Junior Legal Counsel

The Opportunity

The Opportunity

We are seeking a bright, enthusiastic and well-organised junior lawyer to join a high-performing and friendly Legal team, specifically providing support to the Commercial and Corporate Governance, Compliance & Franchising Legal Teams, handling the full range of compliance and commercial matters in the UK & Ireland including Corporate Governance Matters, Commercial Contracts, IT / Digital Projects, Data Protection and Privacy Compliance, Marketing & Advertising Approvals, Franchising, JV Matters and matters relating to Employment, Supply Chain and Public Health and Competition.

What will my accountabilities be?

Franchising:

• Handling transactions for the grant of franchises
• Assisting with corporate asset sale transactions involving franchisees
• Advising the Franchising Recruitment team on recruitment campaigns
• Assisting the Franchising Recruitment team with a variety of franchisee applicant issues
• Advising the Franchising team on general franchising queries

Corporate/Compliance:

• Carrying out general company secretarial tasks including: drafting powers of attorney; drafting a variety of resolutions including in relation to annual accounts, distributions, board appointments; and assisting with the renewal of the EEA Directors Bond
• Preparing for board meetings including the preparing the pre-reads, attending the meetings to provide guidance as required and preparing and finalising the board minutes
• Delivering directors duties training and conflicts of interest training and monitoring changing corporate legislation and taking appropriate action
• Supporting on McDonalds corporate governance reporting and global litigation reporting requirements including: overseeing compliance across the business; leading on the preparation of McDonald's corporate governance framework; assessing areas of development during McDonalds corporate governance journey; assisting with the s.172 statement, strategic report and corporate governance statement; and supporting on an approach for franchisees and joint ventures to take to help their organisations meet corporate governance requirements Reviewing and managing employee conflicts of interests disclosures Assisting with corporate transactions
• Providing company law and other legal advice and support in relation to the marketing co-operative and preparation of all legal documentation for the annual general meeting
• Co-ordinating responses for internal and external audits
• Supporting with compliance initiatives, global reporting and general compliance queries
• Working closely with the Global Compliance Director including providing market support with third party due diligence and with routing Business Integrity hotline queries

Commercial:

• Negotiating and preparing commercial agreements including confidentiality agreements, data processing agreements and services agreements including in relation to marketing, digital, supply chain and IT projects
• Providing day to day advice to business colleagues on a wide variety of commercial issues including data protection, intellectual property and brand protection matters, franchise relations, employment matters, compliance, finance, tax and competition law matters, and customer inquiries. This will involve working collaboratively with legal and business colleagues to manage commercial transactions, identifying risks and providing solutions-driven, commercial advice
• Working collaboratively with the Marketing team on advertising campaigns to ensure regulatory compliance
• Assisting on data protection matters such as reviewing and responding to Data Subject Access Requests and advising on data protection compliance within new projects
• Proactively identifying legal trends and regulatory changes to enhance company policies and procedures across the range of business areas, develop communication and training programmes and ensure awareness and compliance across the business and dealing with policy queries
• Supporting the People team in particular with updating existing people policies and implementing new policies; advising on escalated employee complaints; attending roundtables with our insurers to align on approach and best practice
• Participate and contribute to cross-functional working teams on projects involving strategic business initiatives and risk management strategies

What Team will I be part of and who are my customers?

The Junior Legal Counsel position will serve as a member of the Legal Team supporting all departments across the McDonalds UK & Ireland business, including Franchising, Marketing, IT/Digital, Customer Services, Finance and Supply Chain.