Solicitor

Join the company behind exciting brands such as Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, and help us achieve our goal of becoming a world class digital retailer.

We are looking for a qualified solicitor, based from our Head Office in South Liverpool, to provide commercial and pragmatic legal advice right across all areas of Shop Direct, identifying risks and advising on ways to address them.

About the role

The position of Assistant Solicitor represents a great opportunity to work within a critical support function of a major digital retailer and financial services provider. This role will cover a broad range of commercial contracts, including IT, marketing, consultancy, sponsorship and general procurement, and will include contracting for our financial services business. A broad understanding of the implications of operating within a regulated financial services environment, including FCA requirements on outsourcing would be an advantage.  It will also entail regularly advising on aspects of intellectual property, data protection, distance selling and e-commerce.

The responsibilities of the role will include:

• Contract review, drafting and negotiation for a range of different agreements, including financial services related contracts and outsourcing agreements.
• Maintaining extensive knowledge of UK legal and regulatory developments affecting Shop Direct’s activities and the retail financial services marketplace and identifying potential legal and regulatory change to ensure impacts are sufficiently understood and mitigated.
• Maintaining effective relationships with all relevant business areas and regulatory bodies through a pragmatic, commercial and business focussed approach and demonstrating a sound understanding of business processes within the Group, the interdependencies between them and the impact upon them of external legal and regulatory changes.
• Application of analytical and process skills, specialist knowledge and innovative thinking to offer support and guidance on complex legal and operational problems, including assessing the legal/regulatory risks involved in any given situation, the impact of systems and operational capabilities and the impact on all other dependent areas of the Group.
• Consistent demonstration of effective communication and influencing skills, with the ability to convey the implications of complex technical legal issues to non-subject matter experts and the confidence to challenge and escalate appropriately.
• Recognised as a subject matter expert within the Group on a number of relevant legal areas.
• Identifying opportunities for simplifying or streamlining business processes within the Group.

About you

We are looking for a Commercial Solicitor or Legal Counsel with 1-4 years PQE within a broad commercial role.

You must be able to demonstrate sound commercial awareness and judgement, logical problem-solving skills and excellent interpersonal and team skills.

You will have effective communication and influencing skills with the ability to convey the implications of complex technical issues to non-subject matter experts. Personality fit with the team and with the Shop Direct Culture and Values are critical.

About Us

Shop Direct is home to some of the UK and Ireland’s biggest retail brands. With annual sales of £1.9 billion, we deliver more than 46 million items to our customers every year.

Our website has 800,000 visits each day, 75% of our sales are now online and a fifth of these are generated from mobile devices. We’ve ambitious plans to become a truly world class digital retailer, so there’s never been a more exciting time to join us and play your part in the future.

How to Apply

This is a fantastic opportunity for a solicitor who has gained experience of a range of commercial contracts, ideally within the financial services sector, looking for their next career move.

To find out more please apply online or email peter.tam@shopdirect.com

Please note that the Talent Acquisition team at Shop Direct is managing this vacancy directly and will not be accepting CVs sent by any recruitment agencies

Please be advised, if successful in securing this position, you may be required to undertake a credit, fraud and CRB check.