Legal Counsel, Rotterdam

Voor onze eindklant BP in Rotterdam is Harvey Nash op zoek naar een Legal Counsel.

Start: ZSM

Duur: 6 maanden

Aantal uur per week: 20 – 30 uur per week

Job description:

This interim counsel role for a contingent worker will be part of ESA Legal’s Germany based Central European hub, reporting into the Managing Counsel(s) Customers & Products ESA & MoW Refining (Central Hub) and serving as one of the hub’s legal contacts for the Netherlands with a focus on advising the Refining business.

Within this context, the Counsel role will be responsible for providing comprehensive strategic and solution-focused guidance on legal and risk-related matters and projects, to assist BP in minimising its legal and reputational risks.

More specifically, the activities of the Counsel will inter alia include:

• Providing strategic, business focused and pragmatic legal advice on BP’s activities in the Netherlands as well as on projects in other ESA countries (including cross border projects), in particular where led or supported by BP’s Central European Legal Hub in Germany; this may include advise to Senior Level Leaders within the BP group.
• Advising on HSE&C (health, safety, environment& carbon) and other regulatory matters, primarily with regard to bp’s activities around the Rotterdam Refinery, terminals and pipelines.
• Drafting, reviewing and supporting the negotiation of contracts, other commercial arrangements and legal-related documents in Dutch, English and, if possible based on language skills, also German, including the creation and maintenance of standard forms and templates.
• Enforcing domestic and foreign claims and responsibly resolving disputes and conducting/managing litigation.
• Managing external counsel (including external counsel outside the Netherlands).
• Monitoring legal developments and case law in the areas of law relevant to bp’s activities and identifying current and future risks and regulatory compliance requirements therefrom (notably in the areas of competition/antitrust, anti-bribery and corruption, HSE&C, international trade regulations/sanctions), advocating and supporting the creation of necessary counteractions and compliance processes.
• Liaising and aligning with the permanent inhouse counsel in the Netherlands on all relevant matters, in particular those of material importance or with interfaces to matters / remits supported by the permanent inhouse counsel.

Key Criteria:

• Ideally a minimum of 7-10 years practicing law in The Netherlands as in-house counsel representing multinational companies, preferably preceded by a traineeship (advocaat-stage) in private practice.
• Demonstrated ability to work with senior management on a strategic level.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently as well a part of a broader legal team.
• Strong technical legal skills, combined with an ability to
• take a strategic view on the challenges and issues facing the business; and
• to provide business focused, pragmatic legal advice.
• Ability to deal with heavy demand for operational support by prioritizing efforts and focusing on matters that concern material risk, value or growth opportunities.
• Fluent in Dutch and English.
• Ability to identify opportunities and risks and to pro-actively initiate necessary actions to maximize value for, and to protect, bp.
• Driver’s licence and driving experience.
• IT skills including sound knowledge of MS Office as well as an interest in modern ways of working.

Desirable Criteria:

• Dutch Bar exams and traineeship (advocaat-stage) with an internationally renowned law firm.
• Sound working knowledge of German (oral and written German skills equivalent to C2 Proficiency Cambridge Assessment)

Experience in

• counselling and advising on (commercial) legal matters; and
• HSE&C and regulatory matters.
• Demonstrated to drive continuous improvement in the area of effective collaboration, engagement and communication in his/her past roles.
• Effective networker, able to work with individuals at all levels across the business and functions.
• Experience in application / implementation of digital solutions for legal (inhouse) teams.