In House Lawyer (Associate) – Procurement, Commercial Contracts and Data Protection

We are excited to be recruiting a new in-house lawyer at Associate level for our Business Excellence team, headed by our General Risk Counsel.

The position is particularly suited for a commercial contracts lawyer interested in data protection and cyber security, offering the chance to engage in supply chain management and enhance our client contracting approach; and is an excellent opportunity to work closely with our data protection and procurement lead.

You will also advise on risk management, professional compliance, and ethical issues in the context of procurement, bids and data protection. 

We offer flexibility regarding our office locations, and support hybrid working tailored to individual and team needs. Our Business Excellence team is on a mission to be recognized as a leader in its field, and we welcome applications from motivated individuals who share that vision.

What you'll do

• Work on day-to-day procurements and support a rolling supply chain resilience project to manage the firm’s supply chain risk. This will include work in and around the firm's ESG and cyber security objectives; and will offer the opportunity to contribute to the firm's procurement policy.
• Provide invaluable contract and compliance advice for client tenders, retainer letters, and client supply contracts, working closely with our Client Development and legal teams.
• Work on data governance, and wider matters concerning the firm's management of risk, including potentially breach/incident management and compliance with the SRA Codes of Conduct.

You will work closely with a wide number of stakeholders, including senior members of the firm and our Digital Data & Technology team, especially with regard to information and cyber security. 

You will benefit from administrative support and a close-knit and friendly team to support you, with a focus on work being done at the right level. 

What we're looking for

The ideal candidate will possess:

• Commercial contracts expertise, including SaaS, with material knowledge of data protection law.
• Project management, planning, and advisory skills.
• A commitment to ethical decision-making and the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• A collaborative mindset, capable of building long-lasting relationships and sharing work effectively within a supportive team environment.

Our offer to you

In return for your efforts, you can expect considerable scope for personal, as well as professional, development. We encourage people to engage with our popular and well supported coaching and mentoring programmes, which connect you to people right across the firm and at every level. We create space for mental and physical wellbeing with our weekly Lifestyle Hour, along with 28 days’ annual leave (plus a day in your birthday month), private medical insurance (eligibility applies) and a sabbatical you can take every 5 years. You can also buy holiday, managing your benefits flexibly using our sophisticated portal to configure your total reward offer according to what you value most. As part of this, you can make ongoing or one-off donations to our charitable foundation and access our CSR programme where you can engage with community-based initiatives (as a team, or individually) twice a year, to give something back where you feel it matters.

For further details of our benefits packages, please visit the link attached – Our benefits | Foot Anstey

Successful applicants will be required to complete a pre-employment screening process which includes a financial integrity check and a DBS check. If you wish to discuss any issues or questions in connection with this, or anything else, please do speak in confidence with a member of the Talent Acquisition Team: [email protected]

Why Foot Anstey?

As one of the UK’s fastest growing law firms, Foot Anstey believes in helping our clients and people achieve their ambitions, unlocking new and exciting opportunities. Our team of business and legal advisors are motivated by understanding clients’ goals and collaborating with them and other advisers to deliver solutions.  By becoming our clients’ most trusted advisor, we are enabling them to achieve their ambitions. How we do it is just as important as what we do. Our values define the way we act with our clients and one another every day, and because of this we think our culture and environment sets us apart.

Over our history we’ve grown from a high-street firm to a significant regional and national player working with leading brands and individuals predominantly across seven key sectors: Private Equity, Retail & Consumer, Energy & Infrastructure, Islamic Finance, Developers, Private Wealth and Charities. Our strategy of gaining market share through meeting clients’ needs, investing in and developing high quality talent and using technology and innovation to enhance our services has led to significant growth. We now operate from nine locations: Bristol, Southampton, Exeter, Plymouth, Truro, Taunton and London, as well as a ‘hub’ bases in Oxford and Manchester.

Our people are central to our success, in every part of the business. We actively support our employees to achieve their aspirations through offering meaningful careers with balanced rewards, which have been carefully designed to focus on personal wellbeing. We offer continual opportunities for support and professional development through our Business Skills Academy and Digital Skills Academy and believe in empowering each other to achieve and strive to create a progressive and inclusive working environment. Being forward-thinking, we are open to discussing flexible working patterns for all of our vacancies, with over 40% of our existing employees having a permanent flexible working pattern. In addition, our impressive suite of flexible benefits will enable you to prioritise what matters most to you.

Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace is integral to delivering our strategy, and we were delighted to be awarded the National Equality Standard for a second time. We consider this to be right at the heart of our priorities and goes way beyond our policies – it’s something we consider across everything we do, from the make-up of our client teams, encouraging staff to reach their potential, through to our leadership. We aim to support our clients and our people to achieve their goals, regardless of background, gender, race, beliefs, sexuality or other non-work related factors. We champion aspiration and encourage it in everyone that works with us. As such we actively encourage applications from all suitably qualified people, regardless of any characteristics protected by law. If you apply for this role, you may be encouraged to answer our diversity and social mobility monitoring questions, so please be reassured that any answers you provide will remain entirely anonymous and confidential and will in no way impact your application.

Foot Anstey. Seriously Ambitious.