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