Senior Legal Advisor

Oxford University Press; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Legal Advisor to join their global Group Legal and Compliance function. This pivotal role involves providing high-quality legal services to support business objectives while managing legal risks. You will advise on a variety of publishing and commercial matters, draft agreements, and create training materials. With a hybrid working policy, this position offers flexibility and a commitment to work-life balance, alongside competitive benefits including private medical insurance and a generous pension contribution. Join a diverse and inclusive environment where your expertise will be valued and your contributions will drive business growth.

Benefits

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Private medical insurance

Pension contribution up to 12%

Loans and savings schemes

Local discounts

Discretionary annual management bonus

Active employee networks

Qualifications

• UK qualified solicitor with experience in intellectual property and commercial law.
• Strong legal background, ideally from in-house experience in publishing or media.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal support on publishing agreements, copyright, and compliance matters.
• Draft and negotiate bespoke agreements for third-party collaborations.

Skills

Intellectual Property Law

Commercial Law

Legal Drafting

Negotiation Skills

Problem-Solving

Stakeholder Management

Compliance Knowledge

Education

UK Qualified Solicitor

Post-Qualification Experience

Job description

As our new Senior Legal Advisor in OUP’s global Group Legal and Compliance function, you will provide high quality and professional legal service to OUP, to facilitate the achievement of business objectives while managing legal risk. This role requires excellent business partnering skills to support and enable business growth initiatives by providing proactive, pragmatic, and solutions-driven legal advice.

You will primarily support OUP’s global Education Division business, but the job holder will be expected to support across the Press’s other divisions and group functions as required.

Duties will include the following.

• Provide proactive first line legal support to the business as required by the divisional General Counsel on all matters (except employment matters) to ensure minimization of legal risk, compliance with the law, and advancement of the OUP’s interests.
• Advise on a wide range of publishing matters, including publishing agreements, copyright and other intellectual property matters, licensing and sales deals, and related publishing matters such as permissions.
• Advise on a wide range of general commercial matters, including the drafting and negotiation of bespoke agreements in respect of third party collaborations, which may involve the use of both OUP’s intellectual property (primarily copyright and trade marks) and third party intellectual property, as well as the use of personal data etc.
• Create standard contract templates, guidance and training materials to support the OUP’s publishing businesses and established business models, while minimizing legal risk.
• Manage pre-litigation, litigation and other contentious matters, with external legal support where necessary, to ensure timely and cost-effective legal advice and management.
• Instruct and manage external lawyers to ensure appropriate, timely and cost-effective legal advice to OUP.
• Provide day to day legal advice to the compliance team (part of the Group Legal and Compliance function) to support its anti-bribery and corruption compliance and related activities across the globe.
• Ensure that matters which affect the publishing divisions, OUP’s group functions, or OUP generally, are referred to the appropriate internal lawyer for handling or escalation as appropriate.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

About You

• UK qualified solicitor, with post-qualification experience, including foundational experience at a law firm.
• Strong legal experience and know how in key areas (e.g. intellectual property and commercial), ideally some of which is gained from in-house experience at a publishing or media company.
• Experience identifying and mitigating legal, reputational and compliance-related risks.
• Ability to build relationships and work effectively with stakeholders across a globally matrixed organization.
• Ability to communicate effectively and persuasively with individuals at all levels of the organization, including distilling complex issues and advice for audiences with differing perspectives.
• Excellent drafting, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent judgment and the ability to form a long-term view of matters taking into consideration multiple perspectives and future implications.
• Excellent organizational and prioritization skills, including the ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously and independently.

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a discretionary annual management bonus.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.