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Commercial Associate

Employer
Osborne Clarke LLP
Location
Reading
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
17 Jun 2019

View more

Vacancy Type
Solicitors – Private Practice
Contract Type
Permanent
Practice Area
Commercial
Experience Level
0-2yrs PQE, 2-5yrs PQE
Role Classification
Lawyer

Job Details

"They are consistently impressive and very helpful." – Chambers & Partners

We are looking for an Associate to join our highly regarded Commercial team in the Thames Valley, focusing on high value commercial contracts and advertising law work. This is an exciting opportunity to join a Chambers and Legal 500 rated team and advise on high value, strategically important and often international projects within a supportive and collegiate environment.

The practice

Our Commercial group provides leading-edge business solutions to clients, ranging from high growth start-ups to multinationals and covering the entire spectrum of commercial activity. Our Thames Valley team has a strong reputation with large global clients requiring sophisticated cross-jurisdictional advice.

We have considerable expertise in a range of key sectors, including energy, healthcare, transport, telecoms and financial services and particularly digital business. Other areas of strength include retail and manufacturing. We are known for our outstanding expertise in advising on highly complex commercial contracts across these sectors. We have considerable expertise in a range of key sectors. In the energy sector, we have advised in relation to everything from smart meter procurements, agreements for connection to electricity distribution networks, high value procurements of essential equipment such as switchgear; to advice on the legislative framework and interpretation of Ofgem licence conditions. Our premier client base across the digital business sector, where we also enjoy a fantastic reputation, includes the likes of Microsoft, Vodafone, Freeview Connected, Deutsche Telekom, the BBC, Virgin Media, YouTube, ThomsonReuters, BT Vision, Facebook and Channel 4.

This role will also have a focus on advertising, marketing and sponsorship work. In this space we act for an impressive roster of advertiser, agency and media-owner clients, such as Facebook, Expedia, WeightWatchers, Oath and News UK.

To find out more about the practice, please see the link below:

http://www.osborneclarke.com/services/commercial/

The team

"As lawyers I find them straightforward, pragmatic and enjoyable to work with" – Chambers & Partners

Spanning all three of our UK based offices and working closely together, the Commercial department is made up of almost 50 lawyers in total. The Thames Valley Commercial team is currently made up of 1 Legal Director, 1 Senior Associate, 2 Associates, 1 Trainee Solicitor and 2 Paralegals and it is actively expanding. The team is led by Anna Williams who is recognised in the legal directories and industry for her focus on advertising and sponsorship work as well as her focus on digital business clients.

The work

You will have the opportunity to work on projects in various sectors, with the ability to choose the areas in which you would like to develop your expertise. Examples of recent projects are:

  • Advising a FTSE 100 company on the outsourcing of a significant part of its European warehousing operations.
  • Advising household name retailers on their sales channels structures (franchises and concessions) and manufacturers on their routes to market, including agency and distribution agreements, working alongside colleagues in our European and US offices
  • Advising a defence contractor on a long-term agreement for the provision of strategic equipment and related maintenance services
  • Advising on a major strategic alliance and sponsorship arrangement between a well-known brand and a Formula One racing team to combine sponsorship advantages with the development of data analytic offerings.
  • Acting for energy retailers and a DNO on a range of commercial and energy regulatory issues
  • Advising a range of clients on privacy, advertising and contractual issues associated with AdTech, programmatic advertising, customer audience segmentation and targeting etc. Clients in this area have included Oath, Integral Ad Science, Facebook, Sonabi and YuMi, and the advice we provide such clients is often on major international projects.
  • For over five years now we have provided a key advertising legal review service to Expedia covering all marketing communications (above and below the line) created by a number of key Expedia brands including Expedia and Hotels.com in relation to their EMEA campaigns.
  • Advising Oath on matters including advertising and privacy issues connected with its platforms and products. We have also been assisting with the negotiation of our client’s advertising terms and conditions with business partners and clients, as well as advising on internal policies relating to matters such as sensitive ad targeting and customer segmentation which are all key to successful AdTech.
  • Providing a range of advice to L’Oreal in respect of its UK prize promotion activities. This review function is totally outsourced to OC and the remit of our appointment has now also extended to more of L'Oreal's internal sub-brands and divisions.
  • Advising the format owner on the licensing arrangements to enable the 2016 reboot of the TV programme Robort Wars.
  • Hoopla is the "Netflix for libraries", allowing users to use library cards to access digital copies of films, music and books. We advised this new entrant to the UK entertainment industry on all aspects of its launch, from a website compliance exercise to its agreements with content owners.
  • We acted for CloudTalent, a cloud advisory business, in connection with its sale to Avanade Inc. (jointly owned by Accenture and Microsoft). The acquisition is intended to strengthen Avanade’s Microsoft-focused infrastructure and cloud business in the UK and its expansion of services across Western Europe.

Technical skills and experience

You will have a range of commercial law experience gained either at a city, national or large regional law firm recognised for its commercial law practice, or in-house. In particular you will have strong drafting skills, ideally have experience of advising on a range of commercial contracts, privacy matters and adverting work, and be able to provide concise, commercial advice to clients whilst really getting to know their sector as well as their business. Due to the nature of the work and the structure of the team, we are looking for an Associate, although we will consider candidates with more or less experience.

Your career development

Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme. At each stage of your career this provides you with:

  • clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress;
  • high quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure;
  • thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
  • robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
  • reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.

Salary and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits.

For more information or to apply

At Osborne Clarke we welcome direct applications - if you would like any further information about the role, or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Emily Webb in the Recruitment team on 0117 917 3072 or emily.webb@osborneclarke.com.

At Osborne Clarke, we are known for our open and inclusive culture. We believe that by investing in the diversity and wellbeing of our people, we create an envi

Company

Osborne Clarke LLP is energetic, forward thinking and client focused. Refreshingly unstuffy, this is an open and collaborative environment and we place great emphasis on teamwork rather than traditional hierarchies.

We use our experience, expertise and imagination to give clients tailored, practical, commercial advice that makes a difference to their business. When it comes to giving clients an opinion, we won't sit on the fence.

We know several important industry sectors inside out and we have particular expertise in Digital Business, Energy and Utilities, Financial Services and Real Estate & Infrastructure. Our International reach gives our clients access to global expertise.

Our mix of home-grown talent coupled with our strategic lateral recruitment activity delivers our vision.

Our comprehensive learning and development programme coupled with our competitive benefits package means we attract and retain the best talent. Development of the best talent is at the heart of what we do.

If you've got the drive, talent and imagination to succeed, we'd love to hear from you.

We know where we are going. Join us.

Company info
Website
Telephone
+44(0) 117 917 3000
Location
2 Temple Back East
Temple Quay
Bristol
BS1 6EG
GB

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