Legal Counsel - Retail

Centrica; England; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy company is seeking a qualified Legal Counsel - Retail to join their team in the UK. This position offers the opportunity to draft terms and conditions, advise on regulated products, and support strategic initiatives within a flexible working environment. The ideal candidate will have experience in consumer law, especially related to FCA regulations, and strong collaborative skills to work effectively with various stakeholders. The role allows for mostly home-based work with some travel required.

Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience in regulated and non-regulated consumer environment.
• Experience advising on FCA regulated consumer products and services.
• Experience drafting terms and conditions and negotiating contracts.

Responsibilities

• Draft consumer-facing terms and conditions for various brands.
• Provide advice on regulated products and compliance with Ofgem and FCA rules.
• Support product design and B2B agreements.

Skills

Regulatory knowledge in consumer law

Experience with FCA regulated products

Excellent influencing skills

Ability to manage diverse stakeholders

Education

Qualified lawyer

Job description

We have a new opportunity for a Legal Counsel - Retail to join our team. The range of work we do in the team is very broad, and for those who like variety there is the opportunity to be involved in all areas the team covers.

Location

With our Flexible First working arrangements we empower our colleagues to work in a way that best suits them - meaning location doesn't need to be a barrier. This role can be mostly based at home but you must be flexible to travel as needed on at least a weekly basis to our sites, namely Windsor.

Key Accountabilities

• Drafting consumer-facing terms and conditions across all of our energy, net zero installation and services brands, including British Gas, Hive and Dyno-rod.
• General consumer law and advertising and marketing regulatory knowledge.
• Advice on our regulated products in the energy and financial services sectors, including interpretation of Ofgem licence conditions and implementation of FCA rules on General Insurance and Consumer Credit.
• Support the marketing regulatory managers and governance team with customer communications and advertising.
• Support the business on various aspects of its strategy, including supporting the commercial team with new product/proposition design.
• Assisting the B2B Legal Team with relevant agreements, for example with partners (B2B2C), I/AR agreements and lending agreements with our panel lenders.
• Ability to liaise and collaborate with the compliance team and other legal colleagues, build effective relationships to be seen as "one team" by business stakeholders.
• Supporting the customer complaint resolution team and support with customer remediation activity.

Here's who we're looking for

• A qualified lawyer with demonstrable experience in the regulated and non-regulated consumer environment gained either in-house or in private practice or in relation to contentious and non-contentious consumer law inc. green claims.
• We would particularly value applications from candidates with experience of advising businesses in relation to FCA regulated consumer products and services.
• Experience drafting terms and conditions and drafting and negotiating contracts.
• A highly flexible and inquisitive approach – ability to manage a diverse set of stakeholders, prioritise effectively in a fast‑paced environment and deliver high quality commercially savvy work.
• Pragmatic, creative and able to help find solutions that provide both a good customer outcome and meet commercial objectives – able to support risk-based decision making with the right balance of risk awareness and pragmatism.
• A true collaborator who is able to build and maintain strong relationships across all levels. Excellent influencing skills and the ability to deliver with impact.

For information, other types of work undertaken in the team include:

Regulatory

An interest in policy and the ability to provide legal support to respond to Government (DESNZ, HMT) and Regulator (FCA, Ofgem, CMA) consultations concerning financial services, energy and consumer law, aiming to shape the wider regulatory framework to support the business' objectives. There is also a contentious aspect to this work – appeals to the CMA (including interventions in appeals), and Judicial Review claims.

Bord Gáis Energy

Supporting the legal team at our Irish sister company across a range of B2C and B2B, contentious and non-contentious activities.