Corporate and Commercial Counsel

We’re approaching ‘Legal Risk’ in Financial Services in a new way.

• We are ready to serve everyone, if we wanted to - we ensure Legal Risk does not constrain the business but empowers it to achieve its goals;
• We create the best possible customer experience - we want our customers (both internal and external) to look forward to going through our processes; and
• We aim to automate wherever possible - we don’t like inefficiencies nor do we believe that real risk mitigation is achieved by throwing people at the problem.

The Legal Function is at the forefront of GoCardless’ expansion. We must ensure that GoCardless adopts, implements and maintains forward-thinking and appropriate processes and controls, often coming across new challenges or issues that require innovative solutions. 

The role

• As Corporate and Commercial Legal Counsel (3 to 5 years of PQE), you will focus on a number of corporate and commercial legal areas and advise teams across the business.
• You will take a consultative approach and work closely with the business - never working alone, or able to concentrate on purely legal issues. As a member of a busy legal team you will also be expected to contribute to team-wide initiatives. 
• The key responsibilities of this role include:
• Supporting on corporate transactions, which could include a mixture of M&A deals (share or asset acquisitions) in different jurisdictions, but also transactions involving the share capital of our holding company 
• Supporting on corporate governance and company secretarial matters
• Supporting and advising Sales teams in the UK
• Working on specific projects, for example when we roll out new templates/launch new products
• Supporting the marketing team with campaigns, using our Marketing Playbook as a guide
• Working on strategic projects to comply with specific regulations 
• Supervising and training junior lawyers on specific projects and tasks
• Instructing and managing external legal counsel
• Supporting on building out and maintaining self-help tools, playbooks and guides for the legal team and for the wider business 
• Focusing on constant process improvement related to high volume work - for example by iterating our contracting automation and management workflows
• Being prepared to deal with any legal issue, at any time.

Desired skills

We’re looking for a lawyer with private practice training and with broad experience in corporate matters (including M&A), corporate governance but also in contract law and general commercial matters. You will be driven, able to work independently and able to apply your existing knowledge and approach across a very wide range of legal (and quasi-legal) areas.

As a technology business, it helps if you have had experience in a similar area, or perhaps you have a keen interest in tech outside of your day to day work.

We’d love to hear from you if:

• You grasp new legal concepts quickly, and are not afraid to use your common sense
• You have some experience and appetite for legal project work
• You are able to appropriately challenge ways of working and not be afraid to ask why?
• You are a self-starter who is proactive and you are willing to roll up your sleeves to get the job done 
• Your communication skills are first class, and you are able to distil complex and cumbersome legalese into understandable English
• You love tech and tools, and love exploring how they can contribute to efficiency and customer experience  
• You enjoy project management and thrive on operational efficiency
• You are easy to work with, and want to work in a fun, fast-growing and challenging environment.

Bonus points if:

• You have experience of venture capital and complex share capital structures
• You have experience in marketing matters
• You have experience in IP matters
• You have worked in an in-house role

Remember, we don’t expect you to meet every requirement. If you’re excited by this role, we encourage you to apply.