Principal Corporate Counsel

Turn experience into opportunity. Leverage your accomplishments to get the kind of employment you’ve always wanted: cutting edge issues, world class clients with the collaboration and support of a global community of seasoned professionals.

If you are ready to work directly with business leaders and their teams to solve problems and drive change, then a career with the Microsoft legal team is for you. We have an immediate opening for a highly motivated attorney to join the Microsoft UK subsidiary’s Corporate, External and Legal Affairs team (CELA) to provide generalist legal services across a range of matters and across the full breadth and depth of Microsoft’s customers’ industries, including commercial and contentious matters.

This Attorney will work as part of a team supporting the Microsoft UK subsidiary at our offices in London and will report to the UK CELA Head of Legal. This individual will be responsible for providing comprehensive legal guidance to the business across our intelligent cloud, operating system and business processes (including Azure, Azure Open AI, AI Copilots, Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Windows, Surface, data security & artificial intelligence) as well as our consumer products and services (devices, gaming, email clients, data subject access requests etc). This will include both commercial legal advice as well as management of a range of contentious matters, both enterprise and consumer.

Our customers are in the midst of game-changing digital transformations and this attorney will have frequent contact with all levels of Microsoft account teams, industry teams, technical experts, outside partners, customer service, customers and vendors as well as our regional and global CELA teams. Experience as a generalist supporting a range of matters and the operational elements of legal services provision desired.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctorate Degree or Equivalent International Degree OR Completion of a Legal Apprenticeship.
• Active license to practice law in a jurisdiction and capable of meeting admission requirements in relevant jurisdiction.
• Experience as a practicing attorney OR equivalent practice of law.

Additional or Preferred Qualifications

• Experience as an attorney in specialized practice area (e.g., tax, employment, copyright).
• In-house counsel experience.

Primary Duties:

• Acts as the primary legal contact for a a breadth of UK Subsidiary commercial and contenitous legal matters.
• Develop creative solutions for the repeatable standard support to prioritize higher-impact or more complex legal matters.
• Provide input into the review, drafting and negotiation of a wide range commercial contracts, including licensing and framework agreements, letters of support, MoU’s, term sheets and responses to RFPs and tenders.
• Provide proactive legal and business counseling on a broad range of topics, including related UK laws, contracting issues, data protection, security, intellectual property and licensing, responsible design of AI, competition/anti-trust, general commercial law, contract interpretation, contentious matters and regulatory compliance.

Legal Advice and Counsel

• Acts as the primary legal contact (generalist or subject matter expert) for a product, product feature, sales team, business team, or corporate function; executes and/or resolves moderate-impact legal matters.
• Serves as an important contributor to clients and colleagues by providing actionable advice on legal and related business matters (e.g., privacy, intellectual property, regulatory compliance) grounded in in-depth understanding of product.
• Identifies and anticipates legal risks in the client's business, technology, and/or public policy, and develops solutions to mitigate future risk.
• Manages day to day interactions with outside counsel or other service providers to address and resolve issues.
• Structures, drafts, and negotiates transactional documents (e.g., standard agreements with third parties).
• Conducts, reviews, interprets, and analyzes legal information; cultivates an understanding of legal principles within primary legal practice area and a basic understanding of legal principles outside of primary area.
• Monitors business activity to ensure legal compliance policies/standards are followed; advises and helps clients understand compliance issues, identifies risks including anti-trust/anti-corruption, and offers solutions.
• Identifies and engages appropriate stakeholders in Legal and Corporate Affairs and business to escalate issues.

Representing Microsoft

• Actively participates in legal, work, or industry associations (e.g., presenting at meetings, conferences, hearings, consultations, assisting in planning or preparing presentations); contributes to external outreach initiatives and recruiting.
• Develops positive relationships with external legal professionals, customers, or partners in an effort to protect and advocate Microsoft's interests; coordinates with government affairs professionals to obtain alignment in policy strategy for public entities.

Operational Excellence

• Engages with legal and other business colleagues (e.g. business desk, finance, tax and trade, compliance) to identify and share best practices.
• Provides continuous feedback and contributes to the improvement of project operational efficiencies; provides recommendations to improve efficiencies within work group and for the delivery of legal services to clients.
• Manages project work expenses according to budget and proposes efficiencies.
• Models compliance and maintains confidentiality, attorney-client privilege, privacy, and the security of data.

Communication

• Collaborates effectively within work group and across Legal and Corporate Affairs functions on client issues.
• Organizes and simplifies issues and ideas in written and verbal communication.

This employer is a corporate member of myGwork - LGBTQ professionals, the business community for LGBTQ professionals, students, inclusive employers & anyone who believes in workplace equality.

• What experience do you have as a practicing attorney or equivalent practice of law?
• Do you have experience as an attorney in a specialized practice area?
• Are you familiar with UK laws and regulations?
• Have you worked on commercial contracts, including licensing and framework agreements?
• Can you provide legal guidance on data protection, security, and intellectual property?
• How do you prioritize legal matters and manage your workload?
• Can you provide examples of mitigating legal risks in a business or technology setting?
• Have you worked with outside counsel or service providers to address legal issues?
• Can you give examples of transactional documents you have drafted and negotiated?
• How do you stay updated on legal principles and compliance standards?

• What are the key responsibilities and tasks of this role?
• What are the main challenges and opportunities I will face in this position?
• Can you provide more information about the types of commercial and contentious matters I will be working on?
• What is the culture and working environment like within the Microsoft legal team?
• How does Microsoft support professional development and growth for its legal professionals?