General Counsel and Company Secretary

**Title**:General Counsel and Company Secretary

**Location**:Ringwood, Hampshire

**About us**
- Churchill Retirement PLC, is the fastest growing company in the UK retirement house building sector and we’re looking for people like you to join us.
- We’re a family-run, privately-owned business and we’re going places. We’re proud of what we do, and the people we work with. We have ambitious growth plans for the future, now employing 700 people and growing all the time.

We pride ourselves on building beautiful, quality, purpose-built one
- and two-bedroom apartments in desirable locations across the UK for those looking for an independent lifestyle in later life. Developments are designed to take away all the hassle and fears that can be experienced by older people and provide security, peace of mind and independence.

We’ve won a host of awards; most recently we were ranked in Sunday Times Top 10 ‘Best Places to Work’ and we were the first ever retirement living specialist to have been named overall ‘Housebuilder of the Year’ by the WhatHouse? Awards.

**About the role**
- Reporting to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer you will act as a Legal sounding board to the Executive Directors and Operations Board by providing pragmatic, commercial legal advice on a range of legal matters.

As a Company we have ambitions to grow further in the next few years and this role will be critical on advising the Executive Directors on future commercial projects and transactions.

An important part of the role will be to further develop the Company Legal strategy and supporting our inhouse legal specialists whilst working with third party professionals to seek the best commercial approach to a legal services function within our growing Company.

The role will ensure that strong ethical standards and public policies are adhered to, whilst balancing the needs of a privately owned business. You will attend the PLC and Operations Board Meetings and will ensure that accurate minutes are recorded, and statutory obligations are met.

**About you**
- We are seeking an individual with solid and proven commercial and legal background, ideally from the housebuilding or property sector. You will be well versed in ensuring that the all the necessary governance is adhered to, but importantly that you can partner on specific corporate projects and give sound commercial legal advice to a privately owned and run business.

You will be a qualified solicitor of 5 years PQE (or equivalent) with proven experience of working not only in private practice but also as an in-house lawyer for a growing commercial business. It is important that you are experienced with corporate governance and company secretary statutory responsibilities, therefore it would be preferable that you also hold a Chartered Secretary qualification such as ICSA or equivalent.

As a legal professional you will enjoy leading, developing and managing a team of legal professionals and you see the importance of having an integrated legal team as part of the wider business. You will need to demonstrate that you can take a commercial approach to decision making and that you are a team player, able to deal with a wide range of Colleagues and third parties alike.

**How you’ll be rewarded**
- Competitive salary
- Company Car or Car Allowance
- Annual bonus + reward schemes
- Annual holiday entitlement - 29 days pro rata + Bank Holidays
- Day off on your birthday
- Buy and Sell holiday scheme
- Private Medical for you and your family
- Group Personal Pension Plan
- Health Screening
- Life Assurance
- Colleague wellbeing programmes including Mental Health First Aiders
- Charity fund matching, charity days and themed events through the Churchill Foundation