Buyside Contracting Counsel Manager

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.

Legal Buyside Contracting Role Summary – 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.

Specific Responsibilities aligned to Role

• 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.

Generic Responsibilities

• 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 reportees, 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
• Commit to ‘give back’ to GLN/Legal

Management Level Description

Complexity:

• Requires identifying and assessing complex problems for area of responsibility. Creates solutions in situations in which analysis requires an in-depth evaluation of variable factors.
• Requires adherence to strategic direction set by senior management when establishing near-term goals.
• Interaction is with senior management of the team, internal stakeholders third party vendors, contractors subcontractors etc., involving matters that may require acceptance of an alternate approach..

Authority: Latitude in decision-making. Acts independently to determine methods and procedures on new assignments.

Impact or Decision Impact: Decisions have a major day to day impact on area of responsibility.

Scope: Might manages large - medium sized teams and/or work efforts (if in an individual contributor role).

Relationships:

Supervises:

• Team members providing services on a process/project or account/portfolio of accounts

External Relationships:

• Procurement, Business Executives, Contract Management, Outside counsels, Vendors, Corporate Function related stakeholders like HR, Workplace etc.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Law

Certifications and Membership:

• Contract related global professional certification considered a plus

Work Experience:

• Minimum of 13 years of experience at law firm or as in-house counsel and/or in legal outsourcing

Knowledge and Skill Requirements:

• Expert level understanding of both commercial and legal contractual risks and displays ability to provide business-oriented legal advice
• Fluent in English with strong oral and written skills
• 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

Behaviours and Attributes:

• Open to work with and understand cross-cultures and locations throughout Accenture global organization 
• Understand the value of diversity and recognize the strengths that different styles, innovative perspectives and experiences bring to Accenture 
• Demonstrate inclusion and respect for all individuals regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, belief, age, disability, culture, social status and/or sexuality 
• Leader as well as team player, collaborative and persuasive; able to work well with executives and non-executives.

Work Requirements:

• Travel may be required

• Fluency in English and/ other language, depending on geography supported with very strong oral and written communication skills.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities.

Visit us atwww.accenture.com

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