Jardine Motors Group - Associate Legal Counsel/In-house Lawyer

Are you are a talented Associate Counsel, and/or a qualified or part-qualified solicitor with good experience of commercial and other legal work? and you are looking to develop your career and expand on your existing legal experience in an in-house environment, we would be very pleased to hear from you. 

Our client represents some of the most famous and successful automotive brands in the UK.  As well as being a significant player in the UK, they are also part of the global Jardine Matheson group. They are looking for a practised, professional Associate Legal Counsel/In-house Lawyer to support the work of our Group Legal team.

The location of this role is generally flexible, however a part-time base in their Head Office in Colchester, Essex, is required, with some UK travel around their network of seventy franchises.

Fundamentally, this role will be to advise and assist within the internal Legal function, with a focus on both B2B and B2C, working closely and reporting directly to the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary.

As a successful candidate, this position will include you undertaking the following tasks:

Contracts 

• Reviewing, commenting on, amending and negotiating various types of legal contracts from around the business.
• Drafting and updating contracts used around the Group. Examples may include contracts in relation to specific projects, from NDAs and vehicle loan agreements through to other more complex contracts including IT related and Marketing contracts. 

Data Protection and compliance issues

• Using and developing your existing and potential data protection knowledge and experience to advise the business on legal and practical aspects of data protection law, including the implementation of ongoing work for JMG to achieve compliance with GDPR.
• Becoming a key adviser for data protection issues and a member of our data working group.
• Providing assistance where required on other legal and compliance issues, including Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and other regulatory advice.

Customer issues, legal disputes and Group policies and procedures

• Assist Group General Counsel and the wider business in providing legal, practical and commercial advice in order to resolve customer issues and disputes (including working in conjunction with external legal advisers and our Customer Services team).
• Strong knowledge and practical application of consumer law, including the Consumer Rights Act and similar legislation.

• Prepare and update letters for dealing with commonly found issues and resolutions.
• Assist our dealerships and Customer Services in resolving and documenting legal and commercial settlements. 
• Reviewing and updating the Group manuals, sales process and our internal and external policies and procedures.
• Provide consumer advice to the dealerships and Customer Services, and being an additional point of contact for all relevant issues within the Legal team.

Regulatory support and risk

• Deal with specific tasks allocated and providing support to the Group in relation to a variety of regulatory and risk issues. 
• Assist in undertaking specific self-contained/routine legal tasks.
• Undertake and report on research on any legal and risk issues affecting the Group and on specific topical issues where required.

M&A projects

• Assist with the legal due diligence aspects of any acquisition and disposal projects.
• Assist with reviewing, negotiating, finalising and checking of all relevant legal documents.
• Deal with other associated tasks, for example the novation of dealer agreements.

Insurance

• Liaising with Claims Handlers and external solicitors in relation to insurance claims.
• Assist with providing insurance advice.
• Dealing with ad-hoc insurance queries requiring input from the Group Legal team.
• Reviewing and updating the Group’s insurance manual.
• Co-ordination of historic claims to seek to reduce our exposure to uninsured losses. 
• Assist with the legal aspects of current claims.

Training support

• Assist with the production of suitable training materials using various media and the presentation of legal training to the Group on topical legal issues, for example the Consumer Rights Act, Data Protection, FCA rules and regulation, and other compliance issues.

Experience, attributes and qualifications

• Law degree educated with LPC/qualified solicitor, or similar legal qualifications.
• Good previous experience working as a legal adviser in a legal department or law firm.
• Strong legal drafting skills.
• Ability to prepare easy to understand, commercial and well thought through legal advice to the business and the Legal department. 
• Positive attitude along with willingness and desire to learn and develop within an in-house legal environment in the retail motor industry. 
• Computer literate with good IT skills.
• Experience of undertaking legal research and using legal resources such as Lexis Nexis or Practical Law.

Recruitment process:

Ennis & Co are an automotive Executive Search company who are working on behalf of Jardine Motors Group to engage and identify suitable candidates for this opportunity.

Ennis & Co will be reviewing all applications and will be conducting telephone interviews with those candidates who best meet the criteria for the role.

The closing date for applications for this opportunity is 2^nd April 2018. Any applications submitted after this date may not be considered.