Legal and Governance Manager

Edinburgh, Midlothian
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (Charities) Ltd

The Legal and Governance Manager will provide pragmatic, timely and commercially-focused legal support.

Job type Permanent

Location Cockburn Street, Edinburgh (with hybrid working patterns)

The Tattoo has an ambitious growth strategy with a brand mission to be ‘The World’s greatest immersive event’. This strategy will see the organisation evolve from a national event to a global entertainment company. By growing revenue and profitability in the trading private subsidiaries, the organisation can maximise the donations it makes to military and arts charities made by the registered charity parent company. Excellent governance, efficient and well-informed contracting, and support for our people are important elements of achieving the strategy. With recent growth and an increasingly commercial approach, the company has a requirement for dedicated legal expertise in the Governance team to support activity across the business.

The Legal and Governance Manager will provide pragmatic, timely and commercially-focused legal support. They will seek to add value in early stages of project development and negotiation, anticipate needs and challenges to support smooth headway for colleagues, and set conditions for the leadership team to balance proactive risk management with business growth. An important aspect of the role will also be to support good governance as Assistant/Deputy CoSec (depending on experience).

Responsible for the smooth day-to-day operation of legal services across the company, the role will also drive automation and efficiency, including support for increased use of technology (which might include automating tasks such as contract drafting, legal research, due diligence, and formal minutes) and enabling budget-holders to manage more tactical matters from an informed perspective. They will be responsible for implementing and reviewing processes for the company to access legal support and cost control of those services.

Key Duties:

• Prepare and review a high volume of commercial contracts in consultation with company solicitors and service the business as required.
• Assist the Gov&HR Director in the instruction and review of major contracts (over £1M value or connected to high strategic risk).
• Maintain and enhance standard templates and clause libraries, in consultation with external advisers and relevant contract leads within the business.
• Proactively manage a central contracts register. Maintain company contract files and ensure contracts are reviewed and updated as required.
• Conduct due diligence and onboarding of suppliers and new partners to the business.
• First point of contact for responsive legal advice on operational issues across the company and sounding board for developing projects across the business.
• Manage relationships and instruct preferred solicitors and other external advisers – identifying the most appropriate for the task and ensuring value for money. Co-ordinate routine tendering of specialist advisers.
• Support Board and Committees through routine correspondence, preparation of materials and meetings.
• Maintain compliance records and co-ordinate statutory reporting (e.g. lobbying, anti-bribery, Companies House, OSCR) and support legal oversight of more general compliance activity across the business.
• Support company risk identification and management – identify trends and recurring risks, escalating material issues where required.
• Brand and reputation protection including enforcement of intellectual property rights and confidentiality agreements.
• Conduct legal research and provide support to the Gov&HR Director in various areas of law, preparing policy, guidance and briefings where required.
• Monitor developments in relevant areas (such as data protection, employment law, licensing, and intellectual property, company law, corporate governance), ensuring areas of the business are kept up to date and react accordingly.
• Prepare and support delivery of practical guidance and training packages at an appropriate level for the wider business to improve legal literacy and reduce avoidable escalation.
• UK-qualified solicitor (or commercial legal equivalent) and 4+ years in-house experience in application of contract and business law.
• Legal drafting proficiency and high standard of written communication, report writing and evaluation.
• Excellent administrative and organisational skills, primarily using MS Office software.
• Ability to work autonomously with sound judgement, taking individual responsibility, under direction and guidance of the Governance & HR Director.
• Experience of process implementation and/or enhancement.
• Confident, assertive and diplomatic communicator with people at all levels.
• Methodical in approach and attentive to detail.
• Experience of supporting Board/Committee meetings (i.e. preparation of papers and formal minutes).
• Understanding of charity law.
• Understanding of business administration or corporate governance (i.e. company secretarial, strategy and policy).

Please submit your CV and Covering Letter to to by no later than Sunday 12 July. Interviews will take place w/c 20 July.