Legal Counsel and Company Secretary

Who are tes?

TES Global’s story is an extraordinary one: its digital community on TES Connect is one of the fastest growing of any profession globally, and it boasts a 100-year heritage at the centre of the teaching and education community, with offices in London, San Francisco and Sydney. Today, TES Global has over 6.9 million teacher members in 197 countries across the globe and connects more than 72 million teachers and students. Up to 6.3 million resources are downloaded from the site a week, 13 a second. Home to more than 800,000 individually crafted teaching resources developed by teachers for teachers, this unparalleled collection helps to guide, inform and inspire educators around the world.

This wealth of resources allows education professionals to share and benefit from one another's resources and lesson plans, driving excellence in the education sector.

Role Overview

Contribute to the success of Tes and its subsidiaries through the provision of a professional in-house service as General Counsel in your capacity as a certified solicitor to provide legal advice on all commercial aspects of the organisation.

Undertake the role as Company Secretary, ensuring compliance with all appropriate company legislative requirements.

Tes is a private equity owned business, primarily based in the UK with approximately 600 employees in offices in Central London and Sheffield.

What will you be doing?

• To lead and maintain focussed, commercial and fit for purpose legal advice on all commercial aspects of the role through the provisioning of internal and external specialist expertise as appropriate within financial budgets in a timely manner.
• Responsible for negotiating, reviewing and drafting commercial contracts for the Group to ensure consistency.
  Take ownership of legal compliance and rights management for the group.
• To assist the business in understanding and complying with commercial legal agreements and legal requirements, and to provide regular updates of developments in the legal and regulatory environment.
• Providing legal support on a range of corporate transactions, such as asset and share sales, disposals, joint ventures, collaboration agreements, royalty and licensing agreements and outsourcing transactions.
• To be the point of reference for advice and assistance with other matters such as bribery act, data protection, advertising and promotions, e-commerce, and ad hoc queries.
• Dealing with Intellectual Property issues.
• Facilitate advice from overseas legal providers regarding relocations, secondments and foreign entities where appropriate.
• Managing instructions to external counsel (including, property, employment, litigation, banking and other specialist areas of law).

Company Secretary to the Board, Committees and subsidiaries.

• Responsible for compliance with Company Law, the Listing Rules and DTRs, Corporate Governance Code and Remuneration Principles, and advising the Chairman and Committee Chairman on issues arising.
• Responsible for establishing and managing procedures for sound corporate governance.
• Arranging and managing General Meetings, and liaising with proxy voting advisory agencies and shareholders to ensure compliance with all reporting filing and documentation requirements.
• Provide an effective service to the CEO and the board, keeping them fully informed of their responsibilities.
• Acting as signatory for required legal documentation.
• Preparation of relevant sections of the Annual Report.
• Managing share incentive plans.

The role also includes the following ancillary duties:

• Insurance administration
• Property management (in relation to leases)
• Maintenance of risk register
• General compliance (Health and Safety; Business Continuity Planning; Data Protection Officer)

What are we looking for?

• Qualified Solicitor in England and Wales with 5 years+ PQE
  Strong academic education and  qualifications
• Training and practice experience at a leading commercial private practice firm is essential.
• In-house experience is essential, either from an in-house role or a secondment.
• Previous experience of operating at senior executive level with a demonstrable ability to gain trust and influence at Board and senior leadership level.
• Experience of working in (or advising) companies listed on the main market, and a thorough knowledge of the Listing Rules, DTRs and the Corporate Governance Code.

Experience of intellectual property, information technology, data protection and corporate law would be a distinct advantage

What do you get in return?

An excellent basic salary, 25 days annual leave, 3% pension after probation, State of the art city centre offices, Access to a range of benefits vis perkbox, Discounted parking for city centre, remote working options, a people centric culture all driven to achieve the same goal, a supportive and consultative environment, a dynamic working environment.