Legal Counsel - Full Time or Part Time

Shawbrook is growing, and our central legal team is growing with it. This is a new role working alongside the Head of Legal – Disputes, Regulatory & Transactions, covering two of the most interesting areas of legal work in the bank. On the transactional side, you’ll work on M&A and corporate development: acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and the integrations that follow. On the contentious side, you’ll help protect the Group’s interests in regulatory matters, including FCA and PRA investigations, enforcement and skilled person reviews. It’s a role with real breadth and genuine exposure. You’ll advise senior stakeholders directly, up to ExCo level, on matters that shape the bank’s strategy, with the backing of an experienced central legal team as you do it. Key Responsibilities - Advise on M&A and corporate development activity, including acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, strategic transactions and post-completion integration. - Manage contentious regulatory matters and related regulatory engagement, including FCA and PRA investigations, enforcement, skilled person reviews and supervisory interactions. You’ll take the lead on establishing and maintaining privilege over internal investigations and reviews, and on document preservation. - Support the Head of Legal on insurance notifications and claims arising from complaints, litigation, regulatory matters, cyber events and other insured losses, working with brokers, insurers, external counsel and the Finance team to preserve and recover under the Group’s policies. - Build trusted relationships across the Group, working closely with the General Counsel, Legal Director, Heads of Legal and colleagues in Corporate Development, Risk & Compliance, HR, Complaints and Finance, always with an eye on overall customer outcomes. - Manage external counsel: instructing them efficiently, holding them to the agreed strategy and budget, and bringing work in-house where it makes sense to. - Get involved in the wider work of the central legal team, from litigation and corporate advisory to funding structures, capital markets activity and listed company obligations. - You’ll be a qualified solicitor or barrister holding a current England and Wales practising certificate, with proven post-qualification experience. We’re happy to hear from candidates who bring the right experience. Lawyers qualified in other common law jurisdictions who can demonstrate sufficient English law experience will also be considered. - You don’t need to be a specialist. If you have a generalist banking or financial institution background and haven’t yet focused on regulatory or transactional work but are genuinely interested in doing so, we’d like to hear from you. What matters most is intellectual curiosity, comfort operating outside your existing expertise, and a willingness to take on unfamiliar challenges. You’ll have structured support from the Head of Legal, early exposure to live matters alongside external counsel, and room to build specialism over time. - Experience across any of the following is welcome, though we don’t expect all of it: financial institutions and banking; M&A; corporate development; strategic transactions; and financial regulatory work. Experience managing external counsel, fee structures and budgets is preferred. - You’ll have strong commercial acumen and the ability to apply legal advice in a practical business context, together with experience of being the direct point of contact for your clients and senior stakeholders (up to ExCo level), giving pragmatic, solutions-based and commercially astute advice. - In-house experience in financial services or banking, whether permanent or on secondment, is highly preferable.