Job Description

Ocado Group is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, or disability or union membership status. About the role Are you a dynamic and skilled Litigation and Dispute Resolution Lawyer ready for your next career move? We have an exciting, high profile opportunity for a driven individual to join our Legal team as a Senior Legal Counsel. This is a permanent vacancy based in our Hatfield head office where we offer Hybrid working.

As our Senior Legal Counsel, you will be accountable for providing or procuring legal advice on a range of dispute resolution and litigation matters across Ocado Group, both in the UK and internationally as well as supervising junior team members who are supporting on specific disputes. In this role you will provide consistent and commercial advice to the business day to day on specific disputes, as well as build out Ocado Group\xe2\x80\x99s dispute and litigation capabilities and processes. You will stay abreast of relevant developments and ensure Ocado Group has appropriate processes and controls in place to ensure compliance with relevant dispute resolution and litigation requirements. If you are a talented legal professional, looking to grow your career and help shape the future of our growing dispute resolution function, then please read on and apply! In this role you will;

• Manage or oversee the management of all aspects of dispute resolution, from ensuring a consistent approach to contractual dispute resolution mechanisms, through initial investigation and assessment of disputes, negotiating settlements or leading on litigation or alternative dispute resolution processes in line with commercial objectives;
• Support on the relevant dispute or litigation aspects of commercial and M&A activity;
• Be a trusted strategic partner for key stakeholders, ensuring legal advice is provided at the right stage on all matters;
• Manage legal spend in relation to dispute and litigation matters to ensure value for money for the business;
• Supervise and manage junior members of the team where they are supporting on specific disputes or litigation and in the answering of day to day queries;
• Support and/or project manage relevant change projects and initiatives across the business, reporting progress to relevant stakeholders;
• Build and develop strong relationships with external counsel, managing these effectively from a delivery, risk and cost perspective on a daily basis;
• Partner with the wider Legal, Governance and IP team on relevant cross functional matters to ensure agile delivery for the business;
• Develop efficient systems and ways of working to support Ocado Group\xe2\x80\x99s capability to respond to, or initiate, disputes or litigation;
• Support the commercial legal team to ensure Ocado Group\xe2\x80\x99s contracts and processes are robust to legal challenge.
• Support, coach and develop relevant team members

About you, experience we seek;

• You will be a Qualified solicitor or barrister with a specialism in dispute resolution and litigation of 7 years or more PQE (although candidates outside this range who can demonstrate their ability to perform the duties of the role will still be considered);
• Ideally will have trained with a leading law firm or a well-respected in-house team;
• Experience advising on disputes or litigation outside of the UK, with a desire to develop and expand on expertise in this area
• Strong academic qualifications

What we offer you Our employee benefits are designed for you, we care about people and we\xe2\x80\x99ve ensured we have a wealth of benefits that focus on your well-being. We regularly review our benefits to ensure we are supporting our employees appropriately.

• 30 days \xe2\x80\x98working from anywhere in the world\xe2\x80\x99 policy
• Wellbeing support through dedicated apps and an Employee Assistance Programme
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after 5 years service (plus optional holiday purchase)
• Pension scheme (various options available including employer contribution matching up to 7%)
• Generous Private Medical Insurance (within the first month of joining!)
• Income Protection (can be up to 50% of salary for 3 years) and Life Assurance (3 x annual salary)
• 22 weeks paid maternity leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave (once relevant service requirements complete)
• Train Ticket loan (interest-free)
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Free shuttle bus to and from Hatfield Train Station to the Hatfield offices
• Free shuttle bus to and from Welwyn Garden City Train Station to the Welwyn Garden City offices
• Opportunity to participate in Sharesave and Buy as You Earn share schemes
• 15% discount on Ocado.com and free delivery for all employees (within the first month of joining!)