POSITION: Head of Legal - Litigation

POSTING END DATE: 01/01/2025

LOCATION: Whitley/Gaydon (UK)

SALARY: Competitive

At JLR, we're on a continual journey to reimagine the future of modern luxury, and we want you to be part of it. Through our exquisite and timeless house of brands – Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar – we're defining a new approach to sustainability and providing exceptional experiences. As a leader here, you have the opportunity to influence the way we think, providing your unique insight and vision for a better future. It's time to become a proud creator.

THE ROLE
 
Key Responsibilities

Dispute Resolution

• Manage a wide range of strategic and complex disputes including commercial, consumer, financial, IP, product liability and class action cases. This is a global role (excluding some regions) with the opportunity to work on high-value disputes across several jurisdictions
• Ensure alternative methods of dispute resolution are considered, conducting effective negotiation, mediations and settlements when appropriate
• Provide timely, accurate and relevant advice regarding pending litigation matters and potential litigation risk and updates to key stakeholders
• Ensure compliance with litigation/regulatory processes such as e-discovery, disclosure and records retention/litigation holds
• Provide a global mindset and foresight of potential global impacts of strategy and decision in litigation matters
• Make sure that litigation management and delivery plans align with enterprise priorities and balance risk with commercial decisions
• Instruct and manage outside counsel on litigation / arbitration and related matters to efficiently supervise all aspects of outside counsel relationship, including resource levels and managing cost

Team leader/managerial skills

• Manage the litigation team and supervise their work. Lead a team of c.4 litigators to handle the portfolio through coaching, guiding and engaging a high-performance culture
• Responsible for efficiently managing the team’s caseload by monitoring capacity, re allocating cases as needed and ensure appropriate resources are in place

Advisory

• Advise the business on potential litigation risks and mitigation strategies, working closely with the Regulatory aspects and other members of the legal team
• Ensure all relevant stakeholders have been consulted and understand litigation risk and that can be used to inform product creation and engineering through clear, and understandable language and advice

More Generally

• Take strategic input and direction from the General Counsel – Litigation and Regulatory following individual and collective board collaboration
• Accountable for building learning and continuous improvement into all JLR processes following internal or external case precedents
• Promoting legal, compliance and risk management best practice on behalf of the chapter throughout the enterprise
• Staying up-to-date with changes to legislation, particularly in relation to laws, rules and regulations that directly affect JLR and the automotive industry

Key Interactions

• Litigation and Regulatory team
• Legal and Compliance team
• Communications and PR teams
• Treasury, Finance and Insurance teams
• Executive Board Members – Commercial, Engineering, Quality, and others for relevant litigation
• Senior leaders across all functions as needed

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Qualified senior solicitor/counsel/partner role depending on their litigation experience
• In-house and/or automotive experience would be ideal but not essential
• Strong experience conducting large disclosure/discovery projects including using e-disclosure platforms
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to process information and present the output in a way which is easily understandable by non-lawyers at all levels of the business
• Excellent commercial acumen, with the ability to identify legal and commercial risks and provide commercial and practical advice
• Comfortable challenging others with excellent influencing and engagement skills - able to challenge existing thinking in a positive way whilst building credibility and trust through experience and personal style
• Able to deliver quality, consistency and attention to detail in a complex, highly demanding environment
• Ability to influence at a range of levels of the organisation, maintaining a professional and approachable attitude
• Experience working collaboratively with other technical specialists outside of legal functions
• Experience as a team leader, supervising, developing and mentoring talent
• Self-motivated, ability to prioritise, meet deadlines by being organised across the team and having right process in place

Personal Profile

• Demonstrates our Creators' Code behaviours of Customer Love, Unity, Integrity, Growth and Impact

Creating Modern Luxury requires a modern approach to work. At JLR, hybrid working is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement providing employees flexibility around how, when and where they work. Some roles require more on-site work, but details of this can be discussed with the hiring manager during the interview stage.

We work hard to nurture a culture that is inclusive and welcoming to all. We understand candidates may require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process. Please discuss these with your recruiter so we can accommodate your needs.

JLR is committed to equal opportunity for all.

Please be aware that we may close this vacancy for applications before the stated deadline if we receive a high volume of interest. We strongly advise you to submit your application as early as possible.