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About the Role

Montagu Evans is seeking a pragmatic and solution-oriented Commercial Counsel to join the Risk & Compliance team. This role will provide practical legal and contractual support on live matters, bids, appointments, and client terms, while also helping to embed a more consistent approach to contractual and legal risk across the business. The Commercial Counsel will help build a scalable internal legal capability by creating clear routes for legal review, improving contract guardrails and playbooks, strengthening contractual standards, and bringing legal insight earlier into client pursuits, bids, and negotiations.

Responsibilities

Establish legal review processes and controls, including thresholds for value, risk, liability, insurance, data, subcontracting, public sector terms and sign-off
Embed the use of AI, automation and legal technology to improve contract review, legal workflows, knowledge sharing and reporting
Improve contract management practices, reviewing internally where appropriate and reducing avoidable reliance on external counsel
Manage external counsel, determining when specialist advice is needed and ensuring support is proportionate, responsive and good value
Educate fee-earners on key contractual safeguards, including liability, scope, payment, indemnities, reliance, data and subcontracting controls
Advise on public sector tenders, panels, frameworks and call-offs, bringing legal insight earlier into bid, pricing and negotiation processes
Design, own and maintain the firm’s contract playbook, standard positions, fallback wording, template clauses, escalation criteria and core legal templates, including engagement terms, appointments, reliance letters, NDAs and subcontractor terms
Ensure contract positions align with PI insurance, risk appetite and claims defensibility
Shape data privacy strategy with the Head Risk, including governance, awareness and policy framework
Advise on technology, AI and data contracting, including data use, confidentiality, processing locations and subcontracted providers
Report recurring contract risks, external counsel usage, savings opportunities and process improvements
Work with Finance, Risk & Compliance, IT, HR, bids and fee-earners to ensure joined-up and commercial support to the business
Exercise independent legal judgement, helping teams decide when to proceed, negotiate, escalate or reject terms
Support the Head of Risk in firmwide special projects from time-to-time, acting as the representative of the Risk and Compliance function when required

Requirements

Qualified solicitor in England and Wales (LPC / SQE)
Commercial contract experience, ideally in a professional services setting
Experience advising internal stakeholders in a commercial, pragmatic and risk-based manner
Experience in real estate, consultancy or public sector contracting would be helpful but is not essential
Excellent communicator, both written and verbal, with the ability to explain legal risk clearly to fee-earners and senior stakeholders
Commercially astute and comfortable balancing legal protection with client service and practical deliverability
Confident managing external legal advisers and assessing whether outsourced support is necessary, proportionate and good value
The energy and judgement to improve processes, create useful contract guidance and be a trusted advisor across the business
A collaborative, approachable style and the desire to engage directly with fee-earners, bid teams and business services colleagues

Skills

Commercial contract experience
Legal judgement
Communication (written and verbal)
Commercial acumen
Stakeholder management
Contract negotiation
Risk assessment
AI and automation in legal workflows
Data privacy
Technology contracting

Location

London
Manchester
Edinburgh
UK

Work Type

Part-time (0.6 or 0.8 FTE)
Flexible working arrangement

Experience Level

Internal legal role
Commercial counsel

Education Level

Qualified solicitor in England and Wales (LPC / SQE)

About the Company

Montagu Evans is a UK property consultancy that helps clients unlock value from complexity.
Our purpose is to bring clarity, creativity, and conviction to the complex.
We are experts who collaborate to create value, not just preserve it and our team is built for impact, not oversight.
We specialise in high-value, complex assets across the property lifecycle, where political, technical or commercial challenges demand a joined-up approach.