Associate General Counsel - Employment Law

Location: EMEA, United Kingdom, London

Ref: GROUPEMEA00220

Division: Smiths Group

Job Function: Legal and Compliance

We have a fantastic opportunity for senior corporate in-house legal professional to join our Smiths Group Legal team based at our Head Offices in London.

Your mission in this position will be to lead all global requirements for legal support and advice connected with employment/labour law (including dispute resolution) across the Smiths Group and its businesses building an effective network and becoming a strong influence on strategy and compliance

As our Associate General Counsel - Employment (AGC Employment) you will be a key member of the corporate HQ legal team and will be expected to be fully involved in the Group's People agenda, helping to set and drive policy and strategy in support of HR across the Group at the HQ and divisional level.

In this highly visible and influential role, you will report to the Deputy General Counsel, Smiths Group and interface with all group functions and others in the Smiths Legal team including Divisional General Counsels and the other legal "Centres of Excellence".

- The work is varied and constantly evolving: being a member of a fast-moving team that's doing cutting edge legal work is not always easy. We strive for excellence leveraging our amazing team, coming up with creative solutions to complex problems! An excellent communicator, you will provide business-oriented advice in an efficient, succinct, and easy-to-understand way.

We're looking for a curious, passionate, and dedicated business lawyer with a proven track record operating at a senior level in a global organisation. You must be able to juggle competing priorities, directly manage high pressure situations, be equally adept at playing a lead role on some projects and a supporting role on others and be an effective and confident communicator who can provide user-friendly legal advice. Most of all, you will need to become a trusted advisor at all levels of the organisation.

• Responsible for providing strategic and commercial legal advice across the Smiths Group including advising on and running employment / labour investigations, disputes and litigation.
• Prime relationship with advising the Group HR function setting strategy and advising on policy adoption and implementation.
• Devising and deploying strategies for engagement and management of external legal firms and technology in the area to ensure efficient use of resources and budgets, specifically managing the relationship with external panel firms in the employment area.
• Understand and advise on Group projects which may have a global impact on people or policies requiring an ability to navigate multiple jurisdictions and complex issues calmly and report out to business partners and project managers or senior management as required.
• Proactively support legal risk management across the Group within the area of employment/labour law, disputes and litigation avoidance/management deploying mitigation strategies including updating policies and procedures, raising awareness and training legal and business colleagues.
• Working closely with Divisional General Counsel on employment matters and disputes within the context of their divisional business requirements.
• Management of the legal budget as far as it pertains to recordable employment advice.
• Supporting Group M&A and Group M&A Legal on all M&A activity both inbound and outbound to include advising on the employment aspects of a proposed transaction and working closely with the project managers to successfully deliver M&A and working on integration post completion.
• Advise on and assist with the development and implementation of compensation and benefit initiatives working closely with Group Remuneration & Benefits team.
• Supporting the Company Secretary team in connection with the preparation of the appropriate public disclosures in, amongst other things, the Annual Report and other public disclosures or announcements.
• Working closely with Group E&C team and GC in connection with employment related Code of Conduct issues and investigations

We believe that different perspectives and backgrounds are what make a company flourish. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, economic status, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristics. We are proud to be an inclusive company with values grounded in equality and ethics, where we celebrate, support, and embrace diversity

• Qualified lawyer EMEA and/or US jurisdictions with excellent academic credentials.
• Demonstratable post-qualification experience in labor and employment counselling including familiarity with employment law and international employment issues across different EMEA countries, with a willingness to learn in new jurisdictions.
• Experience with coordinating and driving to completion large-scale projects.
• In house legal employment law experience including employment litigation in a global business
• English employment law expertise. Global experience.
• Strong technical knowledge and experience of UK employment law and employment litigation in the context of day-to-day advice across multi jurisdictions and businesses.
• Wide experience in managing the requirement for targeted legal advice on multi-jurisdictional projects, to include project management of global projects to solve legal business challenges and engage stakeholders in the sphere of employment law.
• Change Management - proven effectiveness at driving change with strong engagement of others to contribute to successful execution
• Proven Programme Management capability - ability to coordinate and manage a series of complex workstreams within an overarching programme of works using cross-divisional and cross-functional resources
• Strong collaboration and influencing skills to mobilise senior colleagues outside and inside the legal function in support of global people projects.
• Continuous Improvement mindset in relation to delivery of legal service.
• Strong English communication skills, both verbally and in writing. Other languages are a plus.
• Willingness and flexibility to travel globally.

At Smiths we apply leading-edge technology to design, manufacture and deliver market-leading innovative solutions that meet our customers' evolving needs and touch the lives of millions of people every day. We are a FTSE100, global business of around 14,000 colleagues, based in around 50 countries. Our solutions have a real impact on lives across the planet, enabling industry, enhancing security, advancing connectivity, and supporting new homes. Our products and services are often critical to our customers' operations, while our proprietary technology and high service levels help create competitive advantage. We welcome colleagues with a curious mind, who are happy with responsibility, enjoy a challenge and are attracted by the idea of working at a business with an almost 170-year history of innovation, and four global divisions, all experts in their field.

Smiths Group plc is a global entity with 4 distinct trading Divisions. John Crane is a global leader in rotating equipment solutions, supplying engineered technologies and services to process industries including oil & gas, pharmaceutical, chemical, petrochemical, power generation, mining, water treatment, pulp & paper, and turbo machinery. Smiths Interconnect is a leading provider of technically differentiated electronic components, subsystems, microwave and radio frequency products that provide secure connectivity of critical applications in the defence, aerospace, communications and industrial markets. Flex-Tek is a global provider of engineered components that heat and move fluids and gases for the aerospace, medical, industrial, construction and domestic appliance markets.