Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets. Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond. 

We wish to appoint a Legal Counsel to be part of the Legal, Risk & Compliance function (LRC) and who will report directly to the Senior Legal Counsel of Fastmarkets. The focus of this role will be two-fold:

• To provide general legal commercial support to the business on a global basis under the support of the Senior Legal Counsel.  This covers a wide range of issues including intellectual property, information technology, data licensing (in and out), disputes and litigation, data privacy, electronic contracting and employment; and
• To support the Senior Legal Counsel to establish and grow the legal function within Fastmarkets following the acquisition of Fastmarkets by Astorg in late 2022. This is an exciting opportunity to create a legal function to meet the needs of Fastmarkets as an independent, fast-growing business

The role sits in the newly established Legal and Risk Function within Fastmarkets. LRC is responsible for managing legal, risk, compliance, privacy and co sec on a global basis across the business. The General Counsel reports to the CEO and the team is viewed as a genuine business partner and critical to helping the organisation deliver its strategy and this message is set from the top of the company.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

• support and manage the business’ commercial legal issues on a global basis.  This covers a wide range of issues including intellectual property, information technology, data licensing (in and out), disputes and litigation, data privacy, electronic contracting and employment
• support the Senior Legal Counsel and General Counsel in a wide range of areas, including establishing systems, processes and controls to appropriately manage legal risk within the business
• manage the operation of the business’ ‘self-help’ model for the provision of legal services, ensuring continuous improvement measured against KPIs
• work closely with the team’s legal vendors to manage day-to-day service delivery, ensuring that work is triaged and prioritised appropriately
• support Senior Legal Counsel and General Counsel on projects, business implementation and commercial contracts
• adopt a pragmatic, business-orientated approach to the role, with a focus on implementing practical and scalable solutions to support the business in meeting its strategic objectives
• draft, negotiate and advise on a range of agreements, including both customer and supplier contracts
• take the lead on projects where requested
• partner with colleagues in Risk, Compliance and Information Security and CoSec on a range of issues
• represent the LRC at regular stakeholder meetings (for example in steering groups and working parties)
• escalate risk issues quickly to the Senior Legal Counsel
• monitor legal developments and translating them into clear, actionable plans for the business
• horizon scan’ on legal and regulatory change in the business’ key markets

KEY INTERFACES

• Legal, Risk & Compliance
• Senior Leadership Team
• Information Security, Technology
• Sales & Marketing
• Procurement
• Finance
• HR
• Operations
• Product & Strategy
• Events
• Editorial & Research
• Facilities

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world’s leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.

If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on.

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We are looking for an individual who is highly motivated, driven, and have a passion to be part of a fast-paced, successful team. Being a strong team player is also important as well as someone who is happy to work flexibly.

• you will have spent significant time operating either in-house or private practice and have ideally 4-7 years legal experience though other PQE’s with suitable skills may be considered
• you will be a UK qualified solicitor/lawyer
• experience working in a global organisation
• strong experience in commercial contract drafting and negotiation both on sales and supply agreement
• experience with IT procurement contracts, SaaS agreements and MSAs perferred
• ability to produce high quality, well and clearly written documentation, whether contracts, reports or notes of advice
• a commercial, pragmatic, ‘can do’ attitude, robust enough to prioritise efficiently, while bringing stakeholders with them
• problem solving and decision making skills with the ability to analyse complex information to identify the key issues/action points and display excellent judgement
• comfortable working in a small legal team (this role will not suit someone who is only used to the support and infrastructure found in larger in-house teams)
• confident, independent and able to work autonomously
• passionate and enthusiastic about their area of expertise as a business-enabling skill
• confident designing and delivering tailored training on a regular basis

If you're excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don't perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It’s this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common – and they form our Fastmarkets values.

Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

• METRICS DRIVEN. We use insights to improve our customers’ experience and our business performance
   
• ACCOUNTABLE. We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done
   
• GROWTH MINDSET. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency
   
• INCLUSIVE. We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.
   
• CUSTOMER CENTRIC. We are customer-centric in all that we do
   
• COLLABORATIVE. We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You’ve read a little about us – now it’s over to you!

If you like what you’ve read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it’s time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it’s used to determine whether or not you’ll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we’ll ask you on the day.

It’s vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you’re great.