Head of Legal – Global Professional Institution

Central London, c.3 days per week in office

The opportunity

A newly created senior leadership role, the Head of Legal will oversee day-to-day legal operations and support the General Counsel in providing strategic legal advice across the organisation. This high-profile position offers the opportunity to lead and develop a small team of legal professionals in a globally recognised professional institution and regulator.

Key responsibilities

•Lead, mentor, and develop the legal team comprising Legal Counsel, NQ Legal Counsel, Paralegal, and Legal Administrator, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture.

• Oversee legal team resourcing, training, and performance management, supporting new hybrid working arrangements for greater collaboration and efficiency.

• Provide pragmatic, solutions-focused legal advice on commercial, regulatory, corporate governance, and litigation matters.

• Support the General Counsel and Executive with strategic legal advice on key risks and developments.

• Manage negotiation, drafting, and review of major commercial agreements, including potential outsourcing projects, alongside Procurement.

• Ensure consistency and quality of legal documentation and manage the organisation’s international intellectual property portfolio and brand strategy.

• Identify and mitigate global legal and regulatory risks, supporting compliance reviews in alignment with international market strategies.

• Provide corporate governance and regulatory support, including legal entity management and advising on data protection and privacy law, especially GDPR compliance.

• Foster strong stakeholder engagement within the business and with external legal advisors, ensuring tight cost control and service delivery management.

• Lead or support major strategic projects, transactions, litigation, and corporate initiatives.

Skills and experience

• Qualified solicitor with a minimum of 10 years PQE and previous in-house experience preferred.

• Proven track record managing legal teams and providing counsel at senior leadership levels.

• Strong commercial legal knowledge, especially in commercial law, intellectual property, data protection, procurement, IT contracts, and litigation.