Legal Counsel, Data Protection and Commercial (Maternity Cover 12-Months)
An exciting fixed-term opportunity for a data protection and commercial lawyer to join an in-house legal team within an award-winning publishing house.
We are looking for a talented data protection/commercial lawyer to join a highly effective team, reporting to the Head of Legal.
You will work closely with other members of the Legal & Compliance team to provide legal and data protection advice to internal stakeholders across the company’s business divisions. This role will also cover general commercial negotiations and drafting services to the company and its subsidiaries. The successful candidate will also act as the liaison between the businesses and its external trademark attorneys for the management of the Pan Macmillan trademark portfolio.
Key tasks of the role include but are not limited to:
Data protection
- Support and advise the company on compliance with Data Protection laws
- Keep the company updated on new data protection measures and guidance and provide training to data handling staff.
- Liaise with data protection advisers across the corporate group on intra-group data transfers and data protection issues.
General commercial
- Review, advise on and draft a broad range of commercial contracts across all business divisions (including but not limited to publishing and rights agreements; services agreements; technology contracts and software licenses; and promotional and charity partnership agreements)
- Advise on a range of other commercial issues (including but not limited to copyright issues; prize promotions; advertising law compliance; and social media).
Trade marks
- Supervise management of Pan Macmillan’s trademark portfolio and act as a liaison between external counsel and Pan Macmillan’s internal business stakeholders
The ideal candidate will be:
- A qualified solicitor (ideally 2 – 4 PQE)
- Working with stakeholders at all levels
- Advising on intellectual property rights (particularly copyright law) and data protection matters
- Drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial contracts as mentioned above
- A strong and effective communicator with influencing capability
- A conscientious and highly organised team player
We’d love it if you had:
- Prior experience in iManage
- A passion/love for reading and books
- Familiarity with Google for Work and Microsoft applications
This is a full-time, fixed-term role, and will be based in our offices in Farringdon, London, with some flexibility to work from home each week.
All applicants must be able to demonstrate the right to live and work in the UK in order to be considered for this role.
Closing date for applications: 1 October 2023
Approximate start date: December 2023 / January 2024
Some of the benefits we offer:
- 25 days annual leave increasing with years of service + bank holidays
- Generous pension scheme
- 13 weeks company sick pay and discounted private medical insurance
- Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and Mental Health First Aiders
- Life insurance – 4 x base salary
- Group income protection scheme
- Flexible working hours and summer hours (early finish during summer months)
- Volunteer Days and Faith Day
- Learning, development and training opportunities including mentoring
- 75% off all Macmillan books and regular staff book sales (highly reduced rates)
- Season ticket loan/advance
- Onsite health checks, flu jabs and massages
- Eyecare contributions
- Discounts on shopping, Tastecard+ and gym memberships; Christmas club savings
- Free breakfast and fruit at our office
- Seasonal parties, author visits and signings
- Give As You Earn
- Employee referral scheme
We are highly committed to equality and diversity. We welcome applications from all individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. Our full Diversity & Inclusion Pledge is available here https://www.panmacmillan.com/about/diversity-and-inclusion
Please note that all personal information which we process in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice available here: https://panmacmillan.com/recruitment-privacy-notice. Please read our Recruitment Privacy Notice before submitting your application
- Department
- MPIL Legal Team
- Locations
- Farringdon, London
- Remote status
- Hybrid Remote

Farringdon, London
Workplace & Culture
We pride ourselves not just in winning awards and publishing the bestselling books in the market, but also on the wellbeing and satisfaction of everyone who works with us. This is a company where all voices are heard and new, creative ideas are welcomed.
We seek to recruit and develop talent from all backgrounds, creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. This has a profound impact on our perspective and ideas, encouraging us to learn from each other and to nurture the best talent leading us to publish books that appeal to the broadest possible readership.
Our mission is to publish the very best authors and illustrators successfully and sustainably because we believe that books enrich people’s lives and help build empathy and understanding.
Our values
To ensure that everyone who works at Pan Macmillan delivers on our mission and shares the same goals, we have developed a set of values that define our working culture and are the foundation of our publishing. These values were derived in consultation with the whole company and they are deliberately illustrated in a circle to underline a lack of hierarchy in importance.
Legal Counsel, Data Protection and Commercial (Maternity Cover 12-Months)
An exciting fixed-term opportunity for a data protection and commercial lawyer to join an in-house legal team within an award-winning publishing house.
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