by a common goal: to create tomorrow.
WGSN's trusted consumer and design forecasts power outstanding product design, enabling our customers to create a better future. Our services cover consumer insights, beauty, consumer tech, fashion, interiors, lifestyle, food and drink forecasting, data analytics and expert advisory. If you are an expert in your field, we want to hear from you.
Role overview
The Senior Commercial Counsel will provide a range of legal support for WGSN globally.
Key to success will be managing a diverse and challenging workload, assisting in building effective processes and systems to ensure efficiency, earning the trust and respect of various senior stakeholders, as well as working collaboratively with colleagues across other functions. The role will, on occasion, involve instructing and managing external lawyers.
The individual will be required to work autonomously with support from more senior members of the team and peers. Knowledge of technology, data and IP based risk issues is essential. A keen interest in AI and AI related law would be desirable.
The individual should be adept at communicating clearly and succinctly with stakeholders at all levels of the business.
The Senior Commercial Counsel will report to the Interim Head of Legal based in London.
Key accountabilities
Commercial/General
- Advising, drafting and amending a full range of commercial contracts, standard terms and conditions, subscription contracts, consultancy agreements, barter agreements, IP licensing agreements and other business-as-usual agreements;
- Special focus on contracts related to data licensing, data scraping, intellectual property rights, technology agreements, Data as a Service and SaaS/platform agreements;
- Advising on establishing and managing commercial partnership arrangements;
- Advising on commercial disputes arising out of client relationships and supporting our dispute resolution and debt collection process;
- Advising on copyright and trademark issues (contentious and non-contentious), assisting in managing the trademark portfolio;
- Advising on data privacy compliance, privacy and data security issues and liaising with the Interim Head of Legal as required;
- Assisting and developing templates for use by the business and legal team;
- Assessing legal risks; putting in place risk mitigation and management strategies; and Assisting with tasks relating to corporate administration
Reporting/Regulatory/Compliance
- Keeping records of matters worked on and reporting the same. Contributing to legal reporting of key business risks to senior management.
- Supporting in the management of the company’s compliance programme including data privacy, ABC/sanctions/finance crimes and managing policies.
- Monitor and advise on new and evolving legal and regulatory risks with a focus on risks relevant to trend forecasting, market research, data aggregation and AI.
Corporate Governance
- Work with our cosec service providers to provide support on any corporate secretarial or governance matters for subsidiaries across all jurisdictions.
Professional Development
- Meeting and exceeding personal agreed KPIs.
- Contributing to legal team objectives to deliver value to the business; facilitating business objectives and assisting the legal team in profile-raising and positive business engagement.
Relationship Management
- Developing and managing the business relationship with key stakeholders.
- This role involves liaising closely with commercial clients at all levels of the business.
This list is not exhaustive and there may be other activities you are required to deliver.
Skills, experience & qualifications required
- The role would suit a mid-level lawyer with a broad commercial contracts background who has previous experience in either an international law firm or in-house, ideally in a global organisation.
- If the candidate is coming from private practice, some secondment experience would be desirable.
- We require a proactive team player who can integrate quickly with a busy team, collaborate effectively, demonstrate a positive attitude, be willing to learn and be comfortable working on multiple matters as part of a dispersed, global function.