Senior Legal Counsel - Personal Care

Please Note: The deadline for applying is 23.59 the day before the job posting end date.

Job Title: Senior Legal Counsel - Personal Care

Business Function: Legal

Location: Kingston, United Kingdom

PERSONAL CARE

Personal Care is the home of outstanding brands that deliver personal hygiene, self-care, and confidence to billions of people. We hold some of Unilever’s strongest market positions. We aim for market-beating growth supported by investment in core brands in core categories to win with our key channels and top customers. We aim to assert our leadership, disaggregate and simplify.

We will win through our strategic priorities : (1) Make it Premium – leading category value growth through innovation and product superiority preimmunising the core and developing super premium . (2) Make it Profitable – margin unlocks through, brand investment, premiumisation, technology & simplification. (3) Make it Positive – focusing on three priorities – 100% NDPE palm oil ; better, less and no plastic;  and lower GHG. leveraging our scale and brands for impact, delivering on our commitments for people and for planet. (4) Make it Personal – leadership through service, humility, and care for all our stakeholders.

JOB PURPOSE

Find your purpose at Unilever. You will lead innovations, big and small, that will make our business win and grow. You will learn from brilliant business leaders and colleagues in a truly global and diverse culture to ultimately become a better you. If you are a lawyer who is passionate about delivering legal business partnering in a dynamic environment focused on innovation, clear growth priorities and creative solutions then this role is just for you.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Business Partnering the United Kingdom/Ireland Personal Care business.
• Provide strategic counselling on critical business issues and projects of the United Kingdom/Ireland Personal Care Business in accordance with the PC EU Business Unit strategy.
• Provide legal advice and commercial risk analysis to the United Kingdom/Ireland marketing and R&D teams on legality and support for product claims and marketing materials in line with all relevant local legal and regulatory laws and guidelines governing the cosmetics.
• Provide legal advice and trainings on competition law issues.
• Coordinate and defend, in accordance with the business strategy, out-going and in-coming competitive challenges in respect of product claims, marketing campaigns etc.
• Coordinate and defend, in accordance with the business strategy in -coming and out-going litigation in respect of the Personal Care Business.
• Provide strategic business advice on initiatives and material agreements with customers and suppliers to ensure full compliance within the organization.
• Membership of PC European Business Unit Legal Team supporting the European PC BU GC and UKI GC in landing the European PC strategy and managing the cross-geography risk for PC
• Supporting on all global and BU innovation projects in respect of input on United Kingdom/Ireland deployment, liaising with PC global marketing legal on risk analysis and remediation

ALL ABOUT YOU

• Thrives on the Assert, Disaggregate, Simplify vision of Personal Care, with determination to make a personal difference
• Ability to maintain a passion for high performance, with a Future Fit mindset to identify the need for change and not be daunted by leading strategic initiatives into unknown territory
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills required in a role that has a significant range of contractual arrangements and innovative marketing models requiring broad-based business acumen.
• Must be able to quickly and agilely prioritise competing demands.
• Must be able to quickly assimilate information, scoping out legal risks and provide pragmatic, commercial advice to the business, with a solution orientated approach.
• Must be able to lead senior decision makers, including coordinating input from a number of business partners, such as R&D and Regulatory Affairs.
• Excellent communication skills both written and oral: ability to communicate with business partners
• Must consistently bring their best self to a role of strategic importance.

Experiences & Qualifications

• Fully qualified UK lawyer with 5+ PQE of general marketing/commercial/compliance legal experience
• Experience sitting on business leadership teams and/or providing counsel to senior business leaders.
• Experience working cross-functionally with multiple stakeholders.
• Broad-based legal experience supporting a consumer business, including drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements and advising on marketing claims.

Skills

• Legal expertise – broad based marketing and commercial legal skills
• Business partnering – providing legal counselling across cross function LTs
• Problem solving - ability to analyse  & propose legally and commercially viable solutions
• Business acumen – strategic understanding, application and execution
• Stakeholder management - influence key stakeholders and act as an agent for change.
• Collaboration – working successfully with both business and x-functional teams
• Decision making - exhibits solid judgment and integrity
• Risk management – demonstrating rigour and focus on risk-based advice
• Project management - excellent organization, execution, and project management skills. 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. 

Critical Unilever Behaviors

• Focus on What Counts
• Care Deeply
• Stay Three Steps Ahead
• Deliver With Excellence

What we offer

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all. 

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (unilever.com).