Principal Associate

Job Description
We have an exciting opportunity for a Principal Associate to join our Commercial IT & Outsourcing (CITO) team in Birmingham or London.

About The Team
We have a large dedicated and sector-focused commercial, IT and outsourcing contracts teams. We advise on an entire range of IT-related contracts, from small SaaS agreements providing ancillary services like satisfaction surveys to app development agreements to business-critical ERP software licences and implementations, hosting agreements and data/connectivity agreements. You won't get bored – no two days will be the same. In a typical year we advise on around 800 contracts, large and small. We are a vibrant team with huge enthusiasm for supporting clients develop the contracts they need to build and secure their businesses.

Our wider team includes lawyers who focus on the public sector. They often work closely with our IT lawyers advising central government departments on business-critical digital transformations and projects.

About The Role
In this role you will advise on drafting and negotiating IT-related contracts across various sectors including automotive, aerospace, retail, food and drink, life sciences, financial services, energy and telecoms. The work will cover IT contracts (traditional licences, SaaS, software development/ licensing, AI related clauses and services, outsourcing, e-commerce, telecoms) and advisory work including on the EU AI Act, Digital Operational Resilience Act and Network Information Systems Regulation. There is a diverse and interesting blend of work and the opportunity to learn and develop in this role is greater, in our view, than other IT and commercial opportunities. Our team has its own clients and business plan – providing support work to our corporate team is a small fraction of our turnover.

Recent examples of the contracts we get involved in include:

• M&S on the contracts to transform its website
• JLR on all aspects of its online car sales project
• Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders on the re-design and re-platforming of their industry-wide first vehicle registration system
• Pret a Manger on a first generation IT outsourcing of all their business critical IT functions
• Reprocurement of the UK network for a major insurer across its offices and brokers
• Valda Energy on the appointment of a SaaS provider for a key service necessary for Valda to execute its regulated energy distribution functions
• A government department on an ERP procurement and implementation

That does not mean we only do big contracts for household names. We have a diverse practice acting for many mid and large sized businesses advising on both routine contracts and strategically important contracts. We also support scale-up tech companies who are growing rapidly with creating template contracts and negotiations with customers who are typically much bigger than the provider.

About You
You will be a qualified solicitor with a minimum of 6 years' PQE. You will have practical experience of drafting and advising on IT contracts to support businesses on both turnkey projects and day-to-day business.

You will be:

• team-spirited
• commercial
• robust (in negotiation)
• responsible and able to think on your feet to assess risks and exercise sound judgement
• enthusiastic about commercial contracts
• able to develop and maintain client relationships
• keen to get involved in business development
• technically strong in the law and drafting
• ambitious, flexible and positive

What We Can Offer You
The opportunity to work for a firm which has been recognised as one of the best places to work in the UK and has been ranked by Great Place to Work for 25 consecutive years.

• A hybrid approach to office and remote working.
• Lawyer bonus
• Generous annual leave, with the option to buy up to a week's extra annual leave
• Private medical insurance, and the option to add family members
• A generous pension allowance
• Life assurance covering four times your annual salary
• The chance of a three-month sabbatical every five years
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave schemes
• A range of health and wellbeing programmes
• State of the art offices
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development

Many of our people work flexibly in some way. If you would like to explore your own flexible working arrangements with us, we are happy to discuss this during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunities
Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment. The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re-assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity. This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment.

At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work. Our aim is to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.

Any offers we make will be conditional subject to clearance by the SRA, evidence of eligibility to work in the UK and DBS clearance.

If you have any queries in relation to this position, please contact Sam Price -