Senior Legal Counsel - 12 Month FTC

We are Reckitt

Home to the world's best loved and trusted hygiene, health, and nutrition brands. Our purpose defines why we exist: to protect, heal and nurture in the relentless pursuit of a cleaner, healthier world. We are a global team united by this purpose. Join us in our fight to make access to the highest quality hygiene, wellness, and nourishment a right and not a privilege.

​Legal​

Step into the world of our Legal and Compliance Function and prepare to be challenged and stretched with a combination of impact, innovation, and excellence. Our Legal team is at the forefront of shaping the corporate landscape and redefining the boundaries of what is possible. We go beyond the traditional realms of a legal and compliance function. Transforming ourselves into strategic partners who help drive business growth, mitigating risks, and championing ethical and sustainable practices. Every day, our team deliver on groundbreaking transactions and navigate complex regulatory landscapes that help our organisation make a positive societal impact. Join us, and you'll be collaborating towards shared goals, solving complex challenges, and leaving an enduring legacy.

About the role

We have an exciting opportunity for a creative, experienced and pragmatic lawyer to join our UK and Ireland business, as Senior Legal Counsel.  Working collaboratively with the legal director for Northern and Central Europe and colleagues in Reckitt’ s wider Legal function, the Senior Legal Counsel will be a key team player in the legal strategy and assisting in implementation of all legal and compliance matters related to the Reckitt North European commercial and manufacturing operations in the UK and Ireland.  

S/he will have a legal counsel direct report and is expected to work proactively and in a hands-on way to develop strong relationships with the commercial and legal teams and deliver commercially relevant advice in the context of a dynamic, innovative and growing consumer healthcare business unit.    

 

The Senior Legal Counsel will be a member of the Europe legal team and an important member of Reckitt’s global Legal team of  qualified legal professionals and staff, based in a number of locations worldwide. 

Your responsibilities

The right candidate will be a proactive, self-aware and commercially-minded business partner with an awareness of wider business goals, who articulates clearly and pragmatically legal considerations and potential risks to their stakeholders.  This position has a direct impact on key business activities with the potential for significant legal, financial or reputational impact if not addressed correctly, so excellent and robust legal abilities and good experience in the legal framework on the areas of work to be undertaken, strategic thinking, commercial awareness, influencing skills and willingness to work collaboratively with colleagues within and outside of Legal are key. 

 

 

Key areas of work will include, among other things:

 

• Advertising & Marketing:  Strategic advice and approval on all legal aspects of product marketing and advertising, including reviewing and approving  packaging artwork, product claims, TV copies and story boards, business development initiatives, advising, negotiating and assisting in drafting of challenges from or responses to various complaint notification bodies/consumers or competitors on any advertising/marketing initiatives and, working with the global Legal team and Health business unit innovation teams on, new and existing product development initiatives, in line with regulations and always ensuring compliance with Reckitts ethical marketing principles; advising and drafting competition/prize draw rules, advising on any digital marketing initiatives including ecommerce

 

• Crisis and Issues Management: assisting the legal director as required on any crisis or major issues impacting the UK and/or Ireland business including on product recalls, PR related matters, consumer relation matters, unforeseen matters such as cyber attacks, pandemics;

 

• Commercial Contracts:  Drafting and managing legal implications under a range of commercial agreements, including distribution, sales, supply, warehousing, freight, services, procurement, confidentiality, equipment commissioning and various other commercial contracts/arrangements, supporting the business in legal aspects of negotiations; 

 

• Legal Compliance: advising on various compliance matters in collaboration with the legal director and European Compliance director such as on anti-trust, data protection and privacy, sanctions, antibribery and corruption, failure to prevent tax evasion, interactions with healthcare providers and working closely with the Compliance function and the business to drive RB’s compliance and responsibility agenda. 

 

• Intellectual Property:  Working closely with the Global IP and Trademarks legal teams, with respect to managing the UK and Ireland intellectual property and trademarks portfolio, including assisting the Global IP team in advising the business on all contentious and non-contentious trademark, copyright and design, anti-counterfeiting and parallel import related matters;

 

• Active Management of Property and Construction projects:  Managing any property related matters affecting the business and the relationship with any external property and construction legal experts advising on such matters including on JCT’s, minor building work contracts, leases, surrenders, assignments, land acquisitions; and

 

• Advising on General Legal Questions arising in a commercial enterprise.

 

• Litigation & Dispute Resolution:  Assisting the legal director as required with all litigious matters impacting UK and Ireland, and producing reports as required by the Reckitt audit teams;

The experience we're looking for

Key Challenges

• This role demands excellent drafting and negotiation skills; good grasp of English law/EU law and the regulations that apply to the enterprises being supported, a creative and pragmatic mind especially with respect to the marketing and sales advisory aspects of the role, key stakeholder engagement and support an ability to disseminate the key points to business partners quickly and succinctly;
• Commercially-orientated, solutions driven approach with the ability to work autonomously
• Establishing, maintaining and improving the group’s legal services and being a key team player with an understanding of and a passion for technology
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, environment supporting a demanding business

 

Essential

• Excellent legal skills and professionally qualified in the relevant jurisdiction with at least 6-8 years of high quality post-qualification experience, a large portion of which will ideally have been spent in a comparable in-house role
• Demonstrable experience of advising on legal and compliance issues in a healthcare, pharmaceutical or life sciences related sector, operating in a multi-jurisdictional legal environment
• Strong leadership, communication and influencing skills, solutions oriented and pragmatic mindset
• Prepared to stand behind legal advice while remaining flexible and open to others’ views
• Appetite for learning and mastering new legal issues quickly and manage a diverse, changing workload
• A team player, with high integrity, a strong work ethic and a commitment towards creating a collaborative team culture and helping the business to drive its focus on consumer healthcare in a compliant, responsible and entrepreneurial way
• A hands-on, pragmatic self-starter who can work independently, manage competing priorities and meet tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Fluent in English

 

Highly Desirable

• UK qualified lawyer
• Strong experience in advising on legal and compliance matters in the context of an over-the-counter branded consumer healthcare portfolio
• Strong grounding in antitrust/competition law and/or healthcare legal compliance will be highly advantageous
• Experience in working with UK/EU medicinal legal and regulatory regimes and agencies
• Ability to establish good working relationships with highly demanding internal clients and other stake holders
• Ability to manage legal issues with a high degree of commerciality and pragmatism.

The skills for success

Integrity, Corporate Governance, Compliance Management, Solutions Focused, Excellent Communication Skills, Risk management, Intellectual property, Patents, Commercial contracts, Marketing, Teamwork, Fact-based Decision Making, Ability to manage and prioritize workload, Continuous Improvement Mindset, Legal Services, Process Optimisation.

What we offer

With inclusion at the heart of everything we do, working alongside our four global Employee Resource Groups, we support our people at every step of their career journey, helping them to succeed in their own individual way. We invest in the wellbeing of our people through parental benefits, an Employee Assistance Program to promote mental health, and life insurance for all employees globally. We have a range of other benefits in line with the local market. Through our global share plans we offer the opportunity to save and share in Reckitt's potential future successes. For eligible roles, we also offer short-term incentives to recognise, appreciate and reward your work for delivering outstanding results. You will be rewarded in line with Reckitt's pay for performance philosophy.

Equality

We recognise that in real life, great people don't always 'tick all the boxes'. That's why we hire for potential as well as experience. Even if you don't meet every point on the job description, if this role and our company feels like a good fit for you, we still want to hear from you. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, disability or medical condition; colour, ethnicity, race, citizenship, and national origin; religion, faith; pregnancy, family status and caring responsibilities; sexual orientation; sex, gender identity, gender expression, and transgender identity; protected veteran status; size or any other basis protected by appropriate law.