Paralegal

Overview

This is a 12 month fixed term contract.

Work your way, together

We’re a hybrid business, which means you’ll have flexibility alongside time together with your team. In this role, you can expect 2 days a week in our Leicester office, helping you stay connected, collaborate and do your best work for our customers.

We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares – we’re ambitious about our brand, about being a good company, and about profitable growth.

With 13 million active customers in the last 12 months, we offer over 50,000 products, including our own Dorma and Fogarty brands, across 170+ stores. We operate the UK’s largest Made to Measure factory for curtains and roman blinds. We’re also developing products to help customers live more sustainably by introducing new materials and circular design and broadening our Conscious Choice product lines.

Our purpose is ‘to help create the joy of truly feeling at home, for now and for generations to come.’ We have three ambitions: ‘ambitious about our brand’, ambitious about being a good company’, and ‘ambitious about profitable growth’. We’re focused on growing as the number one choice for home, furniture and more, loved by our customers shopping more frequently in a fast-moving, post-pandemic environment.

Legal Purpose

The Legal Team provides solution-led advice on a wide range of legal and regulatory matters, including commercial contracts, data protection, intellectual property and consumer-related queries. The team is committed to protecting the business, mitigating risk and fostering a culture of integrity which puts the customer first. Through proactive, pragmatic and strategic support and ongoing training, we are trusted advisors to our business partners, seeking to safeguard the company’s interests and reputation whilst also enabling sustainable growth.

Legal Team

As Paralegal you will work in the Legal Team reporting to the Head of Legal.

The Legal Team consists of the Head of Legal, two Senior Legal Counsels, a Legal Counsel and a Paralegal.

Legal is part of the wider Legal, Company Secretarial, Compliance and H&S function which is led by Luisa Wright, General Counsel and Group Company Secretary. It works closely with all areas of the business particularly Procurement.

Legal works to support and advise all areas of the business on a wide range and variety of issues and projects and protects the growth of the company by managing risk.

What you'll be doing

The key responsibilities, with support from the team and Legal Counsel specifically, are to manage our low risk/low value contract approval process, customer claims and complaints and brand protection third party supplier process.

However, you will also support the legal team in other areas, take on tasks and responsibilities over time and learn how an in-house legal team works. Opportunity to learn and develop in an experience small in-house legal team within a growing, dynamic business.

The principal paralegal duties are set out below:

• With support, manage the low risk/low value contract review and approval process.
• Assisting with Small Claims management.
• IP – compliance monitoring.
• Checking Legal post and distributing as needed.
• Draft letters on our templates.
• Data/GDPR - supporting where needed.
• Take minutes in calls/meetings where needed.
• Diary management to assist team.
• Assist improving administration and organisation.
• Managing WIP, improving WIP management and reporting and collating reports on Legal matters – adding deadline dates and notice periods to diaries.
• Training – administration and coordination of internal and external ad hoc training.
• Data retention management for legal team.
• Support Customer Contact Centre where needed and with escalated queries.
• Management of the Legal Compliance Calendar to ensure policies are reviewed annually and training is provided regularly.

What we'll look for in you

Essential skills

• Law degree or part way through a law degree or other similar qualification.
• Willingness to learn.
• Organised and efficient approach to work.
• Problem solving and analytical skills.
• Relationship building and team working skills to work in cross functional role.
• You must apply attention to detail in every aspect of work, ensuring a high standard of accuracy.
• You must be PC literate – particularly with Microsoft Office.
• Manage and prioritise a varied workload.

Desirable skills

• Experience in retail or consumer facing environment.
• Knowledge of some legal areas such as GDPR

Behaviours

• Connecting - by building deep relationships, collaborating and creating broad networks that create mutual benefits
• Team Working - is coming together to achieve collective success, building trust and supporting each other
• Communicating - by sharing information, influencing and engaging others, creating common understanding
• Adapting - by continually learning from experiences, experimenting and embracing change
• Make it Happen - means planning and prioritising, focusing on outcomes and delivering at pace