Commercial Lawyer

Why this job matters

Reporting to the Senior Commercial Lawyer Infrastructure Development, the commercial lawyer will help join the challenge of Openreach’s big, bold ambitions to expand our full fibre coverage across the UK through providing commercial legal advice, risk assessments, drafting and solutions for:

Our key supplier management clients who work with key manufacturer and civils suppliers underpinning our fibre network build/services; and our key strategic customer clients who work with both public and private sector customers/partners involved in our fibre network build.

We are a key enable in helping Openreach to achieve our fibre build ambitions. The Infrastructure Development (ID) Legal Team covers all areas relating to supply and customer agreements concerning network build. These include providing legal support on our key supplier arrangements for services and equipment,  public sector customer contracts and also private sector agreements ranging from funding agreements with local bodies to help expand our fibre footprint with the help of government subsidy (over £1.5bn secured to date for superfast coverage and nearly 800m to date secured linked to the Government’s Gigabit full fibre programme), delivery of fibre build to enable public/private sector sites (including specialist site customers) with fibre network solutions. We also support our teams to get wayleaves in place at scale with portfolio owners/suppliers with fibre networks in multi dwelling units, work with the developers to enable our fibre to go to new development sites.

What you’ll be doing

• Accountable for helping to deliver and shaping the ID Legal Team strategy to enable the achievement of the Team goals with specific focus on supply side key stakeholder activities.
• Provide additional support to other ID Legal areas such as complex customer contract activities. 
• Support key stakeholders in the provision of general legal and litigation advice 
• Act as a collaborative team member independently delivering on own commitments, escalating and seeking support from more experienced lawyers, commercial and regulatory specialists as appropriate
• Where appropriate advise BT on commercial legal matters and disputes; have an active role in the BT CRLT, inputting into and supporting the implementation of BT CRLT strategy and knowledge sharing / best practice development
• Contribute to the development of the Openreach and commercial strategy and policies, proactively identifying relevant issues and business improvements, and implement these in respect of specific matters 
• Design and deliver training, education & awareness activities for LRE, Openreach and the broader BT community and develop and contribute to best practice documents  e.g. legal privilege, disclosure, TCC and Code litigation process 
• Proactively raising relevant issues and business improvements to the SLT and develop a plan to implement these in respect of specific matters 

The skills you'll need

• Be an expert in the field of  commercial contracts law and a developing expertise in the Openreach telecoms regulatory framework
• Qualified solicitor or barrister with good knowledge and relevant experience in a legal or commercial environment
• 5 years+ PQE
• Have experience supporting major commercial and/or contentious matters. 
• Understand the commercial legal aspects of a wide range of matters, with an ability to manage multiple stakeholders and projects working to tight deadline
• Excellent telephone and computer skills 
• Excellent self-motivation and time management skills
• Ability to handle and prioritise workloads

Benefits

• 10% on target bonus
• BT Pension scheme, minimum 5% Employee contribution, BT contribution 10%
• From January 2025, equal family leave:  receive 18 weeks at full pay, 8 weeks at half pay and 26 weeks at the statutory rate. It’s for all parents, no matter how your family is made up.
• Enhanced women’s health support: including help with menopause symptoms, cancer screenings, period care and more.
• 25 days annual leave (not including bank holidays), increasing with service
• 24/7 private virtual GP appointments for UK colleagues
• 2 weeks carer’s leave
• World-class training and development opportunities
• Option to join BT Shares Saving schemes.

Our leadership standards

Looking in:
Leading inclusively and Safely
I inspire and build trust through self-awareness, honesty and integrity.
Owning outcomes
I take the right decisions that benefit the broader organisation.

Looking out:
Delivering for the customer
I execute brilliantly on clear priorities that add value to our customers and the wider business.
Commercially savvy
I demonstrate strong commercial focus, bringing an external perspective to decision-making.

Looking to the future:
Growth mindset
I experiment and identify opportunities for growth for both myself and the organisation.
Building for the future
I build diverse future-ready teams where all individuals can be at their best.