General Counsel Full Time

Perrett Laver

“For the betterment of society”

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is one of the foremost social science universities in the world. With 18 Nobel Prize winners and 37 past or present heads of state among its diverse community of alumni, LSE is a truly influential and international university at the forefront of global policy debate.

Under the leadership of Professor Larry Kramer as the new President and Vice Chancellor, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is now seeking to appoint its first General Counsel.

A member of the School Management Committee (SMC), LSE’s executive senior management board, the General Counsel will provide strategic legal services and support to the President and Vice Chancellor, as well as all other relevant stakeholders including the SMC and other Committees. Reporting directly to the President and Vice Chancellor and working across the School, the General Counsel will also lead and have overall responsibility of the Secretary’s Division.

The post holder will be a qualified and practising solicitor with significant post-qualification experience in dealing with complex, significant matters that cut across legal and related areas. They will be adept at identifying and managing potential and current risk factors to the School while ensuring the School is best placed in its compliance requirements as a higher education institution. Through their legal expertise, they will also shape, support and influence commercial, fundraising, and other contracts, agreements and partnerships across the School.

The successful appointee will possess exceptional leadership, communication and relationship-building skills, able to deliver innovation while respecting tradition in a complex environment and through successful consensus-building. They will have a passion for higher education and align with the values of the LSE and the mission to create a truly inclusive university.

Application is by submission of a full curriculum vitae (CV) and a covering letter of application. The CV should include all educational and professional qualifications, full employment history, and details of key achievements. The covering letter should be between two to three sides of A4 and should address your interest in the position and the LSE, as well as how you meet the job description and person specification.

The application should also include suitable daytime and evening telephone contact details, a preferred email address, and the details of at least two referees. Referees will not be contacted without prior agreement and notice.

Please click on the “Apply Now” button below for submitting your completed application.

The closing date for applications is midnight BST on Sunday 14th July 2024.

Perrett Laver will conduct preliminary interviews with long-listed candidates in weeks commencing 29th July and 5th August, and the Appointment Committee will meet at the end of August to decide upon a shortlist of candidates.

These individuals will subsequently be invited for interview on 17th September and/or 20th September 2024.

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An LSE education provides students with a research-led, disciplinary and interdisciplinary experience, encouraging learners to engage critically with their subjects and real-world challenges, thus equipping them professionally and personally for the work into which they will graduate.

LSE is made up of an international community rooted in London, working to make a positive impact within our city and beyond. We are ranked the top university in London by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 , Guardian Best UK Universities Guide 2024 and, for the 12th year running, by the Complete University Guide 2024 .

A member of the Russell Group, LSE has the highest proportion of world-leading research of any UK University. In recent years, LSE has continued to perform well in league tables and research impact exercises. In the latest UK Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), 58% of LSE’s research was judged to be world-leading and 35% was deemed to be internationally excellent. LSE is home to world-leading sustainability research which has global impact, a passionate community acting to make change, a green campus, and education programmes preparing students for future challenges.

All of this is core to its strategic mission to shape a sustainable world. In a first for UK higher education, LSE was independently verified as carbon neutral for the academic year 2020/21, for all its measured emissions.

LSE continues to develop and change but its founding purpose, “for the betterment of society”, remains as important as ever.