City St George’s, University of London seeks to appoint an inaugural General Counsel and Director of Governance and Legal Services. City, University of London and St George’s, University of London merged on 1st August 2024 to enable us to become a powerful multi-faculty institution with a distinctive focus on professional education and research at the frontier of practice across health, business, law, creativity, communications, science and technology. We are one of the largest higher education destinations for London students.

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the General Counsel and Director of Governance and Legal Services will be a member of the University’s Senior Leadership Team and will work closely with the University President and with a wide range of executive and non-executive colleagues. The creation of this new senior leadership role reflects the increased scale of the combined University and the enhanced complexity of our academic offering. We seek an individual who will shape a team to ensure high-quality legal services to the University, including developing in-house provision alongside the oversight of external legal resources, the support of high-quality governance and secretariat services, and oversight of risk management, business continuity and organisational resilience.    

We are seeking an outstanding individual to fulfil this key role. You will be qualified to practise as a solicitor or barrister with significant post-qualification experience in dealing with complex, significant matters across a wide range of legal and related areas. You will be adept at identifying and managing potential and current risk factors while ensuring City St George’s is best placed in its compliance requirements as a higher education institution. Through legal expertise, you will also shape, support and influence commercial, and other contracts, agreements and partnerships across the University. 

The successful appointee will possess exceptional leadership, communication and relationship-building skills and be able to deliver innovation while respecting tradition in a complex environment and through successful consensus-building. They will have a passion for higher education and align with the values of City St George’s and the mission to create a truly inclusive university.  

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion in all activities, processes, and culture for our whole community, including staff, students and visitors. We welcome applications, regardless of background, belief, identity or protected characteristic. We encourage and welcome applications from diverse candidates. We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for disabled applicants. We particularly welcome applications from black, asian or ethnic minority candidates who are currently under-represented at the leadership level.  

We offer a sector-leading salary, pension scheme and other benefits including a comprehensive package of staff development. 

Closing date: 9 am (GMT) Monday, 4th November 2024

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to visit the University on Tuesday 10th December, and the final interviews will be held on Wednesday 18th December.

For an application pack and details on how to apply, please visit https://candidates.perrettlaver.com/vacancies/, quoting reference number 7528.

For a confidential conversation about the role, please email Xavier Thomason at xavier.thomason@perrettlaver.com.