Legal Director, Corporate and Commercial

Summary

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Corporate Affairs

• Oversee the full corporate lifecycle of all Group entities across multiple jurisdictions, ensuring structural integrity, governance alignment, and compliance with applicable laws and internal policies.
• Lead and advise on the proper drafting and execution of corporate documents, such as articles of association, memoranda of association, board and manager resolutions, powers of attorney, sale and purchase agreements, transitional services agreements, board minutes, and similar documents.
• Develop and maintain policies, procedures and control frameworks for governance and risk-related matters (e.g., product safety-related operational risks, supply chain, third-party/vendor risk, data/privacy risk intersections).
• Lead and coordinate entity formation, cross-border reorganisations, mergers, demergers and liquidation/strike-off processes in partnership with external counsel, the Family office as well as Finance and Tax.
• Advise on entity rationalisation and restructuring projects to optimize operational, tax and regulatory outcomes.
• Own, design, implement and maintain the Group s delegation of authority (DoA) framework; framework; lead periodic reviews and ensure consistent application across jurisdictions; design and maintain internal controls, approval workflows, and audit ready processes for signature authority, sign off, and DoA exceptions.
• Support the establishment and running of governance fora (e.g., risk committee, working groups), prepare agendas, materials and clear action trackers; drive follow-through with senior stakeholders.
• Provide practical advice to business leaders on risk-based decision-making, escalation, and embedding governance into day-to-day operations.
• Monitor internal controls and remediation plans; coordinate risk testing and assurance activities with internal audit or external reviewers where required.

Commercial Legal

• Provide senior commercial legal advice on customer, supplier and partner contracts, distribution, licensing, master services agreements, and brand/channel agreements relevant to consumer goods/beauty/luxury sectors.
• Develop standardised contracting templates, playbooks and clause libraries to streamline negotiation and reduce legal spend, working collaboratively with our Director, Compliance, Governance and Risk.
• Lead the negotiation and execution of complex cross-border commercial transactions; provide pragmatic commercial risk advice.
• Digitisation and AI
• Drive digital transformation of our legal operations, namely the corporate matters and commercial contract lifecycle management (CLM) through implementation and continuous improvement including tracking, reporting and document retention.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Act as key legal partner to our Director, Compliance, Governance and Risk; Finance and Tax teams on entity-level matters, intercompany agreements, fund flows and tax-driven restructurings, as well as fostering a culture of compliance and improvement.
• Support statutory consolidation, financial reporting, audit requests and regulator engagements relating to entity governance and legal documentation.
• Build strong relationships with the Director (Compliance, Governance & Risk), General Counsel, Finance, People+Culture, Operations, Product Safety/Quality, Procurement and local market leads to create policies and escalations affecting corporate affairs and commercial activities, as well as day-to-day activities.

Team Leadership

• Lead, develop and mentor direct reports and other Legal, Regulatory and Compliance team members (corporate, commercial and company secretarial); set priorities and manage performance.
• Oversee selection, engagement and oversight of external counsel and service providers; drive cost-effective delivery and best practice.
• Champion process improvement, automation and adoption of entity management and CLM systems.

Training & Culture

• Drive the development and delivery of legal training, both as a train the trainer within the Legal, Regulatory & Compliance function and, also, for business leads and functional stakeholders in order to reduce risk in our business operations and embed risk-aware behaviours.
• Support the General Counsel and Director, Compliance, Governance and Risk in communications and change management to promote a culture of governance and accountability across the group.