Assistant Legal and Contracts Advisor

The British Library is one of the world’s most significant research libraries, holding a vast collection of material, which is used by people from all over the world. This presents us with a complex variety of contractual relationships and challenges, both from a commercial and non-commercial viewpoint.


The Legal and Contracts Services team (‘LCS’) is the first point of contact for advice on legal and contractual matters and performs a wide range of legal and contract support activities, including drafting, reviewing, interpreting and negotiating many different forms of contractual documentation.


As a member of our evolving team, you will support this work with a particular focus on the acquisition and licencing of content, both contemporary and heritage, to support our services and deliver against the British Library’s strategic objectives. You will provide advice and consultancy on contract management issues working in partnership with key stakeholders within the British Library to understand business requirements and ensure that these are appropriately reflected within the required contracts and licence agreements. You will also support with implementing proposals to improve existing workflows and processes, including promotion and development of contracting best practice and leveraging opportunities for improved use of technology to support the work of LCS and the Library’s Legal Assurance Framework.


You will have the ability to build effective working relationships and have excellent communication, presentation and influencing skills, including the ability to explain complex issues clearly, to internal and external stakeholders. You will ideally have some experience of negotiating contracts and licence agreements with publishers and content owners, but have a broad understanding of how to determine rights and obligations on specific issues (e.g. regulatory prerequisites, legal compliance, licence construction, changes in legislation etc.), advising on the acceptability or otherwise of contractual arrangements proposed to the Library by external bodies; reporting in depth on the implications and negotiating alternatives where necessary to safeguard Library interests.


You will have a good knowledge of Contract Law and the ability to assimilate information quickly and concisely. You will need to prioritise a large workload, whilst managing customer expectations.


The role is dependent on team working, supporting colleagues as well as working on your own initiative. You will ideally have a law degree or equivalent comparable qualifications and experience working in a similar role in a public sector or similar environment. This is an exciting opportunity for a graduate to develop into a legal and contracts professional and to begin a career path at the Library and as an integral part of the LCS team.

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