Buyside Contracting Counsel Manager

Accenture•Chicago, IL

19h

About The Position

Accenture is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. Accenture will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Accenture encourages applicants of all ages. Global Legal Network (GLN) is a group of professionals operating globally from 10 countries. It provides a broad spectrum of differentiated services - focused on delivering value and innovation. We partner with Legal teams across Accenture to build efficiencies and centres of excellence related to Legal services; and through our size, geographic spread and language diversity, the Global Legal Network is able to drive quality, agility and speed in our services, aligned to Accenture’s relentless focus on maximum efficiency and operational effectiveness. Legal Buyside Contracting is a focused legal function for third party contracting. The team is involved with drafting, reviewing and negotiating third party supplier contracts for Accenture and acts as a legal advisory services function leveraging technology to deliver support.

Requirements

Minimum of 7 years of experience at a law firm or as in-house counsel and/or in legal outsourcing reviewing, drafting and negotiating IT contracts and any other general purchase contracts
Juris Doctor and licensed to practice in at least one US jurisdiction

Nice To Haves

Expert level understanding of both commercial and legal contractual risks and displays ability to provide business-oriented legal advice
E xperience in managing AI related contracts
Contract related global professional certification considered a plus
Experience in managing end-to-end projects and teams on function specific processes and/or areas, work with internal and external teams, and understands delivery requirements
Demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills, is detail-oriented, has sound judgement, is adaptable, demonstrate promptness, accuracy, and consistency with the activities supported, and drive tasks to closure, has strong time management, prioritization, organizational skills
Build trust-based relationships by delivering on commitments, ability to work under pressure, with exposure to senior management
Effectively manage priorities and stakeholder expectations
Able to effectively influence senior management.
Good understanding of Accenture offerings and function specific services performed, very good understanding of commercial agreements, legal and compliance fundamentals, corporate business practices, and contracting regulations
Comfortable with technology and has experience in the use of tools & databases

Responsibilities

To provide comprehensive legal support to Procurement and Business teams which includes drafting, reviewing, negotiation and execution of contracts, NDA’s and other documents relevant to procurement support in accordance with company policies and procedures, applicable laws and customer requirements.
Provide advisory support to procurement and business teams by driving the creation of templates, standardize the templates, maintain and continuously improve the standard contracts templates and procedures for complex buyside deals in accordance with changing laws and company policies.
Develop specialized subject-matter expertise in support area to seamlessly address any potential risks or issues.
Draft, review and negotiate high value and high complex supplier/buyside agreements and similar/related documentation with Accenture suppliers, to procure various goods and services including but not limited to Contactors, Human Resources Support, IT & Telecom, Marketing & Communications, Workplace Support (Facilities & Services), Software as a Service etc. in accordance with Accenture’s supplier’s contracting standards, applicable laws, and business requirements.
Address complex contract queries and matters regarding contract negotiations, obligations and revisions.
Identify risks and issues, suggest alternatives that lead to the best solutions. In this regard effectively manage the internal stakeholders such as deal teams, Solution Architects, Procurement, HR, Workplace, Finance, Marketing & Communications etc.,
Strategize with company executives prior to vendor negotiations and represent the company’s interests and liaise directly with vendor negotiating teams for legal point on complex contract reviews with high stakes for the company.
Act as a point of contact from legal and work closely with the stakeholders to help them understand the contractual clauses in terms of interpretation and its applicability in the contract basis the business opportunity.
Advise the Business from legal perspective to address the potential contractual risks that may pose as risks to Accenture business operations.
Conduct gap analysis and create legal risk assessment by identifying and flagging potential risks to Accenture and/or clauses which are non-negotiable.
Provide recommendations to Business and other related stakeholders to sensitize them on the extent of risk Accenture exposes itself in context of the services and to minimize or mitigate such risks effectively.
Educate and bring awareness to the Business teams and other relevant stakeholders with respect to vendor contracting practice and risk management issues
Structure the legal transactions to be most advantageous from a contracting and business perspective and manage escalations
Autonomously works across all categories and complexities of contractual agreements with vendor/clients deals including reviewing, advising and negotiating legal issues.
Assign & Manage Tasks to the team
Manages escalations of serious or unresolved issues in accordance with prescribed guidelines and ensures all interested parties are kept informed and escalation controlled.
Responsible for consultation and escalation to a senior director, of contractual, business or resource positioning issues which are not solved satisfactorily by the project team in a timely manner.
Collaborate with other functional leads, sub leads to strategize and develop additional capabilities and create efficiencies within the team
Manage the team and performance related aspects of the team (not applicable to individuals working as an independent contributor)
Supervise the management of SharePoint and communication records, ensure creation of checklists and other process documents
Effective management of team, including execution of performance management of direct reports, sub leads, rewarding high performance and correcting deficiencies, demonstrate ability to manage conflict effectively and achieve required team utilization levels
Regularly conducts audit of the work done by the team members, provides reports to the leadership on the gaps observed. Responsible for ensuring such gaps are closed by the respective team members.
Understand company's approval processes in context of the services and ensure that all stakeholders are timely engaged and informed on the relevant process including understanding the Code of Business Ethics (COBE), Data Privacy &, Information Security Anti-Corruption Laws and related policies and apply the same to ensure compliance and manage the Accenture deals within the procurement or Corporate Functions domain.
Create and develop training materials for the team as well as to the internal stakeholders to ensure transactions are completed in accordance with applicable company policies, procedures and local laws.
Work with the leadership team closely to identify and implement new trainings for the team.
Lead, support, promote and implement initiatives and trainings within the group.
Develop and implement internal best practices, lessons learnt, playbook and toolkits, and packaged knowledge on various vendor contracting and business issues.
Stay updated on the leadership vision and developments affecting the company, its clients, and industries and orchestrate the information to incorporate it into company’s vendor contracting practices.
Provide Legal support in the review of local & global Data Privacy initiatives. Identify risks according to local law and Accenture policies and flag potential issues.
Identify process improvements and effectively lead the team in developing/drafting of guidelines, handbooks, know how material, checklists and process/tools associated documents (global/regional and local) for standardizing the process.
Collaborate with tech teams in development of new tool or enhancement of existing ones
Drive and manage the recruitment process for the team. Act as a point of contact from the team and closely work with HR in terms of conducting interviews.
Provide coaching and mentoring to junior members of the team, effective management of direct reports and team; quick conflict resolution, provide feedback to team members and drive talent discussions for the team