Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions businesses need to navigate today’s changing world.  

Our clients are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high growth businesses that fuel the economy - and the owners and management teams that lead them.  

We’ll broaden your horizons 

The Business Services and Outsourcing team are essential to meeting our clients' evolving requirements. As well as delivering long-term, sustainable value to businesses by providing a range of solutions such as accounting, payroll and compliance services, they also play a key role in tying together many of our services across BDO both domestically and internationally. By building deep and meaningful relationships with a range of clients from ambitious entrepreneurial SMEs to large multi-national groups, our BS&O team don’t just advise on their specific business challenges, they open doors for other teams to provide our firm’s wider service offering. To succeed in this agile environment, you’ll need to demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills and initiative. In return, you’ll have the opportunity for progression, and the chance to develop in one of the industry’s most exciting and varied roles. 

We’ll help you succeed 

Our clients trust us because of the quality of our advice.  That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with clients and building long-lasting relationships. 

You’ll be someone who can work pro-actively, managing your own tasks, but you’ll also be confident collaborating with others, communicating regularly with senior managers, Directors, and BDO’s Partners to enable us to serve our clients effectively.  You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to our clients. 

Overview

We have an exciting opportunity for a Commercial Legal Counsel to join BDO’s Business Services and Outsourcing (BSO) team. This role is pivotal in supporting the team to win and deliver professional services engagements while managing risk and ensuring compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

As Commercial Legal Counsel, you will provide expert advice on commercial contracts, helping shape agreements that protect the firm and enable successful client delivery. You’ll work closely with stakeholders across the business, influencing decisions and ensuring contractual terms align with BDO’s standards and strategic objectives.

This is a fantastic chance to combine your legal expertise with commercial acumen in a dynamic, client-focused environment. The role is based in Reading, Bristol or London, offering flexibility and the opportunity to make a real impact within a growing team.

Responsibilities

 Delivery of legal advice to BSO’s partners and staff:

• developing strong relationships with relevant client-facing partners, staff and risk management professionals across BSO and leading on legal support to the BSO business unit
• reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements with BSO’s key clients e.g. master services agreements, framework agreements, strategic partnership agreements etc.
• liaising with the firm’s central Legal Team as appropriate on key matters (client and supplier facing) and projects
• guiding client-facing teams in dealing with legal queries from clients, their lawyers and procurement teams, including providing real-time advice to project acceptance panels
• contributing to the development and delivery of contracting training to relevant stakeholders to develop awareness of legal issues
• interpretation and application of legislation, case law, regulations and professional standards relevant to BSO’s business
• building strong working relationships across the firm including the Quality & Risk Management department and with other practice management departments (Finance, Comms etc.).
• Review, draft and negotiate supplier and reseller contracts (SaaS, professional services etc.) ensuring legal, commercial and regulatory risks are identified and mitigated or escalated as appropriate. 

Managing BSO’s contract precedents and processes:

• reviewing and updating relevant templates, guidance, policies and procedures to keep them up to date with legal and regulatory developments
• drafting new template contracts for new service lines that mitigate the risks involved in delivering them.
• Identify opportunities to accelerate and/or improve the contracting process and seek innovative solutions to new problems.

Requirements

Essential:

• England and Wales qualified
• experience of advising on/negotiating/drafting/managing commercial contracts (preferably within the professional services and/or technology markets)
• good understanding of standard commercial boilerplate clauses
• familiarity with data protection law (UK GDPR)
• strong written and oral communication skills
• ability to confidently interact and influence at a senior level
• ability to prioritise and manage own workload
• high degree of personal responsibility
• excellent attention to detail

  Desirable:

• experience of advising on data protection law
• experience of drafting policy and guidance
• experience in an in-house legal role at a large commercial organisation, or practising commercial law at a law firm
• experience of preparing and delivering legal training

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business.  We’re committed to agile working, and we offer everyone the opportunity to work in ways that suit them, their teams, and the task in hand. 

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development. 

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture.  From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. 

We can provide the best support for our clients and people when we’re working side by side.  Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another.  At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work. 

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for our clients and satisfying experiences at work, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices.  BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences.  With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO. 

We’re looking forward to the future 

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy.  

Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in them.  Across the UK thousands of unique minds coming together to help our clients reach their ambitions. 

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.