Senior Legal Counsel
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Posted 4 days ago
About the role
Thomson Reuters is seeking an experienced, commercially minded Senior Legal Counsel to join the General Counsel’s Office team supporting the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa region (Asia and Emerging Markets, AEM).
This role will provide strategic and practical legal support to sales, product, partnerships, compliance and leadership teams across a broad range of commercial, technology and regulatory matters. The successful candidate will be responsible for negotiating complex customer and partner agreements, advising on legal and regulatory risk, and supporting business growth initiatives across multiple jurisdictions. The role will work closely with colleagues across legal, compliance, privacy, product and business teams globally.
About the Role
In this role as Senior Legal Counsel, you will:
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Contracting
- Draft, review and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements, including: SaaS and software licence agreements, Data and content licensing agreements, Professional services agreements, NDAs, Partnership agreements (reseller, channel, alliances, technology integrations) and AI-related commercial arrangements.
- Provide practical, solution-oriented legal advice that balances commercial objectives with legal and regulatory risk.
- Support strategic and high-value customer opportunities, including in the public sector and regulated-industry.
- Advise on intellectual property rights, licence structures, indemnities, liability allocation and commercial risk.
- Advise on procurement requirements, localisation obligations and contracting practices relevant to, in particular, Middle Eastern jurisdictions.
- Assist business stakeholders in evaluating and structuring new routes to market.
- Partner with internal stakeholders to facilitate efficient deal closure and business execution within the region.
AI, Data and Technology
- Be comfortable advising on legal, contractual and regulatory issues relating to AI-enabled products and services.
- Review and negotiate terms relating to: AI functionality, Data governance, Data use rights, Intellectual property ownership and risk allocation and liability.
- Work closely with product, privacy and compliance teams on emerging legal and regulatory developments affecting AI technologies.
Regulatory, Compliance and Risk Management
- Help to identify, assess and mitigate legal and regulatory risks associated with business initiatives.
- Together with SMEs, provide advice on: Privacy and data protection, Anti-corruption and compliance issues, governance obligations and consumer and commercial law matters
- Develop and deliver legal training and guidance materials for business stakeholders.
- Maintain awareness of evolving legal and regulatory developments across the region.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- The role will have a primary focus on the Middle East and Africa, but must be comfortable to flex and support colleagues across the AEM region during team absences and critical business windows.
- Build trusted relationships with stakeholders across Sales, Professional Services, Product, Finance, Revenue Operations, Compliance, GCO and Leadership teams.
- Collaborate with lawyers and subject matter experts across Thomson Reuters globally.
- Contribute to process improvements, template development, playbooks and legal operations initiatives designed to improve efficiency and consistency.
About You
You’re a fit for the role of Senior Legal Counsel if you have the following required qualifications:
Required
- Law degree and admission to practice in a relevant jurisdiction.
- Approximately 5-10 years' post-qualification legal experience.
- Significant experience negotiating and drafting complex commercial agreements.
- Strong understanding of technology, SaaS, software licensing and commercial contracting.
- Experience supporting multinational organisations across multiple jurisdictions.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong commercial judgement and ability to deliver practical legal advice.
- Proven ability to manage multiple priorities independently in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
- Business fluency in English.
Preferred
- In-house legal experience within a technology, information services or software business.
- Experience supporting Middle East markets.
- Experience advising on AI-enabled products and services.
- Experience advising on privacy, cybersecurity and data governance matters.
- Familiarity with public sector, government or regulated-industry contracting.
- Business fluency in Arabic.
The successful candidate will:
- Be a commercially pragmatic lawyer who enables business growth while appropriately managing risk.
- Exercise sound judgement in complex and fast-moving situations.
- Build credibility quickly with senior business stakeholders.
- Operate effectively across multiple jurisdictions, cultures and business functions.
- Demonstrate curiosity regarding emerging technologies, including AI, and their impact on customers, products and contracting practices.
- Thrive in a highly collaborative, international environment.
#LI-AB3
What’s in it For You?
Hybrid Work Model: We’ve adopted a flexible hybrid working environment (2-3 days a week in the office depending on the role) for our office-based roles while delivering a seamless experience that is digitally and physically connected.
Flexibility & Work-Life Balance: Flex My Way is a set of supportive workplace policies designed to help manage personal and professional responsibilities, whether caring for family, giving back to the community, or finding time to refresh and reset. This builds upon our flexible work arrangements, including work from anywhere for up to 8 weeks per year, empowering employees to achieve a better work-life balance.
Career Development and Growth: By fostering a culture of continuous learning and skill development, we prepare our talent to tackle tomorrow’s challenges and deliver real-world solutions. Our Grow My Way programming and skills-first approach ensures you have the tools and knowledge to grow, lead, and thrive in an AI-enabled future.
Industry Competitive Benefits: We offer comprehensive benefit plans to include flexible vacation, two company-wide Mental Health Days off, access to the Headspace app, retirement savings, tuition reimbursement, employee incentive programs, and resources for mental, physical, and financial wellbeing.
Culture: Globally recognized, award-winning reputation for inclusion and belonging, flexibility, work-life balance, and more. We live by our values: Obsess over our Customers, Compete to Win, Challenge (Y)our Thinking, Act Fast / Learn Fast, and Stronger Together.
Social Impact: Make an impact in your community with our Social Impact Institute. We offer employees two paid volunteer days off annually and opportunities to get involved with pro-bono consulting projects and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
Making a Real-World Impact: We are one of the few companies globally that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together, with the professionals and institutions we serve, we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world.
About Us
Thomson Reuters informs the way forward by bringing together the trusted content and technology that people and organizations need to make the right decisions. We serve professionals across legal, tax, accounting, compliance, government, and media. Our products combine highly specialized software and insights to empower professionals with the data, intelligence, and solutions needed to make informed decisions, and to help institutions in their pursuit of justice, truth, and transparency. Reuters, part of Thomson Reuters, is a world leading provider of trusted journalism and news.
We are powered by the talents of 26,000 employees across more than 70 countries, where everyone has a chance to contribute and grow professionally in flexible work environments. At a time when objectivity, accuracy, fairness, and transparency are under attack, we consider it our duty to pursue them. Sound exciting? Join us and help shape the industries that move society forward.
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