In-House Legal Counsel

In-House Legal Counsel

Location: City of London (Onsite with flexibility)

Contract Type: Permanent, Full-time

A profitable, self-funded and fast-growing British software house is hiring its first dedicated in-house lawyer. This is a true generalist role with huge ownership, high-performance, global technology business that operates across the UK, EU, US and APAC.

The successful candidate will take responsibility for a broad range of legal work and act as a core advisor to senior management.

Key Responsibilities

• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating the full range of commercial agreements – SaaS subscriptions, software licensing, services agreements, NDAs, DPAs, reseller/partner contracts, supplier agreements.
• Handling disputes end-to-end: pre-action correspondence, evidence gathering, managing county court claims and briefing counsel on high court matters when needed.
• Advising on UK/EU GDPR, data protection, consumer duty and broader technology regulatory issues.
• Supporting group corporate work – board resolutions, company secretarial tasks, inter-company agreements, occasional M&A or restructuring projects.
• Acting as the go-to pragmatic commercial advisor to the CEO and the product/engineering teams.
• Building and automating legal processes.

Candidate Profile

• Strong preference for existing in-house experience at a SaaS, scale-up, fintech or other fast-moving technology business.
• Numerate and analytical mindset – STEM first degree is a significant advantage.
• Comfortable being the sole lawyer.
• Hands-on, commercial, “roll-up-your-sleeves” attitude.
• Excellent drafting and stakeholder management skills.
• Dual UK/Australia qualification or experience across multiple common-law jurisdictions is a bonus (but not essential).

Skills & Experience – Must Haves

• Solid track record drafting and negotiating SaaS and technology contracts.
• Exposure to GDPR/data-protection work.
• Confidence managing disputes or litigation (at least at county-court level).
• Ability to give clear, commercial advice quickly.

Desirable

• UK-qualified solicitor (or Commonwealth equivalent) with 1-4 years PQE.
• Interest in legal-tech and process automation.
• Experience supporting international expansion.
• Previous start-up/scale-up environment.