Legal Counsel (maternity cover)

Overview

Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Hours: 30 per week (4 days) - flexible on days. Full-time will be considered. Contract type: 12 months fixed term from September 2025 (maternity cover). Salary: £Competitive. Reporting to: Director of Legal and Business Affairs.

We are seeking a proactive Legal Counsel to provide maternity cover for our legal counsel. The successful candidate will support the Legal and Business Affairs team in managing a variety of legal support requests from across the business. Day to day workload will include supporting with various commercial agreements, intellectual property management, approving marketing copy, supplier onboarding, low level dispute resolution and providing general first line support on legal enquiries.

This role would suit a generalist commercial lawyer looking to build on existing in-house experience or broaden their private practice skills by joining a fast-growing business. You will be dealing with a variety of legal topics and your day-to-day workload will require contract drafting skills, stakeholder engagement, and the ability to manage and prioritise an ever-changing workload with discretion and precision.

Key responsibilities

• Contract drafting and negotiation: Draft, review, negotiate and amend commercial agreements with client partners and suppliers; prepare and revise special conditions, draft bespoke agreements and respond to counterparties' legal comments; liaise with internal stakeholders to draft and negotiate agreements and ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Legal risk and dispute management: Provide guidance and support the Customer Support team in the handling of consumer complaints; support various internal departments with ad-hoc enquiries (marketing, employment, litigation, consumer, commercial and intellectual property matters).
• Legal research: Support the Data Protection officer where required; support the senior compliance counsel on regulatory matters (ICO, IPO and advertising standards); manage energy billing disputes and pre-litigation correspondence with external legal teams; advise on supplier and partner agreements.
• Supplier and invoice management: Set up new suppliers and process invoices via SAGE; coordinate with Finance and external vendors to validate and resolve billing issues.
• Intellectual property oversight: Manage the Group's trademark portfolio; administer trademark watching services (e.g., Corsearch) and ensure brand protection; liaise with marketing and legal teams to monitor third-party trademark applications.
• Internal legal support: Provide legal input on procurement questionnaires and onboarding documentation; review, develop, draft, and update internal precedent agreements including T&Cs and NDAs.

Skills and experience

• Qualified solicitor or legal executive with commercial law experience, preferably with some in-house experience but not essential.
• Ideally 1 to 4 years' experience but all levels considered.
• Ideally some familiarity with the ASA CAP and BCAP Code.
• Strong drafting and negotiation skills.
• Some experience in low level dispute resolution (pre-action negotiations only) and regulatory compliance.
• Familiarity with IP protection and trademark monitoring.
• Proficiency and interest in legal document management.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

About us

UniHomes has been named the fastest-growing technology company in Yorkshire and the Northeast in the 2023 Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50. We are also incredibly proud to have been officially certified as a Great Place to Work (GPTW).

Our industry-leading property search portal and utility management service enables our established and growing network of letting agent partners to offer hassle-free all-inclusive accommodation to our growing community of university students seeking their perfect shared house. We are in over 60 university cities and towns across the UK with ambitious plans for 2025. Founded by three Sheffield property entrepreneurs in 2015, we have experienced significant growth and now have a team of almost one hundred at our Sheffield City Centre office. With recent minority investment from LDC, we are scaling up.

We are a team driven and united by our core values:

• Lead the Way
• In it Together
• Customers Matter
• Keep it Simple
• Rise Above Challenges
• Make it Happen

What do you get when you work here?

With people and culture at the heart of our organisation, we are proud to be a Great Place to Work (GPTW) and an accredited Living Wage employer. Our office offers benefits including complimentary breakfast, beverages, snacks, holidays, enhanced pension schemes, healthcare, Employee Assistance Programme, enhanced maternity/paternity pay, career progression, development opportunities, employee recognition schemes, refer a friend scheme, staff discounts, mental health and financial support, and company social events.

UniHomes is committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone can thrive. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and encourage applicants who require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to contact us.

We do not accept CV submissions from recruitment agencies. Direct applications from individual candidates are encouraged. Thank you for your understanding.