Royal Academy of Arts
General Counsel
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The Vacancy
The Royal Academy of Arts is currently looking to appoint an experienced, strategic and commercially minded lawyer to join the RA as our new General Counsel.
Leading the RA’s Legal department, this role will provide legal and governance advice and support across the organisation, its wholly owned trading subsidiaries and connected charities. Reporting to the Chief Financial Officer, the General Counsel will work closely with senior colleagues, Council, the President and the Secretary and Chief Executive, providing trusted advice across the full range of the RA’s activities.
The postholder will lead on a broad range of legal and governance matters, including commercial contracts, intellectual property, data protection, charity and company law, property, employment, regulatory and compliance matters, as well as litigation and disputes. This role will also have responsibility for company secretarial services, the RA’s governance framework and risk, and the management of external legal advisers and legal spend.
The General Counsel will play a key role in supporting the RA to manage legal, regulatory and reputational risk, while ensuring that legal advice is practical, proportionate and aligned with the organisation’s charitable, strategic and commercial objectives. The General Counsel will also act as the organisation’s Data Protection Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer.
About You
To be considered for this role, you will be a UK qualified solicitor or barrister with significant post-qualification experience and a strong track record of providing high quality legal advice at a senior level. You will have substantial commercial and contract law experience, excellent drafting skills and a strong working knowledge of intellectual property, company secretarial requirements and charity and company law. Expert knowledge and experience of data protection law is also essential.
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You will be a confident and credible adviser, able to build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders and provide clear, pragmatic and well balanced advice, including on complex or sensitive matters. Commercially astute and strategic in your thinking, you will understand the wider context in which legal advice is being provided and be able to balance risk with the RA’s strategic, commercial and charitable objectives. You will bring sound judgement, excellent analytical and problem solving skills and a calm and measured approach to working.
Experience of working within the charity sector, a membership organisation or the arts and culture sector would be desirable, as would an interest in the RA’s charitable aims.
The Company
The RA dates way back to 1768 when a group of artists and architects persuaded King George lll to help them to ‘establish a society for promoting the Art of Design'. The original academy, in Pall Mall, was less than 10 meters long. Since then, there have been many changes, though the RA’s core purpose of bringing art and design to a broad audience and championing art and artists still holds true.
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Today we are a contemporary art organisation hosting internationally acclaimed exhibitions and through investment in employee training and development, with courses such as Unconscious Bias, LGBTQ+ Awareness, Bystander, and Mental Health First Aid training, we are striving to foster a safe space for everyone through positive action. We also have Employee Network Groups, Ways In Groups, and an Employee Council so every employee has a voice and a way to feel heard by colleagues through the CEO.
The RA is truly a unique place, both as an attraction to our visitors, but also as a workplace. Our people are at the heart of all we do, and we support a broad and inspiring mix of departments; from exhibitions, curators, art handlers, researchers, publishers, and digital to schools and education, visitor welcome, fundraisers, and corporate support.
The Benefits
Exhibitions
- Reciprocal Agreements with galleries across the UK
Enhanced Pension
- Generous employer contributions
Enhanced Holiday
- 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
Wellbeing
- Access to a virtual GP Service and Mental Health First Aiders
Agile Working
- The opportunity to work flexibly
RA Staff Council
- Where your views are heard and listened to
Employee Clubs
- Football, Staff Choir and more
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