Legal Counsel
Posted 22 days 11 hours ago by Faculty
Faculty transforms organisational performance through safe, impactful and human-led AI.
We are Europe's leading applied AI company, and saw its potential a decade ago - long before the current hype cycle.
We founded in 2014 with our Fellowship programme, training academics to become commercial data scientists.
Today, we provide over 300 global customers with industry-leading software, and bespoke AI consultancy for retail, healthcare, energy, and governmental organisations, as well as our award winning Fellowship.
Our expertise and safety credentials are such that OpenAI asked us to be their first technical partner, helping customers deploy cutting-edge generative AI safely.
Our high-impact work has saved lives through forecasting NHS demand during covid, produced green energy by routing boats towards the wind, slashed marketing spend by predicting customer spending habits, and kept children safe online.
AI is an epoch-defining technology. We want people to join us who can help our customers reap its enormous benefits safely.
About the role
Faculty's in-house legal team works to proactively address legal issues so that Faculty can drive positive impact in the world. In many cases, there will be no precedent. This is one of those rare in-house roles where your work will often be at the cutting edge.
As Legal Counsel, you will be a key contributor to both the legal team and the company as a whole - working across every issue Faculty faces. You'll provide sage advice on a wide range of legal issues, with a centre of gravity around commercial & public sector contracts, IP & licensing and privacy.
This position is ideal for an ambitious lawyer with experience in private practice at a leading law firm and looking for their first in-house role, or for someone seeking a new in-house role, having come from that background.
As the third lawyer in the team, you will be reporting to the Senior Legal Counsel, and working closely with our General Counsel, Contracts & Compliance Manager, Legal & Compliance Associate, legal and regulatory consultants and external lawyers, as well as other Faculty staff, and technical and commercial partners.
What you'll be doing
Commercial Contracting: Drafting and negotiating various technology and services contracts, including enterprise and public sector agreements and procurement processes.
IP: Act as subject matter expert in IP matters related to AI services, including assignments, licensing, SaaS, sub-contracting, joint ventures, and IP-related to the Frontier product
Privacy: Tailor GDPR principles to the unique contexts of NHS, government, and enterprise, including drafting DPAs, DSAs, DPIAs, and provide regular GDPR training to staff.
Public Sector Procurement: application to frameworks, supporting bids, contracting on
government and other large scale, complex frameworks, including GCloud, and Digital Outcomes amongst many.
Product: experience in SaaS products and related considerations including contracting, service level agreements and typical risks.
Generative AI & LLMs: Act as subject matter expert in IP, privacy, and regulatory issues surrounding LLMs, noting that Faculty is an official partner of OpenAI.
Governance & Security: Support the rollout of the company's Governance, Risk, Compliance & Ethics functions, ensuring compliance with customer security and governance requirements, and drafting internal policies. Supporting the evolution of the Ethics Panel, helping Faculty support the right customers and build the right services & products.
Regulatory: Understand forthcoming AI and UK privacy regulations, clinical risk regulations, US privacy requirements, and HIPAA and advising on the best course of action in innovative areas where there are no template answers.
AI Safety: have an interest in and ability to support the leadership in interpreting and articulating our response to the challenges of delivering safe, fair and ethical AI.
Employment: Support the People team with UK & international employment issues, including contract updates and exit matters.
Who we're looking for:
Qualifications:We expect the successful candidate to have 2+ years PQE depending on appropriate skill and experience, and we are open to candidates with substantially more experience than that.
Trained and qualified with a leading international law firm and worked in commercial technology and IP teams with exposure to privacy compliance.
Strong background in commercial technology law, capable of providing counsel, negotiation, and drafting for complex contracts involving IP, privacy, government frameworks, product design and compliance, subcontracting & multi party agreements, compliance, and governance and able to adapt to provide support on employment, property, disputes, and risk management
Core competencies:
Technical excellence in commercial law, IP, and privacy, capable of adapting to a wide range of contract-related demands and legal issues. Experience of procurement law and interacting with the government is a plus.
Highly organised, able to help streamline our systems and processes as we scale into a large international company. Experience with Ironclad, DocuSign, Asana and Google Workplace are pluses
Self-driven, efficient, and proactive in addressing business needs requiring rapid and proactive support.
Collaborative, personable and a real team player. We are a small legal team and we work closely with each other on a daily basis - we would like someone who is ready to invest in that culture and make an effort to be a great team player. We would also like someone who is able to integrate across the business and work closely with our commercial and technical delivery teams.
Comfortable with data science and AI concepts and the services and products that we are delivering and that our customers require, to be able to enter into discussion and contract drafting that properly encapsulates our work.
Additional skills (Beneficial):Litigation: Experience in dispute management.
Corporate: Knowledge of employee equity schemes, company equity, fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures.
Ethics: Involvement in corporate ethics policies and processes, including customer selection and product design.
International: Experience in establishing overseas entities and familiarity with US IP, licensing, and employment regulations.
What we can offer you
The Faculty team is diverse and distinctive, and we all come from different personal, professional and organisational backgrounds. We all have one thing in common: we are driven by a deep intellectual curiosity that powers us forward each day. This curiosity pushes us to seek truth and understanding in everything we do, to execute work in a nimble and pragmatic manner, to foster talent in one another and always to challenge assumptions.
Faculty is the professional challenge of a lifetime. You'll be surrounded by an impressive group of brilliant minds working to achieve our collective goals. Our consultants, product developers, business development specialists, operations professionals and more all bring something unique to Faculty, and you'll learn something new from everyone you meet. You'll also have the opportunity to make your mark on a high-growth start-up now poised to expand internationally. Another unique aspect of this role is the exposure you will receive to a business offering both consultancy services and an AI product. From a legal perspective, this means your role will be especially diverse and no day will be the same.
Fostering talent is one of our core values, it's built into our culture and what we offer. Faculty was founded by people who are passionate about continuous learning, and adding value to our people.