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Legal Associate
Salary: From £45,000 (depending on experience)
Contract: Permanent
Location: Hybrid - flexibility to work from home or at any of our main hubs (London, Bristol, Manchester and Harwell)

Jisc is the UK higher, further education and skills sectors’ not-for-profit organisation for digital services and solutions. We believe education and research improves lives, and technology improves education and research.

Our vision is for the UK to be a world leader in technology for education and research and our mission is to power and empower our members with the technology and data they need to succeed. We know that digital technology has the ability to transform the student experience. We have the experience, expertise and know-how to drive that transformation.

About the role:

The Legal Associate will be responsible for providing legal support and assistance as directed by the Group General Counsel whilst operating independently to deliver the following accountabilities:

• Reviewing legal documents and providing timely and commercially focused advice to colleagues across Jisc on potential legal issues arising.
• Engaging with internal clients, sector institutions, stakeholders and external suppliers to facilitate the strategic objectives of Jisc.
• Carrying out specialised legal research in respect of ongoing work and preparing legal reports and papers on current legal issues and practice areas where required.
• Drafting contract templates, bespoke agreements and a variety of other legal documentation as required.
• Mentoring other members of the Legal team to assist their professional growth and development.
• Providing specialist training as required to staff across Jisc to develop a greater understanding of legal issues, risks and mitigation strategies.
• Promoting risk management, compliance with applicable policies and procedures and relevant legislation and regulation and effective corporate governance.

The team:
The Legal team provides in-house legal advice and assistance to all divisions of Jisc (and its subsidiaries) aligned with the company’s business strategy. The Legal team is committed to working in trusted partnership with all business areas of Jisc to deliver commercially focused legal advice in respect of its activities and initiatives.

The core work of the Legal team is the drafting and negotiation of robust and fair contractual terms to underpin Jisc’s relationships with its customers and suppliers to mitigate and manage any potential legal risks.

The Legal team currently consists of the following members: Group General Counsel, 2 Senior Legal Advisers, 4 Legal Associates, 1 Legal Advisers and 2 Legal Apprentices.

Key Skills and Experience:

• Strong academic credentials.
• Effective spoken and written communication skills.
• Confidence and the ability to work under pressure.
• Broad commercial law experience including drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements.
• Relevant legal knowledge and experience of technology law including digital media, intellectual property, data and IT contracts.

Qualifications:

• Qualifying law degree (2:1) followed by the Legal Practice Course (LPC); or
• Non-law degree (2:1) followed by Common Professional Examination (CPE); or
• Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) conversion course followed by the LPC.
• Training contract completed with a law firm (or in-house).
• Post qualification experience gained in a law firm (or in-house).

Please refer to the job description for full details.

Don’t meet every single requirement?

We know that sometimes people can be put off applying for a job if they think they can’t tick every box but we realise the ‘perfect candidate’ doesn’t exist. So, if you can do most of what we’re looking for, go ahead and apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles!

Why work at Jisc:
At Jisc, everyone plays a key role and gets the chance to feel part of it, that to us is the definition of a meaningful career. We want to create a culture of lifelong learning. You can look forward to a rewarding job with opportunities to develop and make a real difference to the education and research sectors.

We celebrate diversity, embrace our differences and know that this is critical for our success. We work hard to make sure we’re inclusive and we are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. So, if you are great at what you do and share our values, we want to hear from you.

At Jisc we believe a balance between your personal and professional life is essential to your happiness and fulfilment. We work flexibly at Jisc and focus on outputs rather than presenteeism and are open to a whole range of ways of working. It isn’t about how many hours you spend at home or at work; it’s about the flow you establish that brings energy to both parts of your life.

We offer hybrid working and although the majority of our staff work from home, getting face to face is something we value and find time for when we can. If you prefer an office environment all our hubs are open and offer a great space to work.

Our benefits are great too. We offer:

• Flexible work pattern, which can adapt to suit your schedules and personal commitments
• 28 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) and an additional three closure days over Christmas
• A generous pension scheme with above average employer contributions
• A range of leave options, including parental leave, volunteer leave and even career breaks.
• A generous budget to attend conferences and in-person training
• Allocated allowance of up to £250 to equip your home office
• A company culture which supports and promotes personal learning and development, including access to thousands of courses on LinkedIn Learning
• Mental health first aid trained staff and supportive environment, plus your own Wellbeing allowance to spend on wellbeing for you
• Financial well-being support
• Discounts on big-name high-street stores
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee recognition awards and travel loans

Equality, diversity and inclusion
At Jisc, we strive to be best in practice and are working hard to achieve progressive change. ‘Always inclusive’ is one of our six guiding principles - a principle which actively encourages acceptance of differences within individuals.

We are committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, neurodivergence, trans status, veteran status or gender identity.

Application process:
Please do let us know what reasonable adjustments you need made to the application or selection process so you can do your best. We will be happy to help you.

Just so you know, we review CVs as soon as we can and aim to provide an update on your application within 4 weeks of receiving it. However, the Jisc Talent team are so super-efficient that you may hear from us a lot sooner, so please keep an eye out for our emails or calls! No doubt this has convinced you that Jisc is an amazing company to work for, so apply now so you don’t miss out.
We advertised this role on 22.02.2023.