Senior Legal Counsel – Global Commercial

Sazerac Company Overview

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Traveller, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Svedka, Wheatley, BuzzBallz, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

Job Description/Responsibilities

The Senior Legal Counsel will serve as a key legal business partner to Sazerac’s Global Sales organization and support the continued growth and globalization of Sazerac’s business across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region.

This role will provide practical, business-oriented legal counsel to commercial leaders operating across a diverse and rapidly growing group of international markets. The Senior Legal Counsel will work closely with Global Sales and other business functions to enable growth, structure and negotiate commercial relationships, manage legal and commercial risk, and develop scalable solutions that allow the organization to move quickly and effectively.

This is a highly visible role for an attorney who combines strong commercial judgment and legal capability with an entrepreneurial, business-first mindset. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating independently across multiple jurisdictions, navigating ambiguity, and partnering with business leaders to find solutions rather than simply identifying risks.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as the primary commercial legal partner to the Global Sales organization for Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. Provide day-to-day legal counsel on commercial matters, including the drafting, negotiation, interpretation and enforcement of distribution, importer, agency, supply, services and other commercial agreements. Develop a deep understanding of Sazerac’s business, brands, commercial objectives and international growth strategy and use that understanding to provide pragmatic, actionable advice. Advise on the establishment, restructuring and termination of distributor, importer and other key commercial relationships and help the business navigate associated legal and commercial risks. Coordinate with Sazerac’s regulatory, compliance, intellectual property, corporate and other legal specialists where matters require expertise beyond commercial contracting, while maintaining ownership of the overall business issue.
• Make and own decisions. Bring a proactive, solution-oriented mindset, an enterprise perspective and a commitment to winning and winning the right way. Empower commercial teams through training, practical guidance and self-service tools that allow routine matters to be handled efficiently while ensuring appropriate legal oversight of higher-risk matters.

• Develop and continuously improve contract templates, clause libraries, negotiation guidelines, playbooks, policies and other tools that improve consistency and enable the business to operate more efficiently. • Help build scalable legal processes and infrastructure capable of supporting Sazerac’s continued international growth, including effective use of contract lifecycle management and other legal technology.

• Manage and coordinate local outside counsel across numerous jurisdictions when specialist local advice is required, maintaining ownership of the matter and ensuring that outside counsel provides practical, commercially useful advice and strong value. Work effectively across cultures, geographies and time zones and build trusted relationships with business leaders throughout Sazerac’s global organization. Identify emerging legal and commercial risks across the region and proactively develop solutions before those issues become obstacles to the business

Qualifications/Requirements

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum 7 years of relevant legal experience, including advising on sophisticated commercial transactions.
• Experience working across multiple countries or jurisdictions, with the judgment to recognize when local legal expertise is required.
• Strong experience reviewing, drafting, and negotiating commercial agreements, including distribution, sales, and business development contracts.
• Strong commercial judgment, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to quickly learn Sazerac's business, markets, and operating model.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Ability to quickly learn new systems and processes.Qualified and authorized to practice law in the United Kingdom.
• Demonstrated ability to operate as a business partner, translating legal issues into practical business solutions.
• Ability to operate independently, make decisions, and manage a varied workload across multiple markets.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across functions and geographies while working effectively as a self-directed professional.

Preferred Qualifications

• Significant in-house experience supporting an international or global commercial organization.
• Experience in the alcohol beverage, consumer packaged goods or other highly regulated consumer products industry.
• Experience supporting distributor/importer models and route-to-market arrangements across international markets
• Experience operating in a decentralized, entrepreneurial and rapidly growing global business.
• Experience developing contracting processes, templates, playbooks and technology-enabled solutions that allow a legal function to scale efficiently.
• Ability to travel internationally as required, approximately up to 25%.

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