Principal Solicitor

At Scottish Enterprise, we operate at the point where public and private sectors come together – working across Scotland and internationally to help drive economic growth in a global context.

Our principal solicitors play a central role in how our organisation manages legal risk.

This is a varied role, working across a range of legal specialisms including public law and governance, subsidy, real estate, company and commercial law, corporate finance, data protection, procurement and litigation.

As a Principal Solicitor, you’ll provide strategic advice on changes to the law and how they apply to our organisation. You’ll identify legal risks in day-to-day operations and help solve complex problems, so we can deliver impactful and often innovative projects.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Advising and delivering on a broad mix of legal matters – identifying and assessing legal risks, providing advice to colleagues across the organisation on existing and emerging legal requirements, and helping deliver significant transactions
• Problem solving will be a central part of the role
• Instructing and managing work of external law firms, including associated legal budgets
• Identifying opportunities to improve how legal services are delivered across the organisation and helping to put those improvements into practice

Essential requirements for this role:

• Ideally, this will include experience in one or more of the following areas:
  • public law
  • governance
  • subsidy
  • real estate
  • company and commercial law
  • corporate finance
  • procurement
  • data protection
  • litigation.

Other essential requirements include:

• The ability to identify and advise on a wide range of legal risks at both project and organisational level
• Confidence in taking a high degree of responsibility as part of a structured and supportive legal team
• Strong communication and influencing skills, and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of people both inside and outside the organisation
• Responsibility for the effective delivery of routine transactions, while also working with external law firms and legal colleagues on more complex projects
• The ability to prioritise work efficiently
• Keen intellectual curiosity and an interest in learning about new areas of law and business, reflecting the breadth of the role and the nature of the organisation
• Strong commercial awareness

Ideally, but not essentially, you’ll also have:

• Political awareness and a good understanding of the public regulatory framework. If this is new to you, we’ll support you to build your knowledge and experience in this area.