Commercial Legal Counsel

Company Description:

McDonald's is the largest family restaurant in the world, serving approximately 69 million customers across 36,000 restaurants a day: in more than 100 countries. The UK & Ireland market is one of the most successful entities across the wider business, serving on average 4 million people a day. It has operated in UK since 1974 and the business is growing continuously with more than 1,400 restaurants and over 154,000 employees.

McDonald’s UK & Ireland has a proven track record of investing in the development of its employees and offering flexibility as part of its dedication to being a modern and progressive company. Every year, it invests over £40 million in developing people, giving every one of its employees the opportunity to take part in structured training.

McDonald’s buys ingredients from over 17,500 British and Irish farmers and spends over £1.1billion annually on its food and packaging requirements. McDonald’s is committed to supporting British and Irish farmers to ensure it can continue to source many of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland.

McDonald’s is a market leader in its field, striving for the highest standard of quality, speed and restaurant experience. Re-generation of our restaurant infrastructure, covering digital ordering, re-imaging and dual-point service make working at McDonald’s more exciting than ever!

We are dedicated to using our scale for good: good for people, our industry and the planet. From bold recycling initiatives and sustainable sourcing efforts to our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, we see every day as a chance to have a genuine impact on our customers, our people and our partners.

We're a people business just as much as we are a restaurant business. We strive to be the most inclusive brand in the world by building diverse teams who create delicious, feel-good moments that are easy for everyone to enjoy. Joining McDonald's means thinking big every day and preparing for a career that can have impact around the world.

Company Vision and Culture

Our Global vision is to build a better McDonald’s and, in the UK, and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.

McDonald’s is defined by its culture. Our culture shapes and informs everything we think and everything we do. Our culture influences the way we interact with each other, and how we interact with customers, franchisees and suppliers. Our culture motivates and inspires us to attract and retain great talent, creating positive, energising, exceptional working environment for us all.

Our values drive our culture and shape our beliefs, our priorities and our actions. They influence the decisions we make, how we treat one another and how we show up as a brand to the world.

Serve: We put our customers and our people first

Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone

Integrity: We do the right thing

Community: We are good neighbours

Family: We get better together

Job Description:

2 Year Fixed Term Contract

The Opportunity 
We are seeking a bright, enthusiastic and well-organised lawyer to join our high performing, dynamic and friendly Legal team. The role would involve handling the full range of commercial legal matters in the UK and Ireland, supporting a number of departments across the business, including Delivery, Digital/IT, Marketing, HR and Supply Chain.  

What will my accountabilities be?

• Preparing, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements including goods and services agreements and data processing agreements.
• Working collaboratively with the McDelivery team and supporting them with legal queries in relation to our third party operators such as UberEats, Deliveroo and Just Eat.
• Working collaboratively with the IT and Digital teams to provide legal advice on a variety of matters relating to IT and Digital projects, including preparing detailed contracts, SAAS agreements and MSA’s with IT/Digital suppliers.
• Providing IP and marketing law support to the Marketing team in respect of advertising campaigns.
• Undertaking data protection related work, including advising on GDPR compliance within new projects and updating data protection notices as applicable.
• Providing day to day advice to colleagues across the business on a wide variety of other commercial issues including in respect to, supply chain matters, employment matters, and finance, tax and competition law matters. All of this will involve working collaboratively with legal and business colleagues to manage commercial transactions, identifying risks and providing solutions-driven, commercial advice.
• Proactively identifying legal trends and regulatory changes to enhance company policies and procedures, develop communication and training programmes and ensure awareness and compliance across the business.
• Participating and contributing to cross-functional working teams on projects involving strategic business initiatives and risk management strategies.
• Working with and managing external lawyers supporting the team on varying projects/matters.

What Team will I be part of and who are my customers?

The Legal Counsel position will serve as a member of the Legal Team supporting all departments across the McDonald’s UK and Ireland business, including Digital, Marketing and Supply Chain.

Qualifications:

What background do I need to have?

• The applicant should be a qualified solicitor with substantial PQE.
• Expertise in preparing, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts is required and prior in-house or secondment experience would be an advantage.
• The team is looking for someone who is positive, self-motivated, enthusiastic, authentic, pragmatic, open-minded and curious about learning and gaining experience in new legal and business areas. The role would suit someone who will enjoy working in a high performance team and directly with business stakeholders to help find solutions to issues.
• The applicant will need to be an effective communicator (including having strong drafting skills and the ability to clearly and concisely explain concepts to non-legal stakeholders); a relationship builder; efficient; and able to see the big picture by providing commercially sound advice.

Additional Information:

At McDonald’s we are People from all Walks of Life... 

People are at the heart of everything we do, and they make the McDonald’s experience. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture that means people can be their best authentic self in our restaurants and offices, which helps us to better serve our customers. We have a strong heritage of diversity and representation within our communities, which we are proud of. The diversity of our people, customers, Franchisees and suppliers gives us strength.

We do not tolerate inequality, injustice or discrimination of any kind.  These are hugely important issues and a brand with our reach and relevance means we have a very meaningful role to play.

We also recognise our responsibility as a large employer to continue being active in our communities, helping to develop skills and drive aspirations that will help people to be more aware of the world of work and more successful within it, whether with McDonald’s or elsewhere."

#LI-Hybrid