Legal Counsel (Program Delivery)

The Legal Counsel (Program Delivery) will provide high quality, strategic legal advice and support to Save the Children International's Global Teams and Country Offices, primarily supporting international programme delivery. The role involves advising on legal risk, governance, contracts, compliance, and supporting legal training initiatives within the organization.

Responsibilities

• Advise on SCI’s international programming operations including legal risk and support to Country Offices across five regions.
• Provide legal advice relating to SCI Global Teams operations on matters of global scope or implication such as policy changes in transformation delivery, HR, awards, partnerships, procurement, finance, treasury and fundraising.
• Advise on governance requirements of a global organisation.
• Support senior legal team members with managing contractual and legal risk matters/projects and relationships with SCI Global Teams.
• Support other aspects of the legal team such as internal training initiatives.
• Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of contracts including partnership agreements, goods and services contracts, and legal frameworks with Governments, multilateral agencies, UN agencies, private sector and NGOs.
• Manage advice from and relationships with SCI’s external legal advisors and help stakeholders interpret and apply such advice.
• Identify opportunities for training and new legal tools to manage and mitigate organisational risk, developing and delivering such training and tools.
• Advise on legal compliance areas such as fraud, sanctions and anti-terrorism, working with SCI’s legal compliance team or independently as appropriate.
• Work outside normal job description and vary working hours in event of major humanitarian emergency or organisational crisis.

Requirements

• UK or common law qualified lawyer or barrister; strong candidates who are qualified lawyers in non-common law jurisdictions will be considered.
• Some post-qualification experience gained in a reputable private practice or in-house legal team in one or more of the following areas of law: general corporate/commercial, charity/not-for profit, dispute resolution, regulatory.
• Skilled at applying technical expertise to solving problems in a practical way.
• Strong time management / prioritisation skills and ability to work efficiently to tight deadlines.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Strong inter-personal skills and proven ability to communicate technical and complex information and ideas effectively to different audiences and across different cultures.
• Ability to work independently, requesting support where needed and using initiative to tackle new areas of law with confidence.
• Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English.
• Calm disposition, constructive approach and positive outlook, particularly when working under pressure.
• Team player, with a full appreciation of the value of collaboration.
• Commitment to the mission, vision and values of Save the Children.
• Knowledge of the international development / humanitarian and/or charity sectors (desirable).
• Experience operating in a range of jurisdictions, including instructing overseas counsel (desirable).
• Experience working in an in-house legal team (desirable).
• Ability to work in another of SCI’s core languages, aside from English (French, Arabic or Spanish) desirable but not essential.

Skills

• UK or common law qualification
• Corporate Law
• Commercial Law
• Charity Law
• Not-for-profit law
• Dispute Settlement
• Regulatory Law
• Legal Risk Management
• Contract Law
• Legal Compliance
• Legal Training Development
• In-house Counsel Experience
• Cross-jurisdictional legal knowledge
• Legal Advice
• Legal Drafting
• Time Management
• Prioritization
• Technical Legal Expertise
• Communication of complex legal information
• Stakeholder Engagement

Languages

English