Job Description

Salary up to: Competitive
Nando's is a privately owned hospitality business operating in around 20 countries globally. Our UK and Ireland (UK&I) market is the biggest within the group with over 20,000 employees and nearly 500 restaurants.
It is currently supported from a legal perspective by a global legal team, based out of South Africa, who work closely with local external legal counsel. As Nando's has grown into an established business, the need for a permanent UKI Legal Counsel has become apparent.
This is an exciting opportunity not just to support the commercial success that underpins a key part of the Nando's strategy, but also to support a truly purpose led business. At its core Nando's is a people first brand with a purpose to change lives, therefore leadership and 'Leading in the Nando's Way' is taken very seriously with a high level of expectation.
How we run our business is as important as what we want to achieve. In your role, you will demonstrate this through your leadership behaviour on a day-to-day basis, as well as through the nature of your work, which reinforces ethical behaviour and responsibility.
This newly created role will be instrumental in providing wide ranging legal support and advice, making the appropriate referrals and escalations to group legal team or external counsel as appropriate; and with a focus on combining legal acumen with business sense, managing risk appropriately, supporting the high ethical standards of the business, and acting to safeguard the business through developing robust but workable governance structures.
This role will report directly into the UK&I Chief Risk Officer with a dotted line into the Group's General Counsel based in South Africa. This role will be partnering closely with the UK &I Leadership team, enabling it to work closely with all the key functional leaders across both the UKI business and, where appropriate, those in the Group team. Whilst the legal function is established in South Africa, as a newly created role and remit based in the UK, this role will require extensive relationship building, as well as the leadership partnership and drive to create the value-add of excellent legal counsel.
You will need to partner with senior leaders across the UK&I business and Group functions across supply chain, real estate, marketing law/brand protection, people, and general governance to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Nando's as the most loved restaurant brand.
Key role requirements, passions of the role holder and accountabilities:

• Be the point of escalation, providing pragmatic and commercial legal advice to the UKI business and effecting appropriate escalation or outsourcing of legal advice to group legal or external counsel where appropriate.
• Drafting, vetting, and negotiating commercial and other agreements with third parties, and ensuring that commercial third-party risk is appropriately managed.
• Designing, implementing, and embedding a legal risk management framework across the UKI business.
• Support in any legal disputes, briefing external counsel if and where required.
• Keeping abreast of, reviewing, interpreting, and implementing, legislative developments.
• Standardisation of agreements and preparation of templates.
• Provide legal support around Brand Protection, and Intellectual Property matters.
• Work alongside the CRO and Group CISO, to support work in managing risk and protecting the business with data privacy and information security.
• Coaching those within functional teams on how to manage legal risks whilst maintaining a commercial lens and ensuring that legal training is in place across the business.
• Working alongside the business heads to provide support on corporate constitution and internal governance requirements for the UK& I business.
• Own and manage budget and relationship with external legal partners.
• Member of the UKI Risk Committee attending UKI LT and other committees as and when legal expertise is required; and ensuring that legal matters are appropriately reported, escalated, and discussed.

Our candidate should possess/be:

• UK Qualified Lawyer with 7-10 years post qualified experience
• Strong in-house experience in general technical and commercial contractual work, working pragmatically and commercially.
• Exceptional business partner, with excellent stakeholder management and knowledge of behaviours, needs and expectations of internal stakeholders and external parties.
• Well-developed communication skills, persuasive and influencing without authority, working with low ego and strong self-awareness.
• Managing risk in a highly commercial environment.
• Using a clear and persuasive communication style to ensure legal advice is understood and factored into decision making.
• Invested in building relationships and networks at all levels.
• Resilience and tenacity to build a new function, able to balance key milestones with bumps in the road over a longer-term change journey.
• Appreciation of how written tone of voice plays a role in reinforcing the culture in the business, bearing this in mind when translating legalese for the wider business.

Our candidate should be looking for:

• A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on contributing to / driving positive cultural and societal change - and where 'how' we do things is as important as 'what' we do.
• An environment which is relaxed and informal, whilst highly driven and ambitious
• A business that seeks to support every employee to be at their best, and encourage individuality

Extra Hot benefits...

• Company bonus
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays
• Free Nando's when you're working (and 40% discount when you're not)
• Annual team trips, AKA a free holiday
• Reward Gateway membership and access to great discounts
• Four-week sabbatical every five years you've been with us
• Private healthcare