Legal Counsel - Personal Care

Job description

Salary: Competitive + Bonus + Competitive Benefits Package + Flexible/Agile Working

MAIN JOB PURPOSE:


This is a broad commercial role reporting to the General Counsel Skin and Global Head of Brand IP. Whilst the role will predominantly support the skin care and cleansing divisions, the candidate will also be required to provide legal support to the wider legal Personal Care team. The role requires identification of legal risks and advice to cross-functional international business partners on all areas of commercial law including drafting and negotiating of contracts, legal advice on marketing and advertising law, intellectual property law, regulatory and compliance matters, distribution channels, pricing, privacy, e-commerce, data protection and competition law. Experience of working in a global consumer health or personal care and beauty industry is preferable. The role may require attendance at leadership meetings and/or external engagement, as well as travel.


JOB SUMMARY

Marketing law

· Provide legal advice and commercial risk analysis to the global marketing teams regarding the legal implications around all aspects of advertising, brand promotion and communication including but not limited to: product positioning and claims, copy clearance, T&Cs (for promotions), data protection and privacy issues
· Coordinating risk analysis with relevant global in-house legal functions and R&D colleagues to evaluate the legality of and support of product /advertising claims in line with all relevant legal and regulatory laws and guidelines governing the cosmetics industry
· Co-ordinating with relevant legal and business partners to pro-actively coordinate and defend out-going and in-coming challenges in respect of product/advertising claims
· Negotiating licence agreements for the use of third party content within advertising campaigns, and or the licensing out of Unilever assets.

Contracts


· Ability to advise the business in relation to a range of commercial contracts; drafting, reviewing and negotiating all contract documentation related to marketing and advertising campaigns, including agency agreements, sponsorship agreements, endorsement agreements, website agreements, designer services agreements, event agreements, artist collaborations and talent agreements, JVs, partnerships and sustainability ventures

Intellectual Property

· Proven track record of contentious IP (infringement, passing off and unfair competition) in respect of trade marks, domain names and copyright, including drafting pleadings, leading and managing complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, and supervising and giving strategic input into the preparation of submissions, witness statements, pleadings and evidence. Ability to issue spot other areas of IP (e.g. patents, designs) is essential.
· Experience of providing advice to M&A through the Corporate & Transactions Legal team during due diligence and corporate governance advice post acquisition.
· Experience of trade mark prosecution work desirable but not essential
· Experience of drafting IP related commercial contracts, including co-existence, licensing, collaboration, talent and distribution agreements.

General Responsibilities

· Liaison (written and oral) with key business partners
· Identify and explain legal risks to business partners including proposing solutions to help them navigate the risks
· Conduct research into applicable areas of existing or emerging law.
· Supervise Brand IP counsels in respect of contentious trade mark, copyright and domain name matters
· Prepare legal updates for, and share know how within, the Legal team.
· Prepare alerts and/or guidance notes for the business on hot topics.
· Be an ambassador for the Legal team within Unilever and the wider legal community.

Key Requirements/Preference:


· UK Qualified solicitor or trade mark attorney (or equivalent in a common law jurisdiction) preferred with 2-3 PQE with general commercial/IP experience
· Proven experience in negotiating, drafting and concluding a wide variety of global commercial contracts
· Proven experience in providing legal advice to marketing colleagues on global campaigns, including advising on product positioning and claims and evaluating relevant legal and regulatory risks. Experience of the cosmetics industry is an advantage, but not essential
· FMCG experience in an international role is desirable.
· Experience of consumer health or personal care is desirable
· Experience in data protection, digital marketing and promotions and competitions is desirable but not essential

Person Specification:


· Experience of working within global teams and managing and developing talent
· Strong organisational and prioritisation skills: experience of managing instructions on a global basis, with competing deadlines and priorities, often at very short notice
· Ability to assimilate information quickly, identify legal risks and provide pragmatic, commercial advice to the business, or offer a solution based approach
· Ability to lead decisions and to work independently, including coordinating input from several global business partners, such as legal, R&D and Regulatory, Procurement
· Excellent written and oral communication skills: ability to communicate with global business partners in different time zones and with countries where English is often not the first language
· Proven leadership skills: willingness to attend and/or deputise at leadership team meetings as necessary
· Experience in change management and willing to nurture talent
· Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
· Excellent English written and oral skills

APPLICATION PROCESS

Online Application >> Face to Face Interviews >> Job Offer

Please note: As part of the job application, you will be asked to complete a brief online application form. Completion of the form is required in order to be considered. Please allow yourself enough time to complete the application form as when filled out partially or not at all it may adversely affect the progress of your application. Please be aware that you will have to complete the form at once as you will be unable to return to it later.

For further information about this position please call: 0800 0284390. Please do not contact this number if you are an agency/third party. This number is strictly for candidates only.