Legal Counsel

Position Purpose

The position's primary purpose is to provide legal advice across the Kathmandu, Rip Curl and Oboz brands, as well as the broader KMD Brands Group. The role is not linked to any one of the brands but instead is required to understand the challenges and support required for each brand and tailor their approach accordingly.

The position will delegate and settle the work of paralegals and the legal counsel (with support from the Head of Legal) and will take on greater responsibility as they get to know and understand the business.

Where interns are placed with the Group Legal function, the Legal Counsel will support with the delegation and review of appropriate project tasks for the intern.

The position reports to the Head of Legal and will complete day to day legal work.

Role Accountabilities

Commercial guidance and contract reviews

• Undertaking contract reviews, obtaining instructions from stakeholders and supporting contract negotiations in line with Group risk appetite
• Engaging with the Group contract management platform (for example through implementation, training and business guidance) and any required improvements
• Contributing to best practice contract templates and checklists
• Escalation of complex/material contracts to Head of Legal as required
• Providing commercial and pragmatic legal advice to all legal queries
• Maintaining up-to-date knowledge of applicable laws and regulations (domestically and internationally)
• Demonstrating a clear understanding of consumer law protections as they relate to marketing claims, product quality issues and management of same

Privacy

• Primary responsibility for privacy impact assessments and privacy threshold assessments including assessment of privacy risks and advice on formation of risk treatments
• Advising the business on privacy queries raised and providing training and education to support the development of the organisations' privacy maturity
• Leading the implementation of and embedding of privacy by design/privacy by default

Intellectual Property

• Supporting the management of Intellectual Property portfolio
• Providing advice to the Group on copyright and intellectual property issues
• Improving and delivering the trademark and copyright training program for the Group

Compliance

• Building relationships with key stakeholders in product, marketing, sourcing, IT, buying, commercial and compliance to encourage a compliance mindset (consumer law, cartel, privacy, contracts, pricing compliance)
• Identifying areas for improvement and growth through the development of policies and preparation and delivery of training on compliance matters
• Ensuring major projects align with legal and compliance frameworks

International

• Understanding at a high level the legal regimes applying across jurisdictions in which the Group operates
• Providing support on regional legal questions (including through engagement of external counsel)

Mentoring paralegals and interns

• Supporting the delegation of work to paralegals and other legal counsel
• Engaging with third party universities around the engagement of interns, onboarding through IT, introduction of interns to the business, coordination for work from Legal and other teams (for example ESG), provision of formal and informal feedback as required for coursework, offboarding

Other duties are undertaken as may be requested by the Executive, or Head of Legal from time to time

Essential Qualities

• Between 5-8 years' legal experience with a focus on:
  • Negotiating and drafting commercial contracts (SaaS, services agreements, contractor agreements, event sponsorship, marketing etc)
  • Understanding and applying commercial risk appetites to provide pragmatic legal advice
  • Application of privacy law (Australia, New Zealand knowledge of GDPR)
• Experience in mentoring early career practitioners and paralegals
• Ability to work autonomously to fast-moving deadlines and prioritise and delegate workloads accordingly
• Experience in building strong relationships with a range of business owners across brands and regions and customizing legal advice to fit
• Identification of matters that require escalation to the Head of Legal and/or external counsel
• Clear and concise drafting skills
• Sound judgement and analytical skills
• Commitment to ongoing professional development
• Bonus for previous experience in:
  • Consumer Law compliance (marketing and product claims, consumer guarantees)
  • Brand protection (Intellectual Property)

Required

• Qualification: LLB or higher
• Experience: between 6-10 years PQE in private practice or in-house (or combination of the two)
• Admission to practice as a lawyer in Victoria, Australia