Legal Counsel (with French)

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

Job summary

A leading information services company based in London is seeking a Legal Counsel to join their Customers & Commercial team. This role involves providing strategic legal advice, negotiating complex software agreements, and advising on licensing matters, particularly in AI and technology sectors. The ideal candidate should have 3-5 years of experience, be fluent in French, and have strong drafting and negotiating skills. This position offers a hybrid work model and competitive industry benefits.

Benefits

Hybrid work model

Flexible vacation policies

Mental Health Days off

Comprehensive benefits package

Career development programs

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of post qualification experience as in-house counsel or private practice.
• Experience in software and technology contracting under French law.
• Ability to think strategically and creatively.

Responsibilities

• Negotiate a wide range of European customer-facing agreements.
• Provide strategic legal advice to business leaders.
• Advise on licensing of AI tools and other legal technology.

Skills

Problem-solving

Legal advice

Negotiation skills

Drafting skills

Fluent French

Contract law knowledge

Education

Law degree

Qualified lawyer in the UK

Job description

Legal Counsel (with French)

Do you want to be part of a team that helps professionals do their jobs better and which also strives to create a more transparent, just and inclusive future? At Thomson Reuters, we’ve been doing just that for almost 160 years (see below for more information!).

We're looking for a hands-on commercial lawyer with a problem-solving approach to providing commercial legal services in a technology-enabled, data-driven corporate, legal department. The successful candidate should have advanced French language and legal skills and who can provide sound legal and business advice to sales professionals in Europe, product management, and other internal customers, on a broad range of legal and compliance matters, particularly in relation to software (including SaaS) and information licensing agreements.

This opportunity is with Thomson Reuters based in London, Zug or Gothenburg. The role sits within the Customers & Commercial team of the Thomson Reuters General Counsel Office, a highly collaborative international team focused on enabling business growth and mitigating risk for the customer-centric commercial group.

About the Role

In this opportunity as Legal Counsel, you will:

• Review, draft, and negotiate a wide range of European customer facing and partner agreements, primarily complex software (including SaaS) and information licensing agreements, re-distribution, reseller, referral, hosting, content acquisition, consulting and professional services agreements, non-disclosure agreements and other commercial agreements relating to sales of Thomson Reuters products and services.
• Provide strategic legal advice to business leaders and partner with multiple stakeholders to drive strategy and growth.
• Experience advising on the licensing of, as well as using, AI tools and other legal technology.

About You

You’re a fit for the role of Legal Counsel if your background includes:

• 3-5 years' post qualification experience in private practice and/or as in-house legal counsel advising a sales organization on customers (rather than procurement).
• A desire to build a legal career within a large corporate setting.
• Excellent technical legal knowledge in contract and commercial law, particularly with SaaS products and solutions, including Gen AI products and solutions.
• Experience and knowledge of software/technology contracting under French law and the ability to negotiate in French.
• Excellent negotiation and drafting skills, including excellent written/verbal English language communication skills.
• Authorisation to practise as a lawyer in the UK.
• An ability to think strategically and creatively, to identify and resolve legal issues.
• A desire and ability to quickly learn about Thomson Reuters’ products and services, and its internal processes and organizational structure.

What’s in it For You?

• Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2-3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
• Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
• Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
• Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
• Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.
• Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and ESG initiatives.
• Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.

About Us

Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.

We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.

As a global business, we rely on the unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of all employees to deliver on our business goals. To ensure we can do that, we seek talented, qualified employees in all our operations around the world regardless of race, color, sex/gender, including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, citizen status, veteran status, or any other protected classification under applicable law. Thomson Reuters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer providing a drug-free workplace.

We also make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and for sincerely held religious beliefs in accordance with applicable law. More information on requesting an accommodation here.

Learn more on how to protect yourself from fraudulent job postings here.

More information about Thomson Reuters can be found on thomsonreuters.com.