Category: Success stories

Our client, a global $18bn revenue IT Outsourcing company, was looking to hire a commercial tech lawyer to join their UK&I legal team.

With their business continuing to grow rapidly, they were seeking a team member with at least 3 years of experience in complex IT Outsourcing deals.

The role:

This Legal Counsel position was part of UK team of 10 commercial / outsourcing in-house lawyers, responsible for negotiating a range of IT services agreements with clients, from high-value MSAs to subcontracts and reseller agreements.

The role advised the leadership team on high-risk issues, provided pragmatic legal support at all stages of the contracting process, and work on ad hoc strategic legal/commercial projects.

Part of the role was also to create and provide legal training to business colleagues on key risk issues and collaborate with fellow lawyers in the global team to develop and improve contracting and legal risk management practices.

Our candidate: Tier 1 global firm associate

The candidate that we have secured for our client was a 5 PQE solicitor with a broad range of expertise in technology, commercial and outsourcing contracts, gained at a major global law firm and as an in-house secondee.

This person had over three years of experience as an associate in the Tier 1 ranked technology and outsourcing group at a global law firm in London after training with the firm.

Following their secondments the candidate was keen to move into an in-house role where they would focus on technology and outsourcing agreements, ideally without significant corporate or data protection related activities.

The role that our client was hiring for was exactly the right fit.

Candidate’s experience:

The candidate had experience advising both customers and suppliers on technology contracts including transformational IT outsourcing arrangements, software development agreements, and ‘as a service’ solutions.

At their law firm, the candidate was involved in several complex transformational IT services transactions.

Experience included procuring a variety of outsourced IT services via a well-known IT outsourcer, drafting a suite of tender documentation and agreements for a public sector client, and advising a supplier client in respect of its successful bid for communications services to be enrolled into the UK’s public sector infrastructure.

They had advised supplier clients on their bid activity including responses to tenders and proposals as well as customer clients on the drafting of RFP/tender agreements and documentation.

They also had experience of working on a variety of complex transactions, from negotiating IT services agreements and software licenses to advising clients on procurement and regulatory compliance issues.

Candidate’s in-house secondments:

The candidate had undertaken two in-house secondments where they advised on the procurement of technology solutions from vendors, resolved ad-hoc legal questions, and provided pragmatic, commercially-focused legal support.

On their client secondment to an FMCG company, the candidate negotiated agreements for the provision of business-critical IT services and resolved ad-hoc legal queries from the business teams.

As part of another in-house secondment, they advised on the procurement of various technology solutions from vendors, including under framework agreements with statements of work.

Candidate’s soft skills:

Throughout their career, the candidate had built and maintained relationships with internal stakeholders, ensuring they were a trusted advisor for both legal advice and risk analysis.

The candidate was an approachable and personable individual, quickly able to create trust, and both likeable and capable. They had a natural ability to connect with people on a personal level, making them easy to approach and easy to work with.

Outcome:

Our candidate was successfully hired for the role of in-house legal counsel at this IT services company.

With their experience in complex IT Outsourcing agreements and their ability to build and maintain relationships, the candidate was immediately a valuable addition to the team.

Found Legal’s ability to find highly qualified and culturally aligned legal professionals has been key to our success in placing candidates in organisations across the UK and Europe.

We are committed to providing our clients with talented, experienced, and dedicated legal professionals who will add value to their businesses and in-house legal teams.

Ref 1131801

Background:

Our client, a global tech company and one of the world’s best employers, called us to discuss their new commercial legal counsel vacancy for their operations in Germany.

Based on our history of working with this client, we knew that apart from Germany, their other key market was France.

They valued candidates who were excellent commercial lawyers, spoke several European languages, had an international outlook, and ideally had exposure to drafting commercial contracts under Common Law.

Found Legal’s Solution:

We reached out to a highly qualified lawyer in our network whose profile seemed to tick all the boxes.

The candidate was trilingual in English, French, and German, educated both as a German and French lawyer, trained in reputable law firms, had experience of drafting contracts under the law of England and Wales, and at the time was working for another global IT company in Berlin.

During our discussions, the candidate expressed an interest in moving to a dynamic international environment where they could develop their skills as a tech sector lawyer, work with sales and commercial teams, and using their language skills.

Candidate’s experience:

Prior to starting their in-house experience, this person trained with Bird and Bird and DLA Piper in commercial legal and IP capacity. Later in-house, they gained substantial experience in:

• Reviewing, drafting, and negotiating master service agreements and licensing agreements with customers in collaboration with the sales team.
• Revising and negotiating professional services agreements involving consulting service agreements and statements of work.
• Providing commercial legal support for public tender projects in France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
• Reviewing NDAs in local languages.
• Establishing templates and contract processes with internal stakeholders, including sales, technical, and product teams.
• Being the legal point of contact for the partnership team.

Outcome:

The hiring process was swift, with both the legal team and the sales team impressed with the candidate’s experience, skills, and cultural fit. All the interviewers unanimously agreed that the candidate was the right person for the role and team, and shortly after the interviews, the candidate accepted the offer.

The candidate started their new role a few months ago and has since been a valuable member of our client’s EMEA legal team working in a commercial legal role, closely supporting the sales and commercial teams.

Their experience, language skills, and passion for technology make them an asset to the business, and we are delighted to have placed them with this client.

Found Legal’s ability to find highly qualified and culturally aligned legal professionals has been key to our success in placing candidates in organisations worldwide.

We are committed to providing our clients with talented, experienced, and dedicated legal professionals who will add value to their businesses and in-house legal teams.

Ref 1655151

6+ PQE commercial lawyer with both private practice and in-house experience joins a software market leader as their EMEA Legal Counsel.

Our client is a medium-sized global software company, a leader in the area of software monitoring and performance optimisation that licenses its software as both on-premises and software-as-a-service to enterprise customers.

Their global legal team of eight was looking to hire legal counsel with experience in technology licensing.

This position reported to the company’s global GC and assisted in driving commercial transactions in EMEA.

Responsibilities included

• Negotiate complex software license and SaaS agreements with leading global customers
• Respond to requests from internal clients and summarise and communicate legal risks in a clear way
• Develop and maintain terms for buying programs, such as enterprise license agreements
• Support partner organisation with new partner programs
• Assist in the continuous improvement of standard form agreements and playbooks

What type of lawyer was the team looking for

The team was keen to hire an English qualified lawyer with 5+ PQE in private practice and / or in-house with experience negotiating complex contracts (SaaS, software licence, resale and vendor agreements) under the English law.

Deep understanding of GDPR was also required.

One of the key requirements was outstanding contract negotiation and drafting skills, with the ability to negotiate multi-year, multi-million-dollar license agreements with Enterprise level customers.

Non-English law and jurisdiction experience was considered an asset.

Who we placed

Found Legal placed a commercial lawyer with 6 years of experience gained in both private practice and in-house, a highly skilled professional with strong work ethic, comfortable working with other internal teams such as engineering, sales, product management and marketing.

This person is dual qualified in the UK and another European jurisdiction and speaks fluently two languages.

The candidate most recently worked for a US headquartered SaaS company where responsibilities included:

• Negotiating with blue-chip companies and taking on responsibility for the client contracting cycle, ensuring timely and successful conclusion
• Drafting, reviewing and negotiating complex commercial contracts (SaaS, vendor and NDA agreements)
• Advising the business on a wide range of legal issues including data protection, risk management/compliance, Intellectual property, marketing and employment
  Working across multiple jurisdictions including EMEA

Importantly for an in-house role, the new team member was a great communicator able to explain complex issues in a clear and simple manner both in writing and verbally. They demonstrated client-centric approach to handling complex legal issues and possessed strong organisational and interpersonal skills.

Ref 1428751

Background:

Our client is a leading technology company that provides hardware, software, and services to households and offices worldwide and a Top 5 company to work for globally.

The EMEA GC was looking to hire a lawyer in Paris with experience in supporting sales of technology products and services to enterprise-level customers, including expertise in commercial, contract, and business law, data protection and privacy law, IP and antitrust law, revenue recognition principles, and negotiating complex business transactions.

The lawyer also needed to be fluent in English and French, as negotiations were primarily conducted in French, with contracts governed by the laws of England and Wales.

Found Legal’s Solution:

After a thorough search and selection process, Found Legal placed a bilingual lawyer with 5+ years of experience, trained in private practice, and having worked in a commercial legal role in-house.

The candidate was a native French speaker and fully fluent in English, having lived in the UK and visited the US regularly.

They trained in IP and Technology departments of international law firms DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, and August & Debouzy in Paris, where they got admitted to the French Bar (CAPA).

Post-qualification, the candidate worked in-house at an Internet company, gaining experience in complex high-value negotiations, drafting commercial/SaaS contracts, data privacy matters, and pre-litigation and litigation.

Responsibilities:

As a member of the legal team, the candidate’s primary responsibilities included:

Drafting, negotiating, and processing contracts with enterprise customers, including direct sale, RFP/RFIs, resale, nondisclosure, software license/sublicense, evaluation, cloud contracts, XaaS, flexible consumption models, dispute settlements, and alliance agreements.
Providing advice and contract interpretation to senior management on the provisions of specific agreements as well as legal issues that might impact the business.
Securing approval on nonstandard legal, financial, technical, and business issues raised in contract documents.
Reviewing, analysing, and maintaining standard contracts and other business documents.
Participating in and leading departmental and cross-functional process improvement teams.

Outcome:

The new team member started in their role in 2019 and quickly established themselves as a strong commercial lawyer, working successfully with a driven sales team and managing a variety of stakeholders within this complex multinational organization.

They have since been promoted several times and recently moved into the role of a Lead lawyer within a different client’s vertical, working closely with the company’s senior management.

As of today, they are still gainfully employed by the business, like most of the lawyers that Found Legal has placed.

Found Legal’s ability to source, evaluate and present a bilingual lawyer with a strong background in technology law and commercial legal experience, proved to be a significant asset to our client.

The lawyer’s expertise allows them to successfully navigate complex negotiations and provide valuable advice to senior management.

The candidate’s ongoing success within the company reinforces Found Legal’s commitment to providing our clients with talented, experienced and dedicated legal professionals.

Ref 289601

This candidate had exceptional language skills: they were fluent in French, English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Since the company operates in all of the markets using these languages, this person immediately stood out for the legal team.

Our client was a large global technology company with ca. 15,000 employees. Headquartered in Europe, they are world leader in their sector.

The business is an exciting place to work offering excellent work-life balance, diverse multicultural environment and cutting edge tech legal work.

What was the role the client was hiring for?

Global Head of Legal and a leader of a team of 30, was seeking to hire a technically strong lawyer with 5+ PQE and experience drafting and negotiating technology contracts, ideally trained in private practice and fluent in English and French. The role was based in Madrid.

The team was looking for someone passionate about working close to the commercial team and senior management and acting as a true business partner advising on a diverse portfolio of products and services.

Of importance were business rapport building skills and strong business insight, as well as the ability to work in a fast-moving company.

Reporting into Global Head of Legal, the role offered a lot of responsibility providing legal and contractual support to this IT business:

Responsibilities included

• Responsibility for varied range of issues including strategic accounts and / or vendor and supplier management
• Creating strategic solutions to key legal issues
• Negotiate and draft complex agreements (software, services, outsourcing, supplier, vendor, consultancy, technology licensing and development agreements)
• Provide key support on litigation, data protection and regulatory issues
• Advise top management on strategic legal risks
• Instruct and manage external counsel
• Oversee capturing of know-how, provide training on areas of expertise and supervise more junior team members

Who was hired and what was the candidate’s background?

We placed a 6+ PQE technology lawyer, qualified in a top law firm with subsequent five years of in-house experience at a major international business handling IT / digital / e-commerce/ SaaS matters and contracts.

Fluent in five languages – French, English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, the candidate relocated from Switzerland.

How successful was this placement long term?

The new team member started in their role in May 2019.

As of today, they are still gainfully employed by the business (as are 99% of lawyers we have placed).

Ref 141201

Our client is one of the biggest IT companies in the world headquartered in the US with 400-strong global legal and compliance team.

Who was hired and what was their role?

EMEA GC, who the role reported to, was looking to hire a senior lawyer to be based in Paris, who would be fluent in English and French with experience working for a US company.

We placed a 14 PQE Canadian lawyer bilingual in English and French, admitted to NY Bar, with experience working for a major US law firm and a top e-commerce company.

Responsibilities included

• Draft, negotiate and process contracts with enterprise customers: direct sale, RFP / RFIs, resale, nondisclosure, software license/sublicense, evaluation, cloud contracts, SaaS, flexible consumption models, dispute settlements and alliance agreements.
• Responsibility for named customers accounts headquartered in France with operations in EMEAR and the Americas.
• Provide advice and contract interpretation to senior management on the provisions of specific agreements as well as legal issues that might impact the business
• Secure proper approval on nonstandard legal, financial, technical and business issues raised in contract documents
• Review, analyse and maintain standard contracts and other business documents
• Participate on and lead departmental and cross-functional process improvement teams

What was the candidate’s background before being hired?

The candidate we placed had trained with and worked at a major US law firm in the US, having then moved in-house (and to Paris) to work for a French telecommunications company and later for a leading e-commerce business.

This person was looking for a more balanced role, whilst being part of an internationally recognised technology leader, both of which the role provided.

How successful was this placement long term?

The new team member started in their role in 2018.

As of today, they are still gainfully employed by the business (as are 99% of lawyers we have placed).