Job Description
Commercial Legal Counsel - part time
Location: High Wycombe with hybrid working available
Term: Part time, Permanent
Salary: c.£45000 pa + excellent benefits
The role
Focusrite is looking for a commercial lawyer who will have a particular focus on supporting our marketing team with their international initiatives. The marketing team requires fast paced and dynamic advice to enable them to run video shoots, engage artists, create content and provide ad hoc advice internationally.
Being able to give commercial, but legally robust and timely advice, is key in addition to developing a rock-solid relationship with the main stakeholders in the marketing team, so that you are their go-to lawyer, will be an important corner stone of success.
We anticipate this part time role to cover around 18 hours per week. You’ll be working as part of a small team in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK with some hybrid working with some travel. This position reports to the Group General Counsel.
Qualities of the successful candidate
You will be a dexterous lawyer, one minute able to assess a contractor’s status for IR35 purposes and prepare a contract for services and the next, jumping into creating a series of agreements that allow us to bundle third parties’ product offerings, run competitions or offer subscription services and be able to roll up your sleeves and deal with whatever else comes your way, all whilst ensuring that the right agreements are in place to allow those all important video shoots to go ahead on time.
You will be self-sufficient but equally know when to ask for help and be comfortable working with people who aren’t detail orientated.
You will have the gravitas to be able to encourage internal clients to involve you early on so that you can avoid last minute demands for legal agreements. You will also be able to implement and improve processes, especially contract management, to create a more efficient legal offering. Whilst your advice will be pragmatic you will always do things properly, reducing risk to the business.
Skills and Experience Required
It’s a given that you will be qualified as a solicitor or barrister with the expected attention to detail, ability to work in a team and alone, sound inter-personal skills as well as being able to use a documents management system and Microsoft Office.
Whilst PQE isn’t important, you will need enough practice to be able to run with things from day one. You may be coming from private practice and looking for your first in-house role or currently be in-house. Either way, you must be able to instruct, co-ordinate & manage external counsel, while ensuring effective cost control.
You’ll be able to demonstrate that you have quickly formed relationships built on trust and confidence and have examples of where, in imperfect situations, you have been able to respond to a business’ needs and come up with a results-orientated solution because above all, we are looking for someone to help us continue our business success.
About Us
Focusrite plc is a global music and audio group that develops and markets music technology products. Used by audio professionals and amateur musicians alike, its solutions facilitate the high-quality production of recorded and live sound. Our audio technology brands stand together, seeking to enrich lives through music by removing barriers to creativity – ‘we make music easy to make’.
The Focusrite Group trades under eight established and rapidly growing brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, ADAM Audio, Sequential, Oberheim, Martin Audio, Optimal Audio, Ampify Music and Linea Research. With a high-quality reputation and a rich heritage spanning decades, its brands are category leaders in the music-making industry.
Music technology is an enriching space to work in and we enjoy a Group-wide open-door culture which encourages innovation. This culture, combined with a passion for the inspirational solutions we create, has led to the group winning numerous accolades, including four Queen's Awards for Enterprise and the AIM Company of the Year Award 2021.
The Focusrite Group is dedicated to building a great place to work and as an equal opportunity employer we are committed to Diversity and Inclusion. The group mission is to cultivate an equitable culture, internally and externally, where all people feel they are welcome and positively represented, whether office-based or working remotely. Equally, we recognise the major impact that climate change is having on our world and work every day towards being industry leaders in a carbon neutral future.
Benefits include flexible/hybrid working, company pension, life insurance, private healthcare, employee purchase scheme, company music events, free breakfast/lunch in the canteen at Focusrite HQ. We arrange company training sessions and encourage personal development.
We’re a growing family. A rapidly growing, global family. But a family nonetheless. Fundamentally, we’re focused on providing opportunities for everyone and anyone to enjoy creating music. Our six brands,Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, ADAM, Martin Audio and Ampify, come together around a common mission to remove barriers to creativity. For musicians struggling to capture their sound, to enabling some of the greatest shows on earth.
Focusrite is The Interface Company. That’s what it does. More people record and listen to their productions through Focusrite than any other interface brand. Behind this hard-earned position is more than 30 years of experience in creating the highest-quality audio products for every customer market, from budding songwriters to commercial facilities.
We’ve always had a focus on customer care, and pride ourselves in really understanding the wide array of customers we serve. As Focusrite products become integrated into an ever-increasing number of professional facilities around the world, Focusrite Pro was borne out of the desire to better serve the needs of these commercial operations.
From the ubiquitous Launchpad 8 x 8 grid behind over a billion YouTube views, to our synthesisers used to create the signature sounds behind a constantly evolving and enchanting new musical landscape, the Novation brand continues to play a huge part in shaping the music and art of tomorrow.
Born out of talent from Novation and based in Tileyard, Kings Cross, Ampify holds true to our fundamental purpose, creating cool music-making apps that bring the life-enriching experience of music making to a larger audience than ever before.
ADAM Audio continues to change the game of professional monitoring, their ranges of respected monitors and subwoofers the recipients of rave reviews and appreciation from audio experts and recording engineers worldwide.
Martin Audio enjoys an international reputation for supplying award winning, Patent protected professional loudspeaker systems across the spectrum of live sound and installation applications. It is now also the recognised global leader in optimised line array technology.
Music has always been an exciting thing to be involved with, and that’s not about to change. We embrace its evolution, and that means being open to new ideas. Our whole business is structured to let everyone contribute and be heard at all levels, and we make sure it’s a fun place to work.
Benefits include company pension, employee share scheme, life insurance, private healthcare, employee purchase scheme, free breakfast and lunch, company hack-days, lunch and learns from across the business and external visits – we’re all about innovation, fresh thinking and creating awesome music making experiences for our customers.
We work hard. We are professional. And we play hard too. We select really, really talented and passionate people. And we absolutely love our work. So if you think you can bring something new to the mix, we look forward to hearing from you.
Focusrite is an equal opportunity employer, we are company of employees spanning a wide range of diverse backgrounds and we acknowledge that embracing our diversity is one of the keys to our future success.