Head of Legal

Footballco; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Footballco is seeking a General Counsel to lead and reshape the in-house legal function. The role requires seniority to own hard calls, complex deal structures, and multi-jurisdictional governance across the UK, US, Middle East, and beyond.

You will report to the Group CFO, sit on the SLT, and work closely with the CEO and board. Hybrid London-based, with 2–3 days in the office, and a focus on commercial strategy and growth.

Qualifications

• Qualified solicitor or barrister with England & Wales qualification and 8–14 years PQE.
• Experience as GC/Deputy GC/Legal Director in global digital media, sports, entertainment, or tech.
• Proven line management experience (managing 3 staff).
• Strong track record with transactions including M&A, investments, or financing.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive & strategic legal advisory to the Executive Leadership Team.
• Lead and develop a small in-house team (2 junior counsel + paralegal).
• Own difficult commercial decisions in sponsorship, media rights, and licensing.
• Oversee transactions, diligence, disclosure, and post-completion integration.
• Advise CEO/CFO and govern group governance, board papers and investor expectations.
• Manage IP, brand rights, licensing, and enforcement across the portfolio.
• Own data privacy framework across UK/EU, US, and Middle East regions.
• Optimize external counsel engagement and control legal spend.
• Handle disputes and employment matters; drive process improvements and playbooks.

Skills

Executive advisory

Team leadership

Strategic decisions

M&A & financing

Executive governance

IP & licensing

Data privacy

External spend

Disputes & employment

Process & tooling

Job description

Footballco is the world's leading football media company, built for the next generation of fans. Our mission is to give fans more of the game by building football communities that entertain, inform, and inspire action. We cover everything in football from news and analysis, original reporting, and social media content, to web stores, video, podcasts, newsletters, and live scores. With over 2 billion video views per month, 130 million social followers globally, and a reach of 800 million across web, social, and video platforms, Footballco is the world’s largest football media company and one of the largest digital media companies in sport globally.

About the role

This is a hybrid role requiring 2–3 days a week in the London office.

We are levelling up our legal function and are looking for a General Counsel to lead it.

Footballco has an established in-house legal team of three: two junior counsel and a paralegal, supported by contract automation tooling. The team handles volume well. What we need now is someone senior enough to own the hard calls, the deal structures, the rights and talent negotiations where the commercial answer is not obvious, and the transactions we are running as a private equity backed business.

This is a step up in seniority for the role, not a like-for-like replacement. You will reshape the team, decide what sits in-house against a panel of external firms, and be the person the executive team and the board rely on for a judgement rather than an escalation.

You will report to the Group CFO, sit on the senior leadership team, and have direct access to the CEO and the board. You will be accountable for legal issues across the group — but the focus will be the UK, the US, the Middle East, with smaller exposure to Asia and Europe.

This suits someone who already operates at Deputy GC or Head of Legal level and wants a function of their own, in a business where the legal work is genuinely commercial.

What you'll be doing:

• Executive & Strategic Advisory: Serve as a key legal advisor to the Executive Leadership Team on strategic business initiatives, corporate governance, global expansion, and commercial risk.
• Lead and level up the team. Take on two junior counsel and a paralegal. Set their priorities, develop them, and judge honestly what the team should look like in twelve months — including where it needs different or additional capability.
• Own the hard commercial calls. The sponsorship, media rights, talent and distribution deals where the structure is novel, the counterparty is sophisticated, or the commercial risk needs a decision rather than a caveat. The team handles the standard work; you take what they upscale, and you reduce how much gets escalated.
• Transactions. M&A, investments, and financing. Run diligence and negotiation alongside external counsel, own the disclosure process, and lead post-completion integration. We are growing at pace both organically and via acquisition and you will be central to it.
• Advise the executive team. Be the person the CEO, and the CFO go to for a view. Governance across the group, board and committee papers, and the standards our investors expect.
• Intellectual property and brand rights. Trademark strategy and enforcement, copyright and content licensing, and rights management across the portfolio and our owned brands.
• Data privacy and compliance. Own the privacy framework across every operating region — UK and EU GDPR, US state privacy law, and Saudi PDPL for the Middle East business. Keep it proportionate to a media company's actual risk.
• External counsel and spend. Own the panel. Decide what comes in-house and what goes out, negotiate rates, and bring external legal spend down.
• Disputes and employment. Manage contentious matters and escalated employment issues.
• Process and tooling. We have scratched the surface. Push it further, and set the templates, playbooks and approval thresholds that let a 300+-person business sign things without a bottleneck.

What you have:

• Professional Qualifications: Qualified solicitor or barrister (England and Wales, or equivalent), around 8–14 years PQE. Trained and qualified at a strong City or international firm, with a commercial or corporate grounding.
• Senior Leadership Experience: Proven track record operating as General Counsel, Deputy GC, or Legal Director within a global digital media, sports, entertainment, or technology organization.
• Line management experience. You will inherit three people and be expected to develop them.
• Transaction experience — M&A, investment or financing — gained in-house or in practice, with the judgement to run a deal rather than observe one.
• Strong commercial contracting across sponsorship, media, content, IP, talent or licensing.
• Ownership & Accountability: The judgement to take a commercial risk decision and own it, rather than an escalation.

Valuable

• Media, sport, entertainment, publishing or consumer tech sector experience.
• Experience in a private equity backed business, and familiarity with what sponsors expect from governance, reporting and transaction readiness.
• Exposure to US or Middle East operations, or to multi-jurisdiction group structures.
• Track record of reducing external legal spend without reducing cover.
• Experience deploying legal technology or contract automation at scale.

Footballco is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on age, race, gender, colour, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or any other protected category.