Job Family Group:
Legal Group

Job Description:

At bp lawyers shape the decisions that move our business forward and protect our reputation. Our function is made up of commercial lawyers, partnering with our businesses around the world, and specialists sitting at the centre covering specific areas of capability. Given the scale, complexity and nature of bp's business our legal teams regularly instruct and work with external counsel. This is true across our global operations albeit with a concentration in certain geographies, including the US, UK, Europe and Asia.

We have made many advances in how we build and manage our law firm relationships. We have now decided to move forward once again and create a new team of business professionals with a singular focus on this one area of work. Our intent is to make another step change in the effectiveness and efficiency of our external engagements.

This role, as head of external counsel engagement, will be responsible for leading the newly formed team and developing and implementing engagement strategies. The team will play a critical role in creating the right frameworks and relationships to enable us and the company to succeed in its strategy and objectives. The successful candidate will be a key innovator in the creation of new ways of working and engaging with our law firm partners and drive the continued improvement of our processes, development of our systems and enhancement of how we harness data.

The successful candidate will have experience with pricing matters, applying innovative pricing models and analyzing activity in order to improve the way we work. Managing spend is a key priority for this team.

We are looking for an accomplished leader who has deep capability and experience in legal sourcing, pricing and analytics combined with strong intuition for business and commerciality, a proven track record of innovation and challenging the status quo. Someone who can build and lead a world class team and deliver the step change we are seeking.

What you will do...

• Lead and develop a team of business professionals responsible for our external counsel engagement. Creating a high performance, inclusive team and a psychologically safe environment with a culture of integrity, openness and continuous improvement.
• Role model leadership across the legal function and beyond, setting strategic direction / priorities for themselves and others and acts as a speak-up channel.
• Lead the development and implementation of innovative spend and relationship management frameworks for external counsel including new models and alternative approaches with a particular focus on the US, UK and Asia.
• Design, negotiate, and embed alternative fee arrangements and agreed value-adds in external instructions, working in collaboration with our instructing lawyers. A key focus will be on supporting the negotiation of our most material instructions focusing on pricing and alternative models.
• Support the management and continuous improvement of processes for external counsel engagement and instruction including preparation, analysis and negotiation of RFPs.
• Oversee external legal spend management, tracking, reporting, and insight generation including the maintenance, development and improvement of legal spend platforms.
• Conduct legal market analysis and benchmarking.
• Develop process documentation and deliver relevant training to global legal teams.
• Collaborate across the function to support cost containment.

This is an exciting opportunity that will connect you broadly across our business and collaboration will be key. You will work with a wide range of lawyers across the Legal function, the Legal Operations and legal Innovation teams as well as various members across bp's Finance, Procurement and Technology functions.

What you will bring...

• Leads, develops and motivates high‑performing teams, creating a positive environment that balances performance and wellbeing. Holds teams to account for delivery, behaviours, priorities and performance providing oversight and assurance.
• Strong emotional intelligence, listening actively to diverse perspectives and working in a highly collaborative manner across geographies and cultures.
• Extensive experience in tendering and pricing legal work including RFPs, negotiating rates and alternative fee arrangements. Specific US focused experience, particularly in disputes is highly desirable.
• Experience of innovating, designing and implementing new pricing models, approaches or frameworks. And more generally a demonstrable innovation mentality and a track record of proactively challenging the status quo, experimenting with new approaches and seeking to continuously improve systems, processes ways of working.
• Comfortable managing external counsel engagement around complex, high-value litigation and regulatory spend.
• Strong experience of law firm panel processes, engagement and relationship management. This could be on the law firm side - pitching for and working as part of a panel - and/or on the in-house side - designing and managing large law firm panels - ideally covering both UK and US disputes work.
• Extensive experience of improving and/or designing and implementing legal spend processes and digital platforms, including the tracking, reporting and analysis of relevant data.
• Background in energy, infrastructure, or similarly regulated (e.g. banking), high-spend sectors preferred.
• Strong relationship management, communication and analytical skills.
• Excellent business insight, commercial awareness and risk judgment, making sound decisions on complex high materiality issues.
• Relevant degree or equivalent experience.

Why join us?

We're committed to supporting leaders who want to make an impact. At bp, you'll have the chance to shape and influence outcomes across businesses. You'll be part of an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued, and where your contribution to performance and integration matters. We invest in the growth and wellbeing of our people, providing the resources, networks, and development opportunities needed to thrive.

Our total rewards package includes competitive pay, bonuses, share options, and a range of flexible benefits designed to meet your needs - from healthcare and retirement plans to paid time off and agile working. We recognize that people have multifaceted lives, and we strive to offer a career experience that reflects that.

Apply now!

How much do we pay (Base)? $150k - $225k

*Note that the pay range listed for this position is a genuinely expected and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting.

This position is eligible for US Benefits - Core. This position offers paid vacation depending on your years of relevant industry experience and will range from 120 - 240 hours of vacation per year for full time employees (60 - 240 hours of vacation per year for part time employees). You will also be eligible for 9 paid holidays per year and 2 personal choice holidays. You may learn more about how we calculate paid vacation and view our generous vacation and holiday schedules at Core U.S. Benefits. Bp has a parental leave policy as well, which offers up to 8 weeks' paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child.

We offer a reward package to enable your work to fit with your life. These offerings include a discretionary annual bonus program, long-term incentive program, and generous retirement benefits that include a 401k matching program. These benefits include a pension for eligible employee.
As part of bp's wellbeing package, bp offers access to health, vision, and dental insurance, as well as life and Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability.

You may learn more about our generous benefits at Core U.S. Benefits.

Travel Requirement:
Up to 10% travel should be expected with this role

Relocation Assistance:
This role is not eligible for relocation

Remote Type:
This position is a hybrid of office/remote working

Skills:
Business Acumen, Coaching, Collaboration, Commercial Acumen, Communication, Conflict Management, Creativity and Innovation, Decision Making, Digital Fluency, Influencing, Managing strategic partnerships, Mentoring, Organizational Knowledge, Resource and budget planning, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Supplier Relationship Management

Legal Disclaimer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bp's recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us.

If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.