Senior Counsel

Job Family Group:

Legal Group

Job Description:

Role Synopsis

• Supporting the bp group strategy, bp legal’s purpose is to deliver legal work which fuels bp’s ability to meet the world’s energy needs. The legal function supports bp in its ambition to become continuously safer, stronger and better by fostering legally compliant operations, mitigating risk, and incorporating legal analysis into the decision-making process and execution.
• This role will primarily provide specialist legal support to the Shipping business, as well as other teams within Supply, Trading & Shipping and further across bp. The role will be based in Sunbury.
• The successful candidate will be required to support these activities in the form of counselling, drafting, negotiating and advising, alongside all other forms of transactional and disputes-related legal assistance, as well as advice on regulatory and compliance matters.
• The role requires a senior lawyer acting as a trusted advisor and working with minimal supervision on multiple complex matters at a time. The successful candidate will be required to support Managing Counsel, Shipping, by both providing legal support and working closely with other members of the team and relevant business leaders and colleagues, as required.

Key accountabilities

• As a trusted advisor and senior individual contributor, providing strategic legal advice to the Shipping business and other bp businesses engaged in marine activity, identifying legal risks and developing solutions to manage such risks.
• Unsupervised handling a of a wide range of matters covered by the Shipping Legal Team including:-
• IMT/BST support,
• day-to-day vessel operational issues,
• charterparty clause drafting/reviews,
• vessel and crew management including crew employment issues,
• trade regulations (including sanctions), anti-corruption and competition laws,
• support to business CDD programmes and counterparty clearances,
• vessel sale and purchase,
• leasing and financing,
• dispute resolution.
• Keeping fully abreast of legal and regulatory developments affecting marine activity including sanctions and emissions regulations; contributing to the know-how of the Shipping Legal Team and provision of updates and learning to affected businesses and other legal teams.
• Provision of support and mentoring to other members of the team
• Collaboration with Ethics and Compliance to support effective implementation of ST&S’s and bp group’s compliance agendas
• Where required, supporting legal committees of marine industry bodies including BIMCO, OCIMF and UK Chamber of Shipping

Experience and competencies

• Qualified solicitor/barrister/attorney with substantial post qualification experience in a specialist shipping law practice or in house with an oil major or P&I Club.
• Excellent legal and business judgment, project management, communication and interpersonal skills; comfortable working alongside senior business leaders.
• Substantial experience across the range of matters regularly handled by the team as set out above with a deep understanding in particular of tanker/LNG carrier chartering law and practice.
• Readiness to respond to a vessel casualty is a core accountability of the team, accordingly experience of incident response with an understanding of vessel pollution liabilities is desirable for this role.
• A background in marine dispute resolution would be an advantage for this role.
• Close familiarity with vessel emissions regulations and sanctions affecting shipping and readiness to lead on these and other compliance areas in collaboration with senior business leaders.

Why join us?

At bp, we provide an excellent working environment and employee benefits! We offer an open and inclusive culture and a great work-life balance. Tremendous learning and development opportunities are available to craft a career path, life and health insurance, medical care package and many others!

We support our people to learn and grow in a diverse and exciting environment. We believe that our team is strengthened by diversity. We are committed to crafting an inclusive environment in which everyone is respected and treated fairly. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, perform crucial job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment.

Travel Requirement:

Up to 10% travel should be expected with this role

Relocation Assistance:

This role is not eligible for relocation

Remote Type:

This position is a hybrid of office/remote working

Skills:

Business Acumen, Coaching, Collaboration, Commercial Acumen, Communication, Conflict Management, Creativity and Innovation, Decision Making, Digital Fluency, Influencing, Managing strategic partnerships, Mentoring, Organizational Knowledge, Resource and budget planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Supplier Relationship Management

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Legal Disclaimer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bp’s recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us.

If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.