Assistant General Counsel

Position Overview:

Diligent is seeking an Assistant General Counsel, Commercial and Product to lead our Legal team in the United Kingdom. It is an incredibly exciting time to join a dynamic and agile organisation in a fast-paced, growth phase. This position will be responsible for leading and managing our London-based legal team, supporting our commercial and product initiatives, and providing strategic partnership and legal expertise to senior stakeholders with a particular focus on the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Middle East, and Africa.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner closely with our sales, customer success, partnerships, product, engineering, marketing, security, finance and other business teams including members of our senior leadership team on commercial, product and data protection-related matters. This Assistant General Counsel will be able to emphasize the importance of high-quality cross-border contracts and data protection adherence while delivering practical and business-minded advice that understands our business needs and Diligent’s interests.
• Advise product and engineering teams on issues related to the development and rollout of new products and features for our governance, risk, and compliance platform throughout the entire product development lifecycle.
• Identify legal issues in product development plans and customer agreements, and work with the appropriate teams to create solutions and minimize risk;
• Manage the drafting, negotiating and maintenance of various commercial and technology-related agreements, including sales, vendors, partnerships and data processing agreements.
• Draft, negotiate and review commercial contracts and negotiate with customers, vendors and partners.
• Work with internal clients to advise on negotiation strategy and ensure the contemplated legal terms will meet business needs over the long term.
• Work with the commercial teams and establish relationships with leaders in stakeholder departments including Sales, customer success, marketing, finance, product, engineering, and security.
• Contribute to risk assessment/mitigation, develop new approaches to legal issues to support our business goals, and communicate sound, understandable legal and business recommendations to the team members you support.
• Stay updated on European and international laws and regulations.
• Collaborate with other members of the Legal team, in particular Assistant General Counsels in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and continental Europe.
• Lead and contribute to strategic initiatives, legal and data protection projects.

Required Experience/Skills 

• 8–10 years PQE.
• Substantial commercial legal experience at a top law firm and in-house at a SaaS company.
• Experience in managing staff and leading a team, with a proven ability to develop legal strategy, define objectives, and make business-critical decisions. 
• Expertise in drafting and negotiating a wide variety of commercial agreements typical to the technology sector.
• Ability to work with sales, finance, marketing, security, product, and IT teams collaboratively in a growing organization.
• Excellent communication skills
• Expertise in managing external counsel effectively and in a cost-conscious manner.
• Ability to work in a high-volume, fast-paced environment while remaining analytical and detail-oriented.
• Strong internal and external client service orientation, with high emotional intelligence and the ability to perform well under pressure.
• Experience in IT, procurement, software licensing, or SaaS is advantageous, as is familiarity with European regulations applicable to tech companies (e.g., GDPR, DORA, DSA, EBA Guideline, AI Act, etc.). 
• Experience with local government contracting is a positive.

Last updated on Aug 14, 2024