Temporary Senior Legal Counsel

About the Job

Reporting directly to the CFO and working closely with the broader leadership team - including Sales, Customer Success, Information Security, and the executive team - you will take ownership of Duco's commercial legal function across EMEA during this critical period. You will work alongside Duco's existing US-based legal counsel, taking the lead on EMEA commercial activity and collaborating globally where needed. You will negotiate and close complex SaaS and AI platform contracts with the legal and procurement teams of global financial institutions, and you will help Duco navigate the entirely new territory of AI compliance, agentic systems contracting, and responsible AI frameworks within heavily regulated industries.

This is not a back-office legal role. You will be a strategic business partner - sitting at the commercial table, contributing to deal strategy, helping unlock revenue, and protecting the business. You will also be Duco's primary EMEA legal voice on AI-related compliance matters with counterparties, a space where the rules are nascent, the questions are genuinely novel, and the opportunity to shape norms is real.

Duco is also going AI-first internally. Our legal function is no exception - we have already embedded AI into our legal workflows, including automated playbooks and AI-assisted contract redlining. Joining now means you will get hands-on exposure to AI from multiple angles: as the vendor selling an agentic platform, as the negotiator facing banks' AI compliance requirements, and as a practitioner working inside an AI-native legal team. We would be particularly interested in candidates who have previously implemented AI workflows or redlining tools in a legal context, though this is not a hard requirement.

What You'll Be Doing

Commercial Contracting

• Lead end-to-end negotiation of enterprise SaaS and AI platform agreements with the procurement, legal, risk, and technology teams of global financial institutions - including tier-1 banks and buy-side firms across EMEA and North America.
• Manage complex, multi-party deal structures involving master agreements, order forms, data processing addenda, security schedules, and AI-specific provisions.
• Provide pragmatic, commercially-oriented legal advice to Sales, Customer Success, and the executive team on deal structuring and risk.
• Draft, review, and negotiate vendor and supplier contracts including third-party technology, data, and professional services agreements.

AI Compliance & Emerging Regulatory Frameworks

• Serve as Duco's primary EMEA legal point of contact on AI compliance matters raised by customers, including EU AI Act considerations, model transparency and explainability requirements, data governance in agentic systems, and human oversight obligations.
• Work with counterparties' legal, risk, and compliance teams to navigate the nascent and rapidly evolving requirements banks are placing on AI vendors - drafting novel contractual provisions where no established precedent yet exists.
• Develop and maintain Duco's internal frameworks, contractual positions, and playbooks for AI-related legal questions, working collaboratively with Product, Engineering, and Compliance.
• Stay current on AI regulatory developments (EU AI Act, FCA/PRA guidance, SEC/CFTC developments, DORA) and advise the business proactively on their implications.
• Support customer due diligence processes and RFP responses on AI ethics, fairness, transparency, and accountability - translating complex product capability into clear legal and compliance language.

Legal Operations & Governance

• Identify opportunities to streamline and improve legal workflows, including through the use of technology and automation - building on Duco's existing AI-assisted contract and playbook infrastructure.

What We're Looking For

Technical & Professional Requirements

• Qualified solicitor/lawyer in the UK with 5+ PQE.
• Demonstrable experience negotiating complex technology or SaaS agreements with financial institutions - ideally including tier-1 banks or large buy-side firms.
• Solid foundation in UK contract and intellectual property law; working knowledge of US contract law.
• Exposure to AI, data, or emerging technology contracting - ideally including at least some familiarity with AI compliance frameworks (EU AI Act, FCA AI guidance, or equivalent).
• Excellent commercial instincts: you understand that legal advice that kills deals is not good legal advice.
• Highly skilled negotiator, confident sitting across the table from the most sophisticated procurement and legal teams in the world.
• Prior in-house experience, whether as a permanent or interim counsel, strongly preferred.

The AI Compliance Dimension - What Makes This Role Unique

Banks are now asking their AI vendors questions that no standard contract addresses: How does the agent make decisions? What human oversight exists? How is model drift detected? Who is liable when an agent acts autonomously and something goes wrong? These questions do not yet have settled answers - legally or practically.

You will need to be comfortable operating in this ambiguity - helping Duco develop coherent, defensible positions and negotiating novel provisions in a space that is still being defined. You don't need to be an AI expert, but you do need curiosity about the technology, the regulatory landscape, and the appetite to help write the playbook rather than wait for one to arrive.

Interpersonal & Behavioural

• Communicates clearly and confidently - adapting style for commercial stakeholders, technical teams, and external counterparties alike.
• A natural relationship-builder who establishes trust quickly, both internally and with customer legal teams.
• Demonstrates strong commercial awareness and understands Duco's strategy, market position, and growth objectives.
• Pragmatic problem-solver: focuses on realistic, workable solutions rather than theoretical perfection.
• Highly organised, capable of managing multiple live negotiations and workstreams simultaneously without losing attention to detail.
• Self-motivated and able to operate with autonomy while keeping stakeholders appropriately informed.
• Entrepreneurial mindset - able to identify opportunities and risks proactively, not just reactively.

Core Competencies

In addition to legal expertise, this role is assessed against Duco's core role competencies:

• Communication & Stakeholder Management: Communicates clearly and accurately, listens well, builds collaborative relationships, and adapts approach to the context and audience.
• Commercial Awareness: Articulates the FinTech and AI market, demonstrates awareness of Duco's strategic objectives beyond legal technicalities, and actively builds cross-functional networks.
• Professional Excellence & Self-Development: Demonstrates initiative, high attention to detail, integrity, and a commitment to continuous learning - including staying ahead of fast-moving regulatory developments.
• Operational Excellence & Efficiency: Responds positively to change, takes ownership, plans and prioritises effectively, and manages stakeholder expectations proactively.

Beneficial Experience

• Privacy and data protection law, including GDPR and cross-border data transfer frameworks.
• Regulatory experience in financial services (e.g. FCA-regulated environment, MiFID II, DORA, or equivalent).
• Familiarity with EU AI Act classification and risk tiers, or equivalent AI governance frameworks.
• Experience implementing AI-assisted legal workflows, contract redlining tools, or legal tech automation.
• Experience at a high-growth technology or FinTech company.