Senior Legal Counsel

Asahi UK (AUK), part of Asahi Europe & International Ltd, aims to enrich consumer experiences through innovation, high-quality service and an exceptional portfolio of premium beer, ale and cider brands including, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Asahi Super Dry, Meantime, Fuller’s London Pride and Cornish Orchards. Our aim is to be the leading super premium beer business in the UK, through a brand mix that creates a compelling proposition. At AUK we operate as an end to end business unit responsible for sales, marketing, customer operations, production, supply chain and wholesale operations in the UK & Ireland. For further information, visit www.asahibeer.co.uk

Asahi Europe & International is a subsidiary of Asahi Group Holdings Ltd, a global beverage and food company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan. Employing > 12,000 people, Asahi Europe & International is the custodian for leading super premium lager brands Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Grolsch, Asahi Super Dry, plus international Czech lager brands, Pilsner Urquell and Kozel. The business has world-class brewing and production facilities in 8 markets – UK, NL, ITL, PL, CZ, SK, HU, RO. In most of these markets, we are the leading brewer with full portfolio of famous brands. Commercial operations in other parts of Europe, USA, Canada, LatAm, Africa and Asia are served through our global distribution network. With state-of-the-art facilities, some of the best brewers in the world, quality ingredients, and a culture based on innovation and collaboration, Asahi offers the best quality of beer to beer lovers worldwide. More information can be found at www.asahiinternational.com

Senior Legal Counsel

Asahi UK are currently recruiting for a Senior Legal Counsel to join our Legal team based out of our UK Head Office in Woking.

As a Senior Legal Counsel you will provide a senior level of professional advice and provide experienced support to the business through excellent key stakeholder management to enable the company to achieve its commercial objectives. You will have a priority focus on delivering key tasks and outcomes across commercial functions by applying your senior experience and knowledge of the relevant legal, regulatory, compliance and risk landscape internally and externally. You will provide a senior level of support to the team contributing to the group legal agenda and projects working closely with our HUB legal team.

Key Accountabilities

• Acts as an experienced business partner with all market business unit functions, owning key stakeholder relationships and providing legal advice and support with a commercial focus drawing on above-market team expertise, as appropriate.
• Experienced to review, draft, negotiate, manage and conclude a wide range of contracts and transactions and to achieve best legal outcomes; uses good knowledge of applicable industry laws to advise and identify issues (contract, distribution, consumer). Ensures legal documentation (which may have some complexity) as required to meet business / legal needs in line with the AEI Contracting Policy and our robust internal approval process.
• Senior legal support to any company strategic priorities and initiatives (major projects, transactions, integrations, sustainability schemes, sponsorships, new product launch and marketing and brand management activities ensuring applicable regulations and policies are adhered to, identifies and mitigates legal risks; labelling, marketing and product claims, disputes/litigation).
• Maintains business awareness of and advises on/manages any potentially significant legal risk to the business (Licence to Trade, reputation, legal/ financial condition), supports legal risk mitigation and contributes to above-market reporting / disclosures.
• Implements and maintains group compliance policies/ processes/ programmes (competition, anti-bribery, data protection, whistleblowing, modern slavery), supporting effective & engaging programme to meet internal policies, laws and best practice.
• Support commercial functions with brand and marketing activities including product regulatory and labelling requirements, packaging designs, marketing materials and corporate/commercial communications deployed in market. Monitors and advises on relevant legal and regulatory developments, making business abreast of requirements and new developments.
• Provides legal advice on issues relating to the sale and distribution of Asahi’s products and relatuonships with Asahi’s customers (both on-trade and off-trade)including supporting with key customers agreements, trading agreements, terms and conditions of sale, audit claims, industry standards/codes of practice and related competition law issues.
• Supports AEI business model and any basic IP aspects under local regulations & advertising standards compliance & regulatory which are led by HUB IP counsel.
• Responsible for corporate governance activities for market companies (legal entity management, statutory and management meetings, company statutory records, regulatory filings / registrations; managing key stakeholders and administration aspects)
• Proactively supports group legal projects / initiatives, collaborates adding value by sharing knowledge, creating templates and best practice guidelines / designs and delivers innovative approaches to manage workload and drive legal awareness, efficiencies and to empower colleagues/enable “self-serve” as appropriate with effective training and presentation skills
• Owns and takes responsibility for self-development of Legal Core Competencies and Continuous Professional Development (CPD), proactively seeks line manager review legal work and hands-on support as needed. Knows when to escalate.
• Supports or acts as country Chief Privacy Officer to ensure data protection programme delivery meets requirements with a focus on de-risking any high-risk processing activities, breach response management and third-party risk management and integration, consent management, privacy impact assessments, data subject requests, website and cookie policies/templates.

Qualification Criteria

• Degree level education
• 5 years post qualification experience
• Solid capability among several of: Corporate/Commercial, IP, Litigation, Compliance & Antitrust, Risk Management and International experience an advantage.
• Fluency in English
  

On offer is a competitive basic salary plus a generous package inclusive of,

• Private medical and dental care
• Annual bonus
• Private pension
• Life assurance
• Beer allowance per annum
• 25 days annual leave (plus the opporunity to purchase more days)

We are committed to nurturing a workplace where we celebrate and respect difference, and support everyone to be true to who they are! At Asahi Europe and International we believe you can SHINE AS YOU ARE - no matter your age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, or beliefs. We want to support you to be courageous in your individuality and to know that whoever you are and whatever your circumstances, you can belong with us without having to conform.