Senior Legal Counsel

Job description

CBRE is the global leader in real estate services and leverages the industry's most powerful knowledge base to meet the commercial real estate needs of its clients worldwide. Our vision is to be the preeminent, vertically integrated, globally capable real estate service firm. Globally we employ over 70,000 employees and operate in 48 countries.

Senior Legal Counsel - EMEA (Projects and general commercial)

CBRE requires a business focussed Legal Counsel to support its Global Workplace Solutions ("GWS") Enterprise Accounts Division in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa ("EMEA") region. The reports to the Senior Lead Counsel for GWS Enterprise Accounts Division in EMEA.

The role entails a full range of legal, risk and governance issues which affect and are integral to facilities management and project services contracts within the region.

Responsibilities

• As a member of the legal team, is responsible for all aspects of legal work, including contract reviews, drafting, disputes, and governance, this role requires high attention to detail, organisation, commercial insight, communication skills, determination and flexibility to support the different business needs.
• Duties will be to assist Senior Lead and other Legal Counsels in the team, sales leads and operations with the contractual aspects involved in the sales and bidding processes - e.g., carrying our contract reviews, providing feedback, comments, assisting with internal approvals, and drafting mark-ups or commentary on client contracts at all stages of the bidding process.
• Put in place Local Country Agreements (LCAs) that sit under our global Master Services Agreements (MSAs). The LCAs are made between the CBRE local entity or affiliate and the client's local entity. This entails reviewing the MSA to determine whether there are any local jurisdictional or legal issues that need to be covered off or addressed in the LCA. For example, signing/execution formalities, pricing/payment terms, employee issues and insurance provisions all potentially have a local law nuance that needs to be captures in the LCA.
• The role also requires extensive stakeholder management in multiple jurisdictions, liaising with Legal teams in the Americas and APAC, Transition teams and in-country ops, pricing and commercial teams to ensure the LCAs reflect the local pricing and scope.
• Project Management: The PJM business unit at CBRE carry out individual projects or a series of related tasks which will lead to the completion of the project. Projects include renovating or refurbishing a building (client offices, commercial buildings or manufacturing sites), structure or infrastructure or asset replacement.
• Advise the Project Management (up and down stream) function in EMEA including developing and providing advice on;
• process
• standard form contracts (JCT, FIDIC, NEC, etc)
• schedule of amendments
• flow downs
• relevant insurance
• templates
• contracting parameters
• contracting standards for both Client and Supplier agreements

• Supports all aspects of deal negotiation, terms, and conditions of complex outsourcing and project management contracts, also providing input with regard to the commercial elements of the deals where they impact the legal provisions (e.g., pricing, service levels, governance, audit, exit, etc.).
• Keeps abreast of trends and changes in the laws in EMEA affecting the business and proactively communicate them to the business.
• Provides legal advice on an "ad hoc" basis in response to steady-state or business as usual contract queries and disputes and other legal issues as they arise.
• Has the ability to isolate complex legal issues and to provide prompt, concise and commercially focused legal advice, while balancing risks and benefits and being able to communicate these issues effectively.

Person Specification

• Qualified, registered and currently practising lawyer (qualified in at least one EMEA jurisdiction) with a minimum of 5 [10] years PQE.
• Training and experience at quality law firm or large corporation.
• A demonstrable track record of broad based commercial and contractual law experience and good knowledge of contract and commercial law.
• Grasp of TUPE and Acquired Rights Directive legislation.
• Knowledge of GDPR.
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience of project management contracting.
• Knowledge and experience of working with projects standard industry contracts (e.g., JCT, FIDIC, NEC4, etc).
• Procurement and supplier sourcing experience.
• Commercial law experience across multiple jurisdictions working with multinational companies.
• In-house experience with ability to bridge business risk strategies with legal requirements is desirable

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer and do not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability or age.