Legal Counsel

An excellent opportunity has arisen to join a world leading global FMCG organisation, our client are currently looking for a Legal Counsel based at their prestigious facility in Leatherhead. This is a full time temporary role, based on 5 days per week, for 4months to start ASAP. The role is paying up to £45,000 per annum pro rata, depending on experience.

MAIN JOB PURPOSE:

The legal counsels play an integral part in the businesses' own risk control processes for commercial and marketing activities and closely business partner all aspects of the business.

An opportunity exists to recruit a Legal Counsel within the UK & Ireland Legal Team. The successful candidate will be primarily responsible for giving advice to the UK and Ireland businesses on a broad range of matters relating to the development, marketing and sale of our clients products and brands (both foods and home and personal care) and the management and protection of this large FMCG company. The successful candidate will support more senior lawyers in the team and report to the Senior Commercial Counsel, UK & Ireland who, in turn, report directly to the General Counsel, UK & Ireland.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

To be primarily responsible for the following in Brand Protection matters:

*Advising the Brand Protection team on matters concerning Intellectual Property in both civil and criminal law provisions relating to counterfeits, parallel imports and 'infringing grey' products.
*Drafting cease and desist letters in civil matters and witness statements in criminal matters;
*Engaging in pre-action correspondence and negotiating settlements which seek to protect Unilever's valuable Intellectual Property Rights;
*Supervising and managing external counsel in relation to further litigation cases concerning IP infringement and managing costs.

To assist senior lawyers with the following:

*Advising Customer Development ("CD") teams on relationships with customers, including the implementation of agreements, trade terms and pricing.
*Providing strategic business advice on Route to Market initiatives, Joint Business Plans with customers, and the implementation of Unilever CD initiatives, tools and techniques and Market Development projects.
*Supporting CD to expand its reach in white spaces, new channels and channel strategies.
*Supporting the Procurement teams to draft, review and negotiate commercial contracts, including service, consultancy, IT development and licensing and outsourcing agreements.
*Advising on matters concerning Intellectual Property, data protection, bribery, commercial contracts and competition law.
*Advising export teams on distribution agreements.
*Advising on advertising and promotional materials.



COMPETENCIES:

The ideal candidate would have experience of, or want to develop their skills in, the following areas:

*Litigation, including management of own caseload, drafting and negotiating settlement.
*Contracts, for example, service agreements, consultancy agreements, confidentiality agreements, sponsorship agreements, talent agreements, brand building agency agreements, and joint business plan agreements with customers.
*Competition law (in particular its application to agreements between client and its customers).
*Agreements involving IP rights such as licences and assignments.
*Data protection.
*UK trade mark law and practice - brand use, protection and enforcement.
*Managing external lawyers in the UK and Ireland in relation to matters on which they are instructed by the UK & Ireland Legal Team.

SKILLS/EXPERIENCE:

As a guide, we consider that 1-3 years of post-qualification experience of advising in relation to commercial, marketing, advertising and/or intellectual property issues under the relevant legislation in force in the UK would be appropriate but we are willing to consider any relevant experience.

Key skills include:
*Ability to analyse problems and propose commercial solutions
*Excellent communication and organisation skills
*Excellent drafting skills
*Good team working
*Ability to work under time pressures to meet short deadlines
*Pro-activity, flexibility and adaptability
*Ability to Identify and communicate legal risks to the business, and to assist the business to manage such risks efficiently
*Ability to provide creative solutions to legal issues which deliver competitive advantage to the business, taking into account cost, risk and other consequences.