Description:

The Position:
These are your key tasks:

Key role within the Commercial Legal Team, with responsibility for the management of all A Football Association trademarks, copyrights and designs. Acting as the key point of contact and providing day to day advice to legal colleagues, internal clients and senior management on a range of intellectual property (IP) issues.
Multijurisdictional trademark and design portfolio management, optimization and strategy, including filing strategy, IP related regulatory advice, overcoming obstacles to registration, renewals and pruning exercises to achieve costs savings.
Staying current with legal developments, best practices and benchmarks in IP law and assist internal clients in implementing policies and procedures in response thereto.
Establishing and communicating the IP strategy for trademark, design and copyright clearance, filing, prosecution, litigation and disputes (proactive and defensive) and advisory work.
Effectively building and maintaining strong external and internal relations at a senior level and across global offices.
Providing guidance and recommendations on IP strategy, policy and practice to the A Football Association legal colleagues, internal clients and senior management.
Overseeing global pre-launch trademark clearance projects, including advising on legal and practical risks of launching products and online/offline communication materials and any risk mitigations steps available.
Providing IP advisory support including multijurisdictional copyright clearance and advice, copyright registration, internal and external copyrights licensing questions, assignment agreements, use of third-party trademarks and FIFA trademarks, IP clauses in commercial agreements, website content, IP waivers and other issues.
Leading the global dispute strategy (cancellations, oppositions and litigation) before IP registries, courts and customs authorities.
Supporting the global brand protection teams at A Football Association.
Drafting, negotiating and advising on a broad range of IP related commercial agreements and management of IP transactional work including licensing and IP due diligence exercises.
Management of a substantial IP budget, operating to maximize budget and resource efficiencies.
Best practice outside counsel management, including outside counsel selection.
Extensive cross-functional collaboration with internal clients and stakeholders.
Guiding other team members and developing more junior team members.
Supporting A Football Association's subsidiaries, including the A Football Association Museum, and the A Football Association Foundation with any IP related issues.
Delivering internal legal training and ad hoc advice on issues relating to A Football Association's IP practices and strategies.

YOUR PROFILE
We work hard at A Football Association.
We are dedicated, ambitious and innovative.
And we respect our values. Always.

For all roles, we seek talented people with an entrepreneurial spirit and a global mindset.

The specific competencies we require for this position are:

Minimum of 8-10 years expertise "on the job" in a multinational IP team with global IP experience in either an in-house IP department or a reputable law firm focusing on intellectual property support for multinationals.
Fully qualified to practice law (registered on the roll / admitted to the bar of an appropriate jurisdiction) having completed all necessary academic and practical training
First class written and spoken English language skills, consistent with drafting and negotiating complex, high value and nuanced English language agreements.
Ability to provide and communicate effectively practical and solutions-based legal advice
Excellent understanding of the sports marketing, sports merchandising, licensing, retail, digital marketing, sponsorship, licensing, e-commerce and business intelligence industry landscapes
Excellent negotiation, drafting, problem solving and analytical skills
Structured, reliable, well-organized with a strong eye for detail
Ability to perform consistently within a high-performing team, fostering collaboration, driving results, and ensuring the successful achievement of organizational goals.
Strong commercial acumen with an ability to transfer legal knowledge into commercially and operationally oriented solutions
Proactive, with a strong sense of personal responsibility with an ability to work autonomously on a wide variety of projects
Resilient with an ability to competently handle a large workload amid rapidly shifting priorities.
Open-minded team player with an affinity for working within a variety of cultures and excellent communication skills
High degree of professionalism and confident demeanor
Ability to be a good ambassador for A Football Association in all manner of external facing situations, including during contractual negotiations, external workshops and during A Football Association competition-related assignments
Ability to create, develop and maintain strong and reliable relationships with A Football Association senior management as well as external legal and commercial counterparts
Willingness to operate outside of comfort zone
Takes initiative to reflect on how to improve and develop working styles and methods to assist the organization and internal clients
Native level English (or equivalent), consistent with requirement to draft and negotiate complex and nuanced English language agreements and advice.
Proficiency in any other A Football Association language (French/Spanish) is an asset but not required
Proficient in Word / PowerPoint / Excel
Comfortable with international travel