Primary Legal Counsel - Canada
- Serve as Primary Counsel to Diageo Canada, Inc., providing the highest quality legal/strategic guidance and support to the Canada Executive team and its business partners across Demand and Supply
- Member of the North American legal team, delivering world class legal support, including with respect to wide variety of contracts, compliance, and other commercial matters
- Ensure compliance with Canadian laws, regulations, and applicable policy
- Oversight of corporate governance from a legal perspective
- Ensure effective and tight management of external counsel within budget
- Represent Diageo North America before federal and provincial agencies
- Advise internal clients on key legal and regulatory considerations
- Effectively partner with Diageo North America to deliver consistent strategic training, advice and practices throughout Canada
Financial Responsibility
- Manage vendor/outside counsel fees for ongoing and special projects or activities
- Advise internal clients on matters related to settlement of legal, regulatory and compliance matters, and negotiate same
Complexity of Role
- Strategic business partnering and legal support to Canada exec and business functions
- Partner with and provide service to regulatory, compliance, and corporate specialists at all levels of the organization
- Oversight of corporate governance from a legal perspective
- Regular interaction and negotiations with federal and provincial agencies
- Wide variety of commercial transactions and general business/legal support across Demand and Supply
- Ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously across business units
- Ability to effectively partner with Diageo North America management teams, advising and coaching teams on a variety of corporate, regulatory, and compliance related issues, which impact the entire organization
Management Responsibility
- Supervise teams of outside counsel and various consultants
- Lead project teams within Diageo Canada to create necessary practice, policy and procedure to assure legal compliance
- Provide strategic input to the organization on the management of large projects, and effectively supervising in their implementation
Decision Making
- Advise and coach management on all issues related to compliance
- Provide strategic risk assessment advice on multi-layered and complex projects
- Establish and maintain strictest standards for legal compliance across all facets of Diageo North America’s business
- Represent Diageo Canada in various files, disputes, and investigations relating to compliance in Canada
- Determine and implement best practices with respect to communications, interplay, and on-going relationships with provincial and federal Canadian regulators
Key Outputs/Deliverables
- Proactively contribute to North American Legal Team, Diageo Canada Executive, corporate management, work sessions, training opportunities and initiatives
- Create, launch, and administer internal compliance auditing systems and ensure successful on-going implementation of compliance audit systems
- Create a culture of best practices within Canadian operations
- Effectively represent Diageo Canada before various federal and provincial administrative agencies
- Establish proactive, open-door policies available to all Diageo Canada relating to compliance
- Ensure best practices govern external counsel management
Experience
- BA/BS undergraduate degree, J.D. or LL.B Degree and a provincial bar admission, preferably Ontario
- Minimum of 6 years legal experience working in energetic and multitasking legal environment
- Proven track record in representing management of corporate and compliance files
- Superior oral, written, and inter-personal skills
- Sound drafter and negotiator
- Proven business judgment and risk assessment skills
Primary Legal Counsel - Canada
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