Associate General Counsel - Commercial

Auckland Council; Waiheke; Hybrid; NZD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Auckland Council is seeking an Associate General Counsel Commercial, a senior commercial lawyer who will lead the council’s Commercial legal team. You will provide strategic leadership across corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and development matters for the Council and its entities.

Reporting to the General Counsel, you will guide a team of legal professionals, delivering high-quality, practical advice that aligns with Council priorities while managing risk.

Qualifications

• 10+ years relevant legal experience gained within, or advising, complex and high-profile organisations.
• Experience in local government, the wider public sector, a large corporate environment, or at partner level within private practice.
• Expert commercial legal capability, with significant experience across corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and/or commercial development matters.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with elected members, executives, regulators, and external legal providers
• Excellent judgement, analytical capability and resilience, with the ability to manage complexity, competing priorities, risk and budget considerations.

Responsibilities

• Providing expert commercial legal leadership across a broad portfolio of corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and development matters.
• Leading and developing a specialist Commercial legal team, building capability and creating an environment where people can thrive and perform at their best.
• Overseeing the delivery of high-quality legal services across council priorities while effectively managing legal and reputational risk.
• Serving as a key member of the Legal Services Lead Team and reporting to the General Counsel.
• Advising elected members, the Chief Executive and senior stakeholders with trusted, strategic legal guidance.

Skills

10+ years experience

Local government experience

Commercial law

Stakeholder management

Judgement & resilience

Job description

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• As Auckland Council’s most senior commercial lawyer, shape commercial legal strategy in one of New Zealand’s largest public organisations
• Senior legal leadership role with 10 direct reports
• Serve as a key member of the Legal Services Lead Team

This is an exceptional and rare opportunity to take on a senior legal leadership role at the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau’s largest and most complex public organisation.

As Associate General Counsel Commercial, you will lead Auckland Council’s Commercial legal team, providing strategic legal leadership across a broad portfolio of corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and commercial development matters for council and its council-controlled organisations.

Reporting to the General Counsel, you will be the most senior commercial lawyer providing trusted and strategic legal advice to elected members, the Chief Executive, executive leadership and senior stakeholders. You will lead a team of talented legal professionals, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, practical and commercially focused legal services that support Council priorities while effectively managing legal and reputational risk.

This role offers significant scope, influence and variety. You will be a key member of the wider Ngā Ratonga Ture / Legal Services leadership team, contributing to the direction of a high-performing centre of excellence that is trusted, customer-focused and commercially astute.

From major infrastructure investment and urban development projects to strategic commercial arrangements and long-term organisational initiatives, the work of this team helps shape how Auckland grows, develops and serves its communities.

Alongside working on matters of significant scale and importance, you will develop people, build influential relationships across the organisation, and drive continuous improvement in the delivery of legal services. Your advice and leadership will help inform decisions that shape Auckland's future.

Few legal leadership opportunities offer this breadth of influence. You will work alongside senior decision-makers on matters that are commercially significant, publicly visible and genuinely consequential for Auckland, while helping shape the future direction of Legal Services across Council.

Day-to-day you could expect to work on:

• Providing expert commercial legal and strategic advice to the Mayor, elected members, Chief Executive, executive and senior leadership teams.
• Leading and developing a specialist Commercial legal team, building capability and creating an environment where people can thrive and perform at their best.
• Overseeing the delivery of high-quality legal services across corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and commercial development matters.
• Identifying and managing legal, reputational and organisational risk while enabling the successful delivery of Council priorities.
• Driving innovation, continuous improvement, education and self-service initiatives that strengthen legal capability across the organisation.

You are a highly experienced commercial lawyer and proven people leader, recognised for your sound judgement, integrity and the ability to provide clear, practical advice in complex environments.

You bring deep legal expertise, strong political and organisational awareness, and the credibility to influence senior stakeholders across a large and complex organisation. You are comfortable navigating ambiguity, balancing risk with opportunity, and supporting strategic decision making in a public sector environment. elected members and governance audiences.

Commercially minded and solutions-focused, you understand how to align legal advice with organisation outcomes while maintaining the highest professional standards.

As a leader, you bring a coaching mindset and a genuine commitment to developing others. You create high-performing teams through trust, empowerment, collaboration and accountability, while fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Specifically, we are looking for:

• 10+ years relevant legal experience gained within, or advising, complex and high-profile organisations.
• Experience in local government, the wider public sector, a large corporate environment, or at partner level within private practice.
• Expert commercial legal capability, with significant experience across corporate, commercial, infrastructure, finance and/or commercial development matters.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with elected members, executives, regulators, and external legal providers
• Excellent judgement, analytical capability and resilience, with the ability to manage complexity, competing priorities, risk and budget considerations.

Auckland Council is the largest local government council across Oceania, serving over 1.7 million people and contributing towards making Tāmaki Makaurau a world-class city.

We offer a range of employee benefits and proudly support flexible working options where possible.

As part of our organisation, you’ll have access to a range of fantastic Auckland Council benefits, EAP services, an Oranga Day and discounted Leisure Centre membership and a range of other partnership discounts! View a snapshot of some of our employee benefits here: benefits

Auckland Council is a diverse organisation – we value diversity in our thinking, and we can only achieve that with a diverse team!

Application close date: Tuesday 22nd September

Please note: Qualification Checks will be conducted along with other relevant pre-employment checks required for employment with Auckland Council.

Our employer KiwiSaver contribution is additional to base salary offered.

Auckland Council is committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. We collect personal information directly from you and, where relevant for the purpose of assessing you for employment, and employing you as part of the transport reform process, from third parties such as referees, previous employers (including Auckland Transport) recruitment agencies, and background checking providers.

By applying for this role, you consent to Council obtaining a reference from your current employer, including information about any active conduct investigations and current performance management processes, if you are the preferred candidate. Reference checks will only be undertaken at the preferred candidate stage. Any non-active performance or conduct matters may also be discussed with referees as part of the reference checking process.

If you do not consent to this information being provided, Council may be unable to properly assess your application and your application will not progress further. If you wish to withhold your consent, or to access or correct your personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer at *******@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

Auckland Council is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) and we are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application to assist you through the recruitment process.