legal counsel emea 11499

Imerys is organized around four Business Areas (BAs). The Business Legal Counsel will join the business legal team dedicated to the support of the Performance Minerals Business Area in  the EMEA region. This BA serves 4 separate markets, all of them being led by a dedicated Sales Market Vice-President (VP): Ceramics, Filtration and Life Sciences (FLS), Pulp, Packaging and Plastics, Adhesives/Sealants, Rubber and Paints/Coatings (PARP).

The successful candidate will assist the Senior Legal Manager of the business legal team PM EMEA BA  in the management of litigation, and advice on wide range of legal aspects of commercial and industrial activity and corporate governance.

The primary support areas are:

• a given commercial market (including Sales, R&D and marketing/BD) on international contracts and projects (especially the drafting and negotiation of commercial and real estate contracts),

• related operational sites serving that market (local purchases, real estate/environmental law, admin inspections etc), in the Greek based operations but also in other jurisdictions in the EMEA region,

• claims / litigation related to the given market and / or related sites,

• corporate secretarial follow up of legal entities hosting those sites,

• roll-out of compliance programs.

Responsibilities

Resolution of pre-litigation issues/Litigation

• Resolving issues that arise in the context of the industrial activity of the company and its commercial relationships, handling pre-litigation legal disputes and inquiries, deal with external parties and internal clients.

• Assisting in the management of a diverse portfolio of litigation before civil, administrative and criminal courts in commercial disputes, criminal cases, public law cases, environmental and mining liabilities, real estate, labor law, accounts and receivables, seizing procedures.

• Assisting in the management of work assigned to external counsels. 

• Insurance: manage insured losses in collaboration with the Insurance legal team.

Business Contracts

• Review, drafting and negotiation of various types of commercial agreements (including: supply, agency, distribution, purchasing, confidentiality agreements, R&D in collaboration with the IP team, and real estate etc.);

• Participate to the review and update of templates (of contracts, etc);

• Legal support for specific M&A projects in collaboration with the M&A legal team.

Corporate:

• Corporate: Supervise corporate housekeeping of entities (annual general assembly, D&O appointments, delegations of authority/POAs) of all companies relevant to the scope

• On a case by case basis, implementing internal corporate reorganizations.

Legal assistance and Compliance

• General legal support and advice to internal clients on all business-related issues.

• Provide support on regulatory and compliance aspects of industrial activity.

• Antitrust & Compliance (anti-bribery, trade restrictions, GDPR, etc); 

• Roll out the compliance programs designed by the Compliance legal team;

• Legal Operations: use the digital tools of the Imerys legal department to access and share information with the legal team.

Qualifications & Experience

• Lawyer qualified in Greece, holding a postgraduate degree.  

• 4 to 6 years of very solid and successful first broad-based commercial and litigation legal experience in an in-house legal department of an international corporation or from a  business law firm. An expertise in real-estate law would be a plus.

• Greek speaker and fluent in English on a legal and business level (speaking and writing).

• Skills in French would be an additional asset.

Keys of success for the position

• Superior communications skills.

• Creative problem-solving ability for handling complex legal situations. 

• Strong business orientation and acuteness especially when discussing with internal clients.  

• Team-oriented and collaborative.

• Capacity to work effectively, efficiently and autonomously. 

• Ability to manage interaction with multiple stakeholders in a multicultural environment. 

• Strong commitment, agility and passion for delivering tangible results.

• Appetite for covering a diversity of legal matters.