Legal Counsel, Shipping

-; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy company seeks a Legal Counsel in London to provide strategic legal support in shipping and maritime law. The role involves managing compliance, contractual issues, and offering legal advice across global operations. Ideal candidates will have a strong shipping law background with at least three years of post-qualification experience. This hybrid position also provides opportunities for professional growth and a collaborative work environment.

Benefits

Great work-life balance

Learning and development opportunities

Health insurance

Qualifications

• At least three years post-qualification experience in shipping law.
• Experience in incident response with an understanding of pollution liabilities.
• Familiarity with vessel emissions regulations and sanctions.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice to the Shipping business.
• Handle operational vessel issues and charterparty clause drafting.
• Support regulatory compliance and business CDD programmes.

Skills

Shipping and maritime law

Legal risk management

Chartering agreements

Regulatory compliance

Dispute resolution

Education

Qualified solicitor/barrister/attorney

Job description

Job Family Group: Legal Group

Job Description

We are seeking an experienced Legal Counsel with deep expertise in shipping and maritime law to join BP's dynamic legal team. In this role, you will provide strategic legal advice and support across BP's global shipping operations, ensuring compliance with international regulations and managing complex contractual and risk issues. You will work closely with commercial, operational, and compliance teams to enable safe, efficient, and legally sound shipping activities that align with BP's commitment to excellence and sustainability. This is an exciting opportunity for a legal professional who thrives in a fast-paced, global environment and has a strong understanding of the shipping industry, chartering agreements, and maritime regulatory frameworks. Your ability to navigate cross-border legal challenges and deliver pragmatic solutions will be key to supporting BP's energy transition and operational goals. Our purpose is to deliver energy to the world, today and tomorrow. For over 100 years, BP has focused on discovering, developing, and producing oil and gas in the nations where we operate. We are one of the few companies globally that can provide governments and customers with an integrated energy offering. Delivering our strategy sustainably is fundamental to achieving our ambition to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner.

Role Synopsis

• Supporting the BP group strategy, BP legal's purpose is to deliver legal work which fuels BP's ability to meet the world's energy needs. The legal function supports BP in its ambition to become continuously safer, stronger and better by fostering legally compliant operations, mitigating risk, and incorporating legal analysis into the decision-making process and execution.
• This role will primarily provide specialist legal support to the Shipping business, as well as other teams within Supply, Trading & Shipping and further across BP. The role will be based in Sunbury and/or London.
• The successful candidate will be required to support these activities in the form of counselling, drafting, negotiating and advising, alongside all other forms of transactional and disputes-related legal assistance, as well as advice on regulatory and compliance matters.
• The role requires a lawyer able to work with minimal supervision on multiple complex matters at a time. The successful candidate will be required to support Managing Counsel, Shipping, by both providing legal support and working closely with other members of the team and relevant business leaders and colleagues, as required.

Key accountabilities

• Provision of legal advice to the Shipping business and other BP businesses engaged in marine activity, identifying legal risks and developing solutions to manage such risks.
• Handling of a wide range of matters covered by the Shipping Legal Team including:
• IMT/BST support.
• Day‑to‑day vessel operational issues.
• Charterparty clause drafting/reviews.
• Vessel and crew management including crew employment issues.
• Trade regulations (including sanctions), anti‑corruption and competition laws.
• Support to business CDD programmes and counterparty clearances.
• Vessel sale and purchase.
• Leasing and financing.
• Dispute resolution.
• Keeping fully abreast of legal and regulatory developments affecting marine activity including sanctions and emissions regulations; contributing to the know‑how of the Shipping Legal Team and provision of updates and learning to affected businesses and other legal teams.
• Provision of support and mentoring to other members of the team.
• Collaboration with Ethics and Compliance to support effective implementation of ST&S's and BP group’s compliance agendas.
• Where required, supporting legal committees of marine industry bodies including BIMCO, OCIMF and UK Chamber of Shipping.

Experience and competencies

• Qualified solicitor/barrister/attorney with at least three years post‑qualification experience in a specialist shipping law practice or in‑house with an oil major or P&I Club.
• Excellent legal and business judgement, project management, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience across the range of matters regularly handled by the team as set out above with a deep understanding in particular of tanker/LNG carrier chartering law and practice.
• Readiness to respond to a vessel casualty is a core accountability of the team. Accordingly experience of incident response with an understanding of vessel pollution liabilities is desirable for this role.
• A background in marine dispute resolution would be an advantage for this role.
• Close familiarity with vessel emissions regulations and sanctions affecting shipping.

Why join us?

At BP, we provide an excellent working environment and employee benefits such as an open and inclusive culture, a great work‑life balance, tremendous learning and development opportunities to craft your career path, life and health insurance, medical care package and many others. We support our people to learn and grow in a diverse and exciting environment. We believe that our team is strengthened by diversity. We are committed to crafting an inclusive environment in which everyone is respected and treated fairly. There are many aspects of our employees' lives that are significant, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits can include flexible working options, collaboration spaces in a modern office environment, and other benefits. Reinvent your career as you help our business meet the challenges of the future. Apply now!

Travel Requirement

Some travel may be required with this role, this is negotiable.

Relocation Assistance

This role is not eligible for relocation.

Remote Type

This position is a hybrid of office/remote working.

Skills

Business Acumen, Coaching, Collaboration, Commercial Acumen, Communication, Conflict Management, Creativity and Innovation, Decision Making, Digital Fluency, Influencing, Managing strategic partnerships, Mentoring, Organizational Knowledge, Resource and budget planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Supplier Relationship Management

Legal Disclaimer

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to BP's recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us. If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre‑placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.