Legal Counsel - Insurance

Collinson is the global, privately-owned company dedicated to helping the world to travel with ease and confidence. The group offers a unique blend of industry and sector specialists who together provide market-leading airport experiences, loyalty and customer engagement, and insurance solutions for over 400 million consumers.

Collinson is the operator of Priority Pass, the world’s original and leading airport experiences programme. Travellers can access a network of 1,500+ lounges and travel experiences, including dining, retail, sleep and spa, in over 650 airports in 148 countries, helping to elevate the journey into something special. We work with the world’s leading payment networks, over 1,400 banks, 90 airlines and 20 hotel groups worldwide.

We have been bringing innovation to the market since inception – from launching the first independent global VIP lounge access Programme, Priority Pass to being the first to sell direct travel insurance in the UK through Columbus Direct and creating the first loyalty agency of its kind in the travel sector with ICLP. Today we still invest heavily in innovation to ensure that we continue to deliver superior customer experiences.

Key clients include Mastercard, American Express, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, LATAM, Flying Blue, Accor, EasyJet, HSBC, Chase, HDFC.

Our mission is focused on doing good beyond profit, which for us means we seek out opportunities for our people to share in our success and that we give back to the communities and people within which we work.

Never short of ambition, the success of our business is delivered through the diverse and talented team of over 2,200 global colleagues.

Purpose of the job

Responsible for primarily providing legal support to the Insurance division of Collinson and supporting wider business as required. Performing an overall safeguarding function to ensure that the business is protected from undue risk.

Key Responsibilities

· Drafting and negotiating a wide range of insurance contracts – including Agency, Introducer, TPA and Claims Handling agreements with new and existing clients.

· Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts – including confidentiality, services and technology agreements.

· Drafting, updating and contributing to contract precedent templates and associated guidance materials including assisting with internal training programmes.

· Advising on litigation matters both pre-action protocol and litigation stage.

· Advising on a wide range of Insurance Regulatory matters.

· Identifying and mitigating legal risks and upwards management of key risks and issues to the Senior Counsel.

· Potential to be involved in drafting and negotiating contracts for other divisions within the group – including supplier contracts, IT contracts, Intellectual Property agreements and Confidentiality Agreements across the Loyalty and Assistance divisions.

· Assisting other team members with wider group matters as and when required, including involvement in group wide projects and corporate matters.

Knowledge, skills and experience required

· Legally Qualified in England and Wales (approximately 3-5 years PQE)

· Excellent knowledge and experience of insurance distribution, the UK insurance sector and the law surrounding both

· Litigation experience preferred

· Good commercial awareness with strong ability to think strategically and creatively see legal issues in their wider context

· Excellent independent drafting skills with strong experience of commercial contracts and negotiation

· Excellent commercial awareness with strong ability to think strategically and creatively and to see legal issues in their wider context

· Experience of working closely with key business stakeholders, including at board level to provide commercial legal advice

· Experience of drafting/negotiating technology contracts, data protection agreements and working on Intellectual Property Rights issues

· Experience of working within an international business across multi jurisdictions

· Able to work on a high volume of matters across the group at one time

Person Specification

· Enjoys a challenging and diverse workload

· A positive mind-set with the ability to adjust work priorities to meet the needs and challenges of a growing and entrepreneurial business

· Self-motivated to drive delivery against objectives and an ability to work autonomously and manage own workload

· Ability to apply a pragmatic balance to legal risks with commercial risks

· Excellent relationship building and communication skills with an ability to communicate complex legal issues to non-lawyers in a digestible way

· Able to work both independently and to work within a close team

· Excellent problem solving/solution based skills

· Good project management skills

· Sense of humour and positive attitude

Please note we are looking for someone to join asap - we would consider a contractor and/or permanent for this role but we will need someone to start in the next couple of weeks ideally.

Collinson is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes differences in all their forms including: colour, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, family status, age, individuals with disabilities and people from all backgrounds, cultures and experiences as we strongly believe this contributes to our on-going success.

We are focused on continually evolving our purpose driven, high performing culture, providing an environment where our people have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and do interesting and meaningful work. Our company values are: Take Action, Do the right thing, One team and Be insight led. These help guide everything we do internally in terms of how we think, act and interact, right through to how we deliver value to our customers and clients.

In your application, please feel free to note which pronouns you use (For example - she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/theirs, etc).

If you need any extra support throughout the interview process, then please email us at ukrecruitment@collinsongroup.com