Interim Head of Legal

Head of Legal - Fixed Term Contract for 12 months

Location: UK (Reading)
Type: Employee / Hybrid

Role Purpose

The Head of Legal is a management and delivery role responsible for the day-to-day running of the legal function. The role sits between the General Counsel and the wider legal team, providing the operational management layer that allows the function to deliver consistently, responsively and to a measurable standard. It is distinct from the General Counsel role, which retains strategic legal oversight, board-level risk management and executive advisory responsibilities.

The successful candidate will bring order, discipline and a clear service model to a function that currently lacks a dedicated management layer, and will act as the first point of escalation for the team and the business.

Key Responsibilities

TEAM MANAGEMENT AND DELIVERY:

• Lead the day-to-day management of the legal team, including workload allocation, matter triage, prioritisation and tracking
• Own the UK, Prague and India operating model, including handoff discipline, escalation rules and cross-border coordination
• Provide people management for the team, including regular one-to-ones, coaching, performance monitoring and development
• Act as the first escalation point for the team, resolving matters at the appropriate level and escalating only genuinely strategic matters to the General Counsel

STAKEHOLDER SERVICE:

• Own stakeholder service delivery, including response standards, communication discipline and adherence to agreed service levels
• Maintain clear ownership of matters so that business stakeholders always know who is responsible for their request
• Build and sustain effective working relationships with business unit leads across Sales, Marketing, Professional Services, Finance and HR

EXTERNAL COUNSEL AND COST CONTROL:

• Manage and oversee external counsel spend, including instruction, oversight and cost management
• Operate a clear mandate and approval framework for matters referred externally, reducing unmanaged outsourcing

OPERATING DISCIPLINE AND IMPROVEMENT:

• Own the matter tracker and feed the function's KPI dashboard, managing the team to agreed standards of responsiveness, quality and backlog health
• Implement and maintain intake standards, service tiers and triage rules
• Drive process improvements, template standardisation and legal operations discipline
• Execute legal risk controls, identify emerging risks and escalate them appropriately

Skills & Attributes

• A practical, commercially minded operator who can bring structure and discipline to a busy function
• Strong people-management and coaching skills, with the ability to develop and motivate a dispersed team
• Excellent prioritisation, organisation and stakeholder-management skills
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, private equity-backed environment undergoing change
• A delivery focus, with the judgement to know what to handle, what to delegate and what to escalate

Qualifications & Experience

• A qualified lawyer (England and Wales, or an equivalent jurisdiction) with substantial post-qualification experience, including in-house experience
• A strong commercial and technology background, ideally gained in a software, SaaS or technology business
• Proven experience managing a legal team, ideally across more than one location or jurisdiction
• Demonstrable experience of managing external counsel and controlling legal spend

What Success Looks Like

• A functioning intake and triage model, with every matter carrying a named owner and deadline
• Consistent adherence to agreed service standards and a measurable reduction in escalations reaching the General Counsel
• A clearer, more accountable UK, Prague and India operating model with disciplined handoffs
• Controlled and well-governed external counsel spend
• A legal team that is better managed, better supported and more trusted by the business

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