At GoCardless we believe bank payments are the best way to pay and get paid. We also believe that bank account data is a powerful tool to make better, faster decisions. We’re making it easy to use both- for businesses everywhere.  

GoCardless is used for domestic and international payments by 75,000+ organisations and counting, processing more than $30 billion across 30 countries. We’re an award-winning London based fintech, with additional offices in Riga, Paris and Melbourne.

We’re approaching ‘Legal Risk’ in Financial Services in a new way.

• We are ready to serve everyone, if we wanted to - we ensure Legal Risk does not constrain the business but empowers it to achieve its goals;
• We create the best possible customer experience - we want our customers (both internal and external) to look forward to going through our processes; and
• We aim to automate wherever possible - we don’t like inefficiencies nor do we believe that real risk mitigation is achieved by throwing people at the problem.

What excites you:

The Legal Function is at the forefront of GoCardless’ expansion. We must ensure that GoCardless adopts, implements and maintains forward-thinking and appropriate processes and controls, often coming across new challenges or issues that require innovative solutions. 

• As Legal Counsel (2 to 5 years of work experience), you will focus on a number of legal areas and advise our French and UK teams across the business.
• You will take a consultative approach and work closely with the business- never working alone, or able to concentrate on purely legal issues. As a member of a busy legal team you will also be expected to contribute to team-wide initiatives. 
• Some of the key elements of the role include:
• Supporting and advising as a business partner of the sales and support teams predominantly in France and the UK 
• Working on specific projects, for example when we roll out new templates
• Reviewing and negotiating customer, partnership and supplier contracts by providing pragmatic and commercial support in line ith our playbooks
• Supervising paralegals on specific matters
• Instructing and managing external legal counsel
• Helping to build out and maintain self-help tools, playbooks and guides for the legal team and for the wider business 
• Responding to the business by answering legal questions submitted through the GoCardless legal ticketing system
• Supporting the People team on French employment matters
• Focusing on constant process improvement related to high volume work - for example by iterating our contracting automation and management workflows
• Being prepared to deal with any legal issue, at any time.

We’re looking for a lawyer with private practice training and/or in-house experience in France and, if possible, in an English speaking country. You will be driven, able to work independently and able to apply your existing knowledge and approach across a very wide range of legal (and quasi-legal) areas.

As a technology business, it helps if you have had experience in a similar area, or perhaps you have a keen interest in tech outside of your day to day work.

We’d love to hear from you if:

• You have a Master's degree in international contract or business law 
• You have between 2 and 5 years' experience as a Legal Counsel in a fast paced environment
• You have an excellent knowledge of contract law (Civil and Common Law) 
• You are a fluent English speaker
• You grasp new legal concepts quickly, and are not afraid to use your common sense
• You have some experience and appetite for legal project work
• You are able to appropriately challenge ways of working and not be afraid to ask why?
• You are a self-starter who is proactive and you are willing to roll up your sleeves to get the job done 
• Your communication skills are first class, and you are able to distil complex and cumbersome legalese into understandable English
• You love tech and tools, and love exploring how they can contribute to efficiency and customer experience.  
• You enjoy project management and thrive on operational efficiency.
• You do not take yourself seriously and like laughing
• You are easy to work with, and want to work in a fun, fast-growing and challenging environment.

Bonus points if:

• You have knowledge of FCA requirements or payment services
• You have experience with selling and supporting SaaS solutions

We don’t expect you to meet every requirement. If you’re excited by this role, we encourage you to apply.

• Wellbeing - stay healthy with dedicated support and medical cover
• Work away scheme - you can apply to work away from your country of residence for up to 90 days in any 12 month period
• Adaptive Working - allows you to work flexibly, around your lifestyle
• Equity -all permanently employed GCs get equity to help you make a valuable contribution 
• Parental leave -to suit everyone embarking on life's great adventure
• Time off - generous holiday allowance, + 3 annual volunteer days, + 4 annual business-wide wellness days (‘GC Fridays’)

We're an organisation defined by our values; We start with why before we begin any project, to ensure it’s aligned with our mission. We make it happen, working with urgency and taking personal accountability for getting things done. We act with integrity, always. We care deeply about what we do and we know it's essential that we be humble whilst we do it. Our Values form part of the GoCardless DNA, and are used to not only help us nurture and develop our culture, but to deliver impactful work that will help us to achieve our vision.

We’re building the bank payment network of the future and our ambition is to move money anywhere, for anything, for anyone. If we’re going to achieve this goal, we need to build a team of ‘GeeCee’s’ that is as wonderfully diverse as the world we live in - with a multitude of perspectives, experiences & backgrounds.

We’ve got a long way to go, but here’s how we’re doing as of June 2023;

42% identify as women

28% identify as Black, Asian, Mixed or Other

9% identify as LGBTQIA+

9% identify as neurodiverse

2% identify as disabled

We’re rooting for you during your application and GoCardless aims to provide reasonable adjustments to make our recruitment process as remarkable and accessible as we can. Please speak to your Talent Partner if you need extra support.

If you want to learn more, you can read about our Employee Resource Groups and objectives here as well as our latest D&I Report 

We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment, leaving a more sustainable world for future generations. In 2021 we became co-founders of the Tech Zero coalition, a group of businesses committed to taking climate action as part of the UNFCCC Race to Zero. We aim to reduce our impact and to create positive change on the natural world. Check out our sustainability action plan here. 

Find out more about Life at GoCardless via Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.