CHANEL
Senior Legal Counsel - Legal Operations
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Location: London, United Kingdom
Reports to: Head of CLO Office and Legal Operations
Position Overview
Reporting to the Head of CLO Office and Legal Operations in the Global Corporate Legal function, you will play a vital role in leading Legal Operations matters within the Global Legal Team. You will be impactful in driving efficiency, optimising processes, and ensuring the seamless functioning of Legal Operations at CHANEL. You are able to use your strategic mindset, exceptional organisational skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively in cross-functional, global teams. Through exploring innovative solutions and process efficiencies you will support the department’s strong ambition to continuously enhance legal service delivery for internal clients in an AI augmented environment.
We are looking for a Senior Legal Counsel – Legal Operations to join our Global Corporate Legal function in London. In this role, you will be at the heart of CHANEL's legal transformation journey – driving high-impact projects, shaping the future legal operating model impacted by AI, and delivering insights that elevate how our Legal team operates worldwide.
This is a unique opportunity for a senior legal professional with 8 to 10 years of post-qualification experience who thrives at the intersection of law, strategy, data and operational excellence, and who is ready to take ownership of high-impact legal operations initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio & Project Management
- Lead and coordinate a portfolio of strategic legal operations projects and closely working with the Legal Leadership Team (LLT) and their teams, that directly shape and deploy a future legal operating model of the Legal department – including the integration of AI – spanning external counsel management, legal support functions and in-house teams.
- Act as the central point of contact for tracking, prioritising and orchestrating all cross-functional projects and department-wide initiatives.
- Identify process improvements and implement best practices to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of legal service delivery, backed by defined KPIs and metrics.
- Leverage AI, technology and automation to streamline workflows and reduce turnaround times.
- Leading strategic projects and portfolios that require launches, changes and implementation across different geographies.
Legal Department Strategy
- Actively contribute to defining and executing the Legal Function and Legal Operations strategy in alignment and sync in supporting broader Chanel Business Strategy.
- Partner closely with the Head of Legal Operations to co-design and independently drive the rollout of transformation initiatives over a multi-year horizon.
- Collaborate closely with the Legal Leadership Team, IT partners, métiers teams and cross-functional stakeholders to drive change management and stakeholder engagement.
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Strategic Presentations & Executive Communication
- Prepare and deliver high-quality strategic presentations for top management.
- Draft governance documents, reports, speeches and key communications on behalf of the Legal Operations team and the Global Chief Legal Officer.
- Translate complex operational data and project outcomes into clear, compelling narratives for senior stakeholders.
Legal Operations Community Leadership
- Animate and develop a global Legal Operations community to foster synergies, share best practices and drive consistency in legal ops projects across regions.
- Champion the professionalisation of Legal Operations and its positive impact on Legal service delivery for internal clients.
- Organise and deliver legal events and team engagement initiatives that strengthen the global Legal team culture.
KPI Analysis & Performance Reporting
- Track, analyse and report on key legal performance metrics, building dashboards and regular reporting for legal leadership.
- Monitor operational efficiency indicators and proactively identify areas for improvement.
Legal Technology
- Work with the Legal Operations Team and Legal IT to oversee the legal technology ecosystem, including the implementation, review and management of legal tech tools globally.
Required Profile / Qualifications
- Qualified lawyer with 8 to 10 years of post-qualification experience, including substantial in-house experience within a global or multinational company.
- A proven track record in legal operations, legal project management or legal transformation is expected.
- Excellent written and spoken English; additional language skills are a plus but not essential.
- Strong understanding of agentic AI, including its potential, capabilities and legal use cases and of responsible AI usage, with the ability to apply this understanding to real legal operations use cases.
- Genuine interest in AI, legal technology and hands-on experience using or implementing relevant tools.
- Strong understanding of how global legal teams operate within complex, matrixed organisations.
- Data analytics experience is a plus: you are comfortable working with data, building dashboards, and turning metrics into actionable insights.
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Skills & Competencies
- Project management excellence: proven ability to manage multiple strategic projects simultaneously, with rigour, autonomy and a results-driven mindset. Relevant certification in project management is added asset.
- Strategic thinking: capacity to see the big picture, connect operational work to departmental strategy, and contribute meaningfully to long-term planning and short term wins.
- Executive-level communication: exceptional presentation and storytelling skills, with the confidence to engage C-suite and senior leadership audiences.
- Change management: ability to support Head of Legal Operations to lead structuring, transformational projects and guide teams through change, bringing stakeholders along with clarity, empathy and a pragmatic approach to adoption.
- Data & analytics fluency: strong analytical skills with experience in KPI tracking, performance dashboards and data-driven decision-making.
- Community building: natural ability to engage, energise and coordinate diverse stakeholders across geographies and functions.
- Stakeholder management: outstanding interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to build authentic, trust-based relationships at all levels.
- Curiosity & innovation: passion for exploring new technologies, industry trends and creative solutions that drive efficiency and impact.
- Resilience & agility: comfort with ambiguity and the ability to adapt quickly in a fast-moving, high-standards environment.
What You Will Gain from This Experience
- A central role in a dynamic, high-performing Legal team where transformation, innovation and excellence are at the core.
- The opportunity to shape the future of Legal Operations within one of the world's most iconic luxury houses.
- Collaboration with a global community of talented legal professionals committed to pushing boundaries and delivering exceptional service.
What Chanel Can Offer You
At Chanel, we want people to be able to perform at their best and feel confident in their work. We offer an attractive, welcoming and inclusive workplace in which we strive to nurture personal growth, contributing to collective progress. We value the uniqueness of perspectives, experiences and potentials of each individual and believe that they will increase the effectiveness of our teams. Our core values are excellence, integrity, curiosity, generosity, collaboration and delivering best-in-class legal services. We strongly encourage your application, as we value the perspective, experience and potential you could bring to CHANEL.
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