Careers Legal Counsel - English & Academic Team

We are looking for a pragmatic, commercial lawyer to come and help us support our global business with strategic legal advice.

This is an opportunity for you to join Legal & Business Affairs (L&BA), an approachable team which empowers the business to make effective and ethical choices and is enthusiastic about operational excellence to help us continually improve the way we support Cambridge. We are a large yet close-knit team that supports each other, enjoys solving problems, and loves changing the way our colleagues think about Legal, Business Ethics and Compliance. We are seeking team members who share our passion and our values: collaborative, innovative, empowering and responsible.

Why would you join us?

Our mission is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. Which is why every year, we give vital support to millions of people in more than 170 countries around the world. From teachers and learners to researchers and academics, we help to build confidence, unlock potential, and enable success.

We give people the opportunity to show what they've learnt, we spread knowledge, spark enquiry, and aid understanding.

We achieve this by embracing change, and continuously focusing on our customers' needs. And by collaborating, and carefully listening to our customers and to each other, we keep moving forward, keep innovating, and keep finding newer and better ways of doing things.

The key to our work is our colleagues, whose shared commitment enables us to have an ever-greater impact. We are a united, vibrant, and respectful global community of people, and we ensure that every individual is recognised, listened to, and cared for. And because our impact is amplified when our people are empowered, we give everyone the opportunity to develop in their own way. Whether you want a career that is linear, or want to follow your own path, we'll support you, and help give you the resources and training you will need to be bold and take ownership of what you do.

We are particularly focused on inclusion and improving diversity at all levels in the organisation, including for this role. We know that diversity of thinking, backgrounds and approaches leads to innovation and creates an atmosphere where everyone's contribution is valued.

What can we offer you?

The role is a key part of the English team in Legal & Business Affairs, providing support to the global English and Academic product groups on a wide range of matters. You would get to work on new and exciting sales and distribution, licensing and customer and network contracts with great colleagues. It offers a varied caseload, both due to the changing nature of our business, particularly the shift from print to digital, and from products to services, and also the international reach of our work as part of a global organisation with offices in over 50 countries.

On top of this, working with Cambridge will also give you stability. We show our care for our people by supporting them to grow not just professionally but also personally. We promote work-life balance through flexible work schedules, hybrid work arrangements, and generous paid leave. In addition, you will be entitled to our health care benefits with coverage for dependents, group life insurance, and robust wellbeing programmes right from the first day of joining us.

We also care about the world around us. We were a founding catalyst member of Lawyers for Net Zero, and a member of LawWorks (a UK charity working to connect volunteer lawyers with people in need of legal advice, who are not eligible for legal funding), as well as having our own Wellbeing and Green groups within the department and being key contributors to the organisation's sustainability strategy.

What will you do in this role?

In this role, you will report to the Assistant General Counsel - English & Academic. You will provide legal advice and support to colleagues in our global English and Academic product groups in relation to the sale and licensing of our print, digital and assessment products and services, and to our relationships with our customers globally. You will also provide legal advice and support to colleagues in other shared services teams, including Finance.

You will act as a key business partner and support the Assistant General Counsel. You will focus on being commercial and proactive, developing strong working relationships across the shared functions and wider business.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Advising on a wide range of contracts required for the commercial and corporate needs of the English and Academic product groups and colleagues in Finance and other shared services.
• Drafting and reviewing bespoke and non-standard contracts and addenda and supporting the negotiation of all types of commercial agreements.
• Work with other members of the team to propose, develop and implement improvements to our operations and contracting processes.
• Becoming a key contact to the English and Academic product groups and helping to advise on all commercial matters, interpreting the law to provide practical guidance and actionable advice.
• Contributing to L&BA department-wide initiatives and projects and provide input to the creation and maintenance of an efficient, effective digital contracts solution and the use of our other compliance software and tools.