Senior Legal Counsel

Job Purpose

The RWS Legal and Professional Advisory team is highly collaborative, collegial, and international and dedicated to providing the business with

proactive, pragmatic, and timely legal advice.

We are seeking a creative, agile, and diligent attorney with strong communication and negotiation skills to join the RWS Legal Department as Senior Legal Counsel. 

Reporting to the Head of Legal, you will be responsible for drafting, negotiating, and reviewing a broad range of international corporate and commercial contracts as well as providing corporate, transactional, regulatory and other legal support as needed, with a particular focus on the US.

As an integral member of the team, you will partner and work closely with various colleagues throughout the organization to lead and support the contracting process within established timelines and ensuring compliance with the Company's domestic and global programs and policies.

This team provides leadership and counsel across RWS to enable consistent, effective practices which minimize risk.

The work is challenging, fast-paced and rewarding, both professionally and personally. This is an exciting and engaging position in a mission-driven organization, offering a flexible, hybrid work arrangement. 

About RWS Legal

In joining RWS’s Legal and Professional Advisory team you will play an instrumental part in supporting the world’s leading provider of technology-enabled language, content, and intellectual property services. RWS has growing revenues of over £750m through a combination of value accretive acquisitions and organic growth and a current market capitalization of £1.3bn. The Legal and Professional Advisory team, led by our General Counsel and Company Secretary, Jane Hyde, includes the Legal, Company Secretarial, Data Privacy and ESG functions which provide critical business partnering to our Divisional operations and help drive the Group’s risk management, regulatory, governance and sustainability agendas. You will be part of a diverse and international team working across our global operations which span a footprint of over 100 legal entities in 43 different countries worldwide.   It’s a very exciting time to join RWS for an individual who enjoys driving change and making an impact in a dynamic environment. As part of the overall RWS business strategy we are making a significant investment in upgrading our systems and processes to deliver enhanced reporting and control and strengthening our risk and governance frameworks.

Job Overview

Key Responsibilities

• Draft, review and negotiate commercial agreements (e.g. technology, services, DPAs, partners, and corporate agreements, etc.) worldwide with a wide range of clients, vendors and partners. Emphasis is on providing timely, high-quality analysis and pragmatic solutions and legal advice on all contract negotiations.
• Collaborate with, and provide timely and strategic legal advice to management, strategic business units and cross functional groups, including Sales, Operations, Marketing, IT/Procurement, Data Privacy, Security, Finance, HR, and supply chain.
• Shepherd deals through the sales cycle and internal approval processes while partnering with the appropriate cross-functional teams.
• Provide legal guidance and risk assessment on behalf of RWS and advise on legal risks and implications of business decisions and initiatives.
• Work with sales and operations teams in iterating on and improving our core commercial documents and terms and developing playbooks and processes for improving efficiency, and growth.
• Ensure all contracts and legal documents comply with legal requirements and company policies.
• Ensure compliance with corporate governance standards and practices. Highlighting and escalating concerns and potential solutions to Head of Legal.
• Develop, implement and monitor policies and procedures and other documentation to minimize risk and enhance ethical business practice.
• Advising on US the application of US federal and state laws as required, which may extend to corporate, regulatory, and employment matters and disputes.
• Monitor laws, regulations, and guidance to ensure ongoing compliance, track emerging risks and assist with policy creation and other program materials.
• Contribute to the improvement of standard forms of agreements, alternate language playbooks, and internal resource documents.
• Effectively prioritize and perform other legal duties as assigned,
• Collaborate with external counsel, as required.

Skills & Experience

• Juris Doctorate from a nationally accredited law school.
• At least 5-years prior in-house or law firm experience, preferably with experience working in an in-house legal department or representing large technology driven organizations.  
• Strong contract negotiation and drafting skills, and substantive expertise with key provisions of most contracts, with specific experience in complex IT/software technology agreements in the US, Europe and Asia.
• Qualified candidates must have expertise in many areas of domestic and international business, commercial contracts, intellectual property law, commercial law, GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA (and similar US state laws), federal acquisition regulations (FARs), contracting, and related privacy laws, and regulatory matters.
• Ability to quickly switch between commercial contracts and a broad range of tasks across multiple areas of legal practice as business needs evolve, including evaluating and advising on export control matters, state minimum wage requirements, and other labor laws in the US.
• Familiarity and understanding of recent trends in artificial intelligence, with a specific focus on language models.
• Strong verbal and written business communication skills are essential: highly adept at synthesizing and summarizing complex and/or voluminous content into clear, concise and actionable communications.
• Ability to think strategically, problem solve creatively and quickly and be a savvy partner to clients (both internal and external) to help them navigate legal risk to achieve business objectives.
• Self-motivated and highly productive with the ability to multi-take while juggling a high volume of contracts, tight timelines, and competing priorities
• Quick learner who can adapt to a fast-paced, high-growth environment and can navigate complex cross-functional situations.
• Comfortable operating with a high degree of autonomy.
• Demonstrated flexibility and eagerness to work on a broad range of legal matters.
• Strong team player with the ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams representing a wide range of entities and departments in an international and multi-cultural environment
• Excellent analytical, drafting, interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to maintain a strong presence in client meetings and meetings with opposing counsel and parties, while representing the company’s interests.
• Possesses strong integrity, and the ability to maintain confidences while working with sensitive, confidential information.
• Demonstrated commitment to principles of equity and inclusion.
• Creativity in solving and navigating novel contractual matters; experience in crafting new approaches and language to meet the needs of a rapidly moving industry.
• Flexible work from home schedule, with a minimum of two days in the office.

Location     

US – Boston area (at least 2 days per week in the office, Wakefield, MA) will be preferred though we will consider remote candidates on the EST time zone

Benefits

• Amazing benefits! (Seriously!)  
• Generous paid time off package, starting at 25 days per year (10 sick and 15 vacation), plus company holidays, birthday day off, paid volunteer time, and 100% paid parental leave. 
• 401(k) Retirement plan with company match. 
• Company-wide agile work policy with flexible work arrangements. 
• Opportunities for training, professional development, and personal growth. 

Base Pay

$140,000 - $160,000 / year plus a generous bonus

Actual rate of pay may vary based on factors including, but not limited to: position offered, location, education, training, and/or experience. Total compensation may also include variable incentives, bonuses, benefits, and/or other perks, as outlined in any formal offer made. 

Life at RWS

At RWS, we’re here for one purpose: unlocking global understanding.  

As a unique, world-leading provider of technology-enabled language, content, and intellectual property services, we remove the barriers to communication to make global connection possible. Our unrivalled experience and deep understanding of language have been developed over more than 60 years. As we look to shape the future, our ambition is to create a world where understanding is universal for everyone.

We work with over 80% of the world’s top 100 brands, more than three-quarters of Fortune’s 20 ‘Most Admired Companies’ and almost all the top pharmaceutical companies, investment banks, law firms and patent filers. Our client base spans Europe, Asia Pacific and North and South America. Our 65+ global locations across five continents service clients in the automotive, chemical, financial, legal, medical, pharmaceutical, technology and telecommunications sectors.   

Over the past 20 years we’ve been evolving our own AI solutions as well as helping clients to explore, build and use multilingual AI applications. With 45+ AI-related patents and more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, we have the experience and expertise to support clients on their AI journey.

If you like the idea of working with smart people who are passionate about breaking down language barriers and giving back to their communities, then you’ll love life at RWS. Our work fundamentally recognizes the value of every language and culture. So, we celebrate difference, we are inclusive and believe that diversity makes us strong.

We want every employee to grow as an individual and excel in their career. In return, we expect all our people to live by the values that unite us: to partner with colleagues and clients, to adopt a pioneering spirit, to be positive in progressing the work we do, and always to deliver what we promise. 

RWS Values

Get the 3Ps right – Partner, Pioneer, Progress – and we´ll Deliver together as One RWS.

For further information, please visit: RWS   

RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity, we are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. RWS is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at RWS are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation. RWS will not tolerate discrimination based on any of these characteristics. 

Covid Vaccination - All RWS employees hired for positions that require working on-site at RWS offices, customer offices, travel on behalf of RWS, and/or in-person meetings will be required to comply with the RWS USA COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Policy. RWS complies with federal, state, and local laws regarding accommodations related to this policy.

Recruitment Agencies: RWS Holdings PLC does not accept agency resumes.  Please do not forward any unsolicited resumes to any RWS employees.  Any unsolicited resume received will be treated as the property of RWS and Terms & Conditions associated with the use of such resume will be considered null and void.

RWS is an Affirmative Action Employer. For more information about EEO/AAP legislation please visit: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf