Commercial Legal Counsel

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine ambitious, entrepreneurially spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

The Quality and Risk Management Team (QRMT) at BDO comprises several sub-teams including the Office of the General Counsel, Root Cause Analysis, Enterprise Risk Management, Economic Crime, Quality Management, Ethics and Independence and Advisory Regulatory and Compliance. It provides Partners and staff with the guidance, tools and support to enable them to identify and manage quality and risk issues. The QRMT is led by the Head of Quality and Risk Management Team, who is a partner who reports into the Head of Quality and Risk for the Firm.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

Overview

BDO’s Office of the General Counsel is looking for a Commercial Legal Counsel to join the team to support supplier contracting activity with a focus on technology purchases. The role will involve reviewing, drafting and negotiating supplier contracts with the objective of managing the firm’s risk exposure and enabling growth. The role will also support more senior lawyers in the team on strategically significant contracts and legal issues where appropriate.

Responsibilities

• review, draft and negotiate complex supplier contracts for the procurement of SaaS, AI, property/facilities services agreements, consultancy service agreements, data subscriptions;
• negotiate and advise on cloud services, data hosting and cyber security schedules, including data residency, business continuity and exit/transition provisions;
• be the subject matter expert in one of the following areas: Data Protection, AI and/or IP;
• advise internal stakeholders and work collaboratively with external advisors;
• anticipate and react to new laws, regulations and professional standards;
• mentor, supervise and develop junior members of the Legal and QRM teams;
• contribute to the creation and/or improvement of template contracts, playbooks and contracting processes to drive efficiency and consistency;
• deliver legal training and guidance on your area of expertise; and
• support the senior commercial lawyers in the delivery of strategic projects and initiatives in relation to supplier contracting.

Requirements

Essential:

• law degree;
• qualified to practice law in England and Wales;
• experience of advising on/negotiating/drafting commercial contracts gained in a law firm and/or in a large fast-paced commercial in-house legal team;
• experience in contracting for purchase of technology for internal and external consumption;
• application of EU/UK Data Protection Laws in global procurement contracts;
• experience of working closely with various internal stakeholders (such as procurement, data protection and cyber security teams) on contract execution;
• strong written and oral communication skills with the ability to prioritise and manage own workloads; and
• being commercially minded with a problem-solving mind set.

Desirable:

• experience of commercial contracting in a professional services firm and/or regulated business; and
• use and/or deployment of AI within a legal function to assist in contract review, drafting and negotiation.

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to our business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer everyone the opportunity to work in ways that suit them, their teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value and satisfying experiences at work, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO.

We’re looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions.

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.