General Counsel And Director Of Legal Services

The Chancellery is currently seeking to appoint an exceptional candidate to the post of General Counsel and Director ofLegal Services.

The General Counsel and Director ofLegal Services is a new senior University wide role and exciting opportunity that will have a significant impact in shaping Legal Services and driving commercialisation in the University. The postholder will lead on providing proactive, timely and well-informed legal advice on corporate matters and law, which impact or may impact on Queen’s, including student and staff related matters, employment, property, contracts, and issues associated with commercial activity.

The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring legal consistency across the University, including the Legal Services, Research Contracts, Information Governance, Risk Management, Employment issues and related roles, through a matrix management structure for specific projects and functional responsibilities. These will include the projects developed under the auspices of Belfast Region City Deal and the University relationship with QUBIS Ltd., the separate spin-out company owned by the University.

They will also lead cross-institutional projects and programmes associated with principal accountabilities. This post is within the Chancellery which is the central coordinating section of the University, and the successful candidate will act as a senior member of the Chancellery leading a team of professional staff.

The successful candidate must have, and your application should clearly demonstrate that you meet the following criteria:

• Be a qualified admitted solicitor or employed barrister (prior to taking up post must be registered, and authorised to currently work in Northern Ireland).
• Proven track record (including recent experience within the last 3 years) with significant post qualification experience relevant to the role particularly in commercial law, with proven experience of exercising sound, independent judgement on complex legal matters and provision of timely and accurate solution-orientated advice at a senior level.
• Substantial proven experience to include recent and relevant experience of providing legal advice within a complex and changing statutory, regulatory, and legislative environment, interpreting legislation into practical application and the adaptation of policies and procedures to comply with changing requirements. This must include experience of providing senior commercial legal advice at Board level or experience of already serving as a General Consul or Director of Legal Services or equivalent.
• Relevant experience of providing significant corporate governance advice to Senior Management or a Board.
• Proven experience of delivering an effective in-house legal service.
• Significant recent and relevant experience, with a personal track record of success, as a leader in a significant and complex organisation/ operating environment. Evidence of successful team leadership, encompassing team building and individual professional development with the ability to build, manage and motivate large multi-disciplinary teams with a proven customer focus.
• Extensive transactional experience of drafting, advising on and negotiating a broad range of complex contracts, including standard and non-standard agreements.

For further information about the role including the essential and desirable criteria please visit our website.

At Queen’s our people are at the heart of everything we do. As a staff member you will become part of a vibrant organisational culture, which will provide you with the opportunity to achieve your full potential and enhance your career through a continuous focus on learning and development.

We offer an excellent employment package that includes:

• Great terms & conditions
• Pension schemes
• Flexible working by enabling you to design your working week in collaboration with your manager through a blend of remote and office working
• Family-friendly initiatives
• Career development opportunities
• Support for health & mental wellbeing
• Generous holiday entitlement of 8.4 weeks a year (made up of 23 days annual leave, 10 closure days and 9 bank holidays)

Queen’s University is committed to promoting equality of opportunity to all. We have created an inclusive culture by establishing staff networks such as iRise (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and International Staff Network) and PRISM (LGBTQ+) which help us progress equality.

We also subscribe to Equality Charter Marks such as the Diversity Charter Mark NI in addition to Athena Swan. For further information on our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, please visit our website.