Head of Legal

ENL Legal Recruitment; London; On-site; GBP 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading charity is seeking a Head of Legal to provide expert legal guidance. This role involves ensuring compliance with regulations, overseeing legal risks, and managing data protection. The ideal candidate will have strong legal expertise, excellent communication skills, and experience in a regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Thorough knowledge of English law and charity regulation.
• Proven experience managing compliance in a regulated environment.
• Experience in the charitable or scientific sectors is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice on contracts, compliance documents, and charity law.
• Manage legal templates and serve as point of contact with external counsel.
• Lead data protection compliance and manage fraud response plan.

Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication

Strong expertise in data protection legislation

Policy development and implementation

Organisational skills

Education

Qualified lawyer

Job description

JOB TITLE: Head of Legal

PQE REQUIRED: 5+

LOCATION: London

SALARY: circa £75,000

THE ROLE:

A well-established charity is seeking an experienced Head of Legal to provide expert legal advice and guidance across a broad range of areas, including contracts, charity law, compliance, and data protection. This senior leadership role plays a critical part in managing legal risks, ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory frameworks, and leading the organisation’s data protection programme.

Reporting to the CFO, the Head of Legal will support strategic decision-making by advising on legal and compliance matters and act as a primary liaison with external legal advisors and regulators.

Key Responsibilities

• Legal Advice and Governance
• Provide authoritative legal advice on contracts, gift agreements, deeds, compliance documents, and charity law to colleagues across the organisation.
• Maintain and update legal templates and precedents in line with current legislation and best practice.
• Serve as a principal point of contact with external legal counsel on complex legal matters.
• Keep trustees, Council members, and staff informed of legislative and regulatory changes, providing training to support effective governance.
• Lead reviews of internal policies to ensure compliance and best practice standards.
• Manage the organisation’s fraud response plan, oversee investigations, and report non-compliance to relevant committees and regulators.
• Act as the subject matter expert on data protection legislation and lead the organisation’s data protection compliance programme.
• Assist the CFO in preparing papers and presenting at relevant committee meetings.

THE CANDIDATE:

Essential:

• Qualified lawyer with thorough knowledge of English law and charity regulation.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex legal issues clearly.
• Proven experience managing compliance within a regulated environment.
• Strong expertise in data protection legislation and practical application.
• Skilled in policy development, implementation, and delivering training.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to lead change effectively.

Desirable:

• Experience in scientific, academic, or charitable sectors.

This is a unique opportunity to join a prestigious charity and provide vital legal leadership to support its mission and values. If you are a confident and experienced legal professional ready to contribute at a senior level, please apply now.

HOW TO APPLY:

Contact Pasquale Agatiello at eNL on 020 7183 8586 or email [e-mail] with your CV, or simply call for a confidential discussion. eNL will never share your CV with a third party without your express permission. As part of our candidate care process, we aim to respond to all applications in 7 days. If you have not been contacted within this timescale, your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. Please note our advertisements use PQE/salary levels purely as a guide.

At eNL we value diversity and inclusion. We want to attract people at all levels and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates whatever your ethnicity, religion, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristics protected by law in the jurisdictions in which we operate.