Legal Counsel

Group Contracting: Legal Counsel

The GC legal team is based at Dyson’s technology campuses in the UK and Singapore. We provide legal support in relation to Dyson’s global supply chain and manufacturing operations; helping to establish and maintain effective relationships with our suppliers and manage any associated legal risk. Our work involves advising on high-value and/or strategically important commercial agreements with suppliers and resolving contractual disputes.

Legal Counsel’s role:

Reporting into a Senior Legal Counsel within the team, Legal Counsel are responsible for:

• Being a subject matter expert in contract law (in England and / or Singapore) and contract interpretation, providing advice to internal stakeholders.
• Identifying, advising on, and mitigating legal risks; ensuring that legal risks are reported, approved, and recorded in accordance with Dyson’s Legal Risk Framework.
• Providing legal support to internal stakeholders on the drafting & negotiation of supplier-facing contracts, ensuring that: (a) stakeholders understand the terms of the contracts that they wish to enter into, and any material risks associated with those terms; (b) the contract terms are appropriate for their subject matter and align with Dyson’s business objectives and risk appetite; and (c) the contract terms satisfy Dyson’s Minimum Requirements for Supplier Contracts (or, if this is not possible, the implications of any deviations are highlighted to stakeholders).
• Providing legal advice on contractual arrangements, helping to ensure that the business understands its rights & obligations and extracts value from the terms that have been agreed, including by supporting the business to enforce contract terms against third parties.
• Reviewing existing contracts to identify risks posed by them & opportunities for improvements; and supporting internal stakeholders to amend contract terms where necessary.
• Managing any disputes that may arise with suppliers through to their resolution (with the support of external legal counsel where necessary), ensuring that Dyson leverages its legal and contractual position to obtain the best outcome for the business.
• Where necessary, coordinating with other teams across Dyson Legal to ensure that issues receive the right legal input and visibility, and the department delivers cohesive advice to the business.
• Contributing to the GC team’s strategic goals; and the ongoing maintenance and development of processes, templates and guidance documents to support the effective and efficient delivery of the team’s legal services.
• Building & maintaining good working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Support Senior Legal Counsel to prepare and deliver internal training to stakeholders.
• Contributing to the team’s reporting activities, and keeping Senior Legal Counsel apprised of ongoing matters & any associated legal risks within the functions that they are responsible for.

Skills required:

Drafting:

• Use and adapt template documents as required.
• Draft and amend contract terms in clear and unambiguous language (accurately capturing Dyson’s requirements), with supervision from Senior Legal Counsel on more complex drafting.

Legal analysis:

• Possess a good understanding of contract law in England or Singapore.
• Analyse and accurately interpret contract terms and the issues and risks flowing from them.
• Identify and assess the strength of legal arguments for and against Dyson on matters that you work on.
• Identify legal and commercial risks to Dyson stemming from the matters that you work on (with guidance from Senior Legal Counsel on complex matters).
• Contextualise risk and categorise it by reference to its likelihood of materialising and potential impact on Dyson (with guidance from Senior Legal Counsel, where necessary).
• Identify and implement (or recommend to the business) legal and operational risk mitigations.

Commerciality:

• Clarify the business objectives and drivers that are relevant to matters that you are involved in.
• Discern legal issues from business issues (with guidance from Senior Legal Counsel).
• Consider the business and commercial impact when conducting legal analysis.
• Tailor your advice to recognise business priorities and practical realities.

Communication:

• Communicate clearly and concisely (in writing and orally).
• Articulate complex issues and legal risks in clear, easy to understand, language.
• Tailor communication style to suit the relevant audience (e.g. lawyer vs. non-lawyer).
• Negotiate proficiently with counterparties, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s position and formulating arguments to secure a favourable outcome.
• Build positive constructive working relationships with stakeholders, colleagues & third parties.

Behaviours:

• Work with a significant degree of independence, using your initiative to propose solutions, actions and next steps to get things done and support the achievement of Dyson’s business objectives.
• Consistently deliver work of a high standard (in terms of quality, presentation and attention to detail).
• Remain calm under pressure and manage multiple stakeholders and matters simultaneously, prioritising work appropriately (with guidance from Senior Legal Counsel).
• Work effectively as part of a team; and collaborate with others to achieve the best outcome for Dyson.
• Understand and adhere to Dyson Legal’s requirements and processes.
• Demonstrate integrity and alignment to Dyson’s values and the Code.
• Proactively seek learning & development opportunities and remain up to date on relevant areas of law.
• Share knowledge, experience and information which may be useful to others.
• Ask for help from other team members, & seek input from experts in other teams, when appropriate.
• Keep Senior Legal Counsel updated on your work and any material issues or risks that you encounter.

Dyson is an equal opportunity employer. We know that great minds don’t think alike, and it takes all kinds of minds to make our technology so unique. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and employment decisions are made without regard to race, colour, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, protected veteran status or other any other dimension of diversity.