Head of SEUK Legal

Position Summary

Why join our team?
•The role is to lead and manage the legal function at Samsung Electronics relating to the UK/I sales and marketing business and all supporting divisions, including:
oThe Mobile, TV/AV, Display, and Domestic Appliances divisions, including sales, marketing, product management and supply chain management;
oThe Direct to Consumer division, responsible for direct sales to consumers;
oThe Corporate Marketing, Social Media, PR and New Business teams;
oThe Customer Experience team;
oThe Samsung capital (B2B lending) team; and
oThe finance, human resources, facilities and other supporting functions.
•The role includes the Line management of all lawyers and paralegals working on the legal side of the team. This is currently two Senior Legal Counsel, two Legal Counsel and three Paralegals.
•You will report into and be supported by the General Counsel (UK/I).

Role and Responsibilities

Your key responsibilities

The majority of the Legal Team’s work is non-contentious in nature and involves drafting and negotiating commercial agreements. However, there will be exposure to and involvement in a range of issues, including contentious and regulatory matters. You will be required to:

lead the negotiation of contracts relating to a wide variety of sales, procurement and other scenarios;

provide prompt and detailed legal advice in relation to legal questions and requests for advice raised by business members, including in respect of:

contract interpretation;

disputes;

data protection;

competition law;

intellectual property;

consumer protection;

advertising and marketing;

real estate;

B2B lending;

handle litigation matters;

review and approve marketing and advertising materials.

You will be expected to build relationships with the senior management of all business teams and ensure that you and the lawyers in the legal team can perform a “business partner” role as follows: 

Maintaining good working relationships with the relevant business team(s), attending business team meetings / events where relevant, in order to build relationship with all team members and to understand their strategy and objectives;

Being the first point of call for employees in the business team(s) and providing advice in response;

Identifying existing and future legal issues affecting the business team(s), reporting them to others in the Legal Team and the business team(s) to reduce risk;

Being proactive to develop advice, guidance and informal training for the business team(s) to reduce risk and add value to their business;

Reporting and escalating matters concerning the business team(s) (including any matters requiring board level/leadership team escalation) to the General Counsel (UK/I).

You will be expected to have an overview of all legal work carried out by the Legal Team and be available to support all lawyers and paralegals in the team with their work.

You will be responsible for ensuring that the Legal Team conducts sensing work to review developments in the law. You will ensure that training is provided to the Legal Team on such developments and to maintain a good working knowledge of relevant legal matters within the team.

The Legal Team rarely engages external counsel, and you must be prepared to carry out research and provide advice without the benefit of external advice.

You will ensure that the Legal Team’s precedent agreements and documents are well maintained and developed. You will develop standard negotiating positions and guidance for the Legal Team and the business to use in negotiations. You will develop training and guidance for the business to use.

You will have a close working relationship with the General Counsel UK/I, who will continue to be available to support the management and operation of the legal function (as well the compliance and sustainability functions). You will work with the General Counsel UK/I to develop the Legal Team to ensure that its structure and skill set meets the requirements of the business.

Your key people management responsibilities

Provide clarity on strategy, team purpose & value and define the key areas of focus and direction.

Support the development of your team through regular mentoring, coaching and feedback, 1:1s and on the job learning opportunities.

Role model inclusion for your team to build trust and psychological safety.

Ensure communication with your team is a core focus area including cascade of information from LT’s and relevant business updates.

Manage the on boarding, off boarding process and the entirety of the colleague lifecycle process for all team members.

Manage all annual people management cycles such as goal setting, evaluation and salary reviews to a high quality and in a timely manner.

To be accountable for ensuring your team are compliant with company processes and procedures; such as compliance, meeting mandatory business cyclical deadlines, and understanding the company values.

What we need for this role

To be successful, you will possess the following skills and attributes:

You must be a qualified solicitor with significant and demonstrable experience of the “Responsibilities” outlined above, and as a minimum:

drafting and negotiating different types of English law commercial agreements; and

advising on general commercial law matters (such as competition law, IP, advertising, litigation, etc); and

managing other lawyers.

You should have excellent academics and high-quality training (ideally within a private practice environment).

Significant in-house experience with a consumer electronics, distribution, or FMCG company is desirable.

As well as having excellent legal skills, you will be expected to be commercially minded.

Experience of working with global consumer products brands or East-Asian companies would be beneficial.

You must understand and be committed to working within an “in-house” legal environment, and be able to work/communicate with, influence and provide guidance to business teams within the organisation. 

You must be able to explain complex legal and other issues in clear terms that are easily understood.

You are expected to be pragmatic, flexible, and culturally aware/ sensitive. 

You must be detail oriented and take pride in providing a good service to a business.

Although the role is to manage and be integrated within a small and close knit Legal Team, you must be able to work under your own initiative.

What does success look like?

Making the Legal Team your own:

Leading the Legal Team by example to be viewed as both trusted advisors to and team members of the UK and Irish sales and marketing businesses. 

Maintaining a strong working ethic within the team, and developing the expertise, competency and commercial skills of the Legal Team.

Becoming a delegate and potential successor to the General Counsel (UK/I).

Skills and Qualifications

Benefits of working at Samsung include

Hybrid working - 3 days in the office and 2 days at home per week

Bonus scheme linked to individual, team and company performance

Car allowance

Healthcare cash plan or private medical – family cover

Income protection

Enhanced pension contribution

Three volunteering days each year

Flexible benefit portal and contribution of £55 per month - including travel insurance, gym membership, season ticket loan, Tastecard, dental insurance and more

Holiday - 25 days plus bank holidays and an additional day off for your birthday

Access to discounts on a wide range of Samsung products

Access to a discount shopping portal

A note on equal opportunities

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at our Company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

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