Interim Corporate Counsel (10 Months Mat Cover)

Description

The role in a nutshell
UNiDAYS, the world's leading Student Affinity Network, is seeking an experienced commercial lawyer to join us as Interim Corporate Counsel for a minimum of 12 months maternity cover contract. You will be the primary commercial lawyer supporting our student-verification platform operating across 118 regions and our 800+ global brand partnerships.
This is a hands-on role in a fast-moving commercial environment.  We are looking for a strong commercial contracting operator who combines sound legal judgment with exceptional organisation, attention to detail and stakeholder management skills.  

Success in this role will come from being highly organised, responsive and pragmatic.  You will be expected to manage a significant volume of commercial agreements, maintain visibility across the contracting pipeline, meet agreed SLAs and build strong relationships with stakeholders across the business.

You will be comfortable rolling up your sleeves, working directly in Salesforce and DocuSign CLM and balancing competing demands without losing attention to detail.

Reporting to the Global General Counsel, you will partner closely with senior commercial leaders and colleagues across New Business, Commercial, Finance and Operations to ensure contracting processes move efficiently while remaining accurate, organised and commercially effective. 

Requirements

What we need from you

• Qualified lawyer (UK or equivalent); minimum 5+ years' post-qualification experience.
• Significant in-house commercial contracting experience within a fast-paced business environment.
• Demonstrable experience managing a high-volume commercial contracting workload.
• Proven track record of consistently meeting or exceeding legal SLA targets.
• Experience negotiating both company paper and third-party paper across a broad range of commercial agreements.
• Proven experience managing multiple active negotiations simultaneously while maintaining quality and responsiveness.
• Strong operational mindset with experience managing contracting workflows, reporting and process improvement.
• Experience supporting demanding commercial stakeholders in deadline-driven environments.
• Experience producing management reporting and KPI dashboards relating to contracting volume, turnaround times, SLA performance and legal operations metrics.
• Strong attention to detail and exceptional organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple competing priorities simultaneously.
• Strong commercial judgment with the ability to distinguish between material risks that require escalation and issues that can be resolved pragmatically to keep business moving.  

Desirable experience

• Experience with affiliate partnerships, CPA models or performance-based digital marketing agreements.
• Experience supporting multi-jurisdictional commercial operations.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management systems and commercial workflow tools.
• Prior experience with Salesforce and DocuSign CLM.

Personal attributes

• Pragmatic, commercially minded and highly resilient.
• Comfortable making risk-based decisions and operating with a high degree of autonomy.
• Able to remain calm, professional and solutions-focused when managing urgent requests, changing priorities and strong stakeholder personalities.
• Confident building credibility quickly with senior stakeholders and navigating situations where commercial teams are operating under significant time pressure.
• Strong negotiation and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex legal issues into clear, commercially relevant advice.
• Highly organised, process-oriented and naturally detail-focused.
• Low ego, collaborative and willing to roll up your sleeves when needed.
• A dependable team player who takes ownership and follows through on commitments.