Head of Legal

About us

Dealing with death is hard, and here at Farewill we are on a mission to change that. We use technology to seamlessly connect beautifully designed online experiences with world–class human support that makes every death a simple, affordable, brighter goodbye. We started in December 2016 when we launched our online wills business. Since then we've launched our probate and funeral businesses, raised GBP800m+ in pledged income for Charities, built a team of 70 Farewillians, and raised capital from some brilliant investors. We've won a tonne of awards and have through–the–roof NPS & Trustpilot scores.

Role overview

As one of the most forward thinking consumer legal businesses in Europe, we're looking for a commercially–minded, experienced, versatile Head of Legal to build us a world class legal function and be an integral part of our leadership team. As Head of Legal you'll define what good looks like for an in–house legal team, building a commercial, adaptable legal team that can support the varied needs of our business as we scale.

You'll be responsible for general counsel on all matters legal, including but not limited to contracts, corporate, fundraising, employment, data protection and intellectual property. You'll also be part of pitches and negotiations with major partners (e.g. our partnerships with providers of local cremation services) and actively build our public profile with key external stakeholders and regulators.

We are looking for a senior self–starter who will embed themselves and their team into all areas of the business to proactively and continuously identify how best to support our evolving needs. You will genuinely care about protecting our customers, and will take full ownership of managing our legal risks. You will be an experienced operator who understands how to practically apply their legal skills in a business context and who sees their job as not just managing risk but also enabling speed and competitive advantage.

As well as being a brilliant business–minded lawyer, you will be experienced in FCA and potentially also SRA regulation, and ready to become our in–house expert who helps us navigate our regulatory requirements including as we launch funeral plans (our first financial product). With the support of our external advisors, you will stay abreast of developments in the regulatory environment and ensure our continued compliance. You will interpret and apply regulations to support and protect our business and our customers whilst minimising onerous processes.

You will report into our VP Finance & work closely with the whole executive team including CEO, CCO, VP People, VP Engineering. Initially you will have a team of two product experts on wills and probate law and one Compliance Officer It's very likely that you will be part time (we are balancing a requirement for seniority vs. our budget), and you will work hybrid – our full time staff work a minimum of two days per week in our east London office (Haggerston).

Your objectives

1. Get things right: On legal and regulatory content, the buck will stop with you – we need a safe pair of hands who takes full ownership of this vital part of our business and does not drop balls or fail to manage risks

2. Enable growth: We are a scaling company with big ambitions and we get things done fast

3. Build our legal reputation: We are a leading legal tech company and our Head of Legal must be a brand ambassador who lives and breathes our product and mission publicly

• Functional leadership: Lead the vision and execution of our legal function
• Product design: Ensure a flawless customer experience on the legal aspects of our products and services
• General legal management: Lead on all company legal matters (including making decisions on when to appoint external counsel vs. to handle fully internally)
• Regulation content expert: Be our in–house expert on all things FCA and SRA, translate regulation into effective company processes that protect us and our customers
• Regulatory reporting: Manage process and content of necessary filings
• Risk management: Continuously identify, manage, and mitigate and advise on risk across the business
• Brand ambassadorship: Build our public profile in professional networks, with regulators and other influential external stakeholders
• Contract management: Draft, review and negotiate contracts including partnership agreements (e.g. charity wills partners), supplier agreements and employment contracts
• Privacy and data protection: Work cross–functionally to develop and implement policies and processes that comply with GDPR and all relevant laws
• Employment law: Advise on all employment matters including hiring, firing, employment contracts, workplace policies
• Corporate transactions: Support fundraising processes, equity transactions and other corporate finance matters
• Company secretarial and corporate governance: Support creation of board materials, resolutions and corporate filings
• Intellectual property protection: Oversee protection of our IP including trademarks

• Qualified solicitor (UK)6+ years post qualification experience
• 2+ years building legal functions in–house, preferably for start–ups/scale–ups
• Previous experience working in a FCA regulated business.
• Nice to have: previous experience working in an SRA regulated business
• Super smart, pragmatic and able to prioritise limited time and resources to get stuff done
• Great communicator who can synthesise complex information to key actionable points that busy stakeholders around the business can understand and comply with
• Organised and reliable, a safe pair of hands who will properly manage our risks and will not drop any balls
• Intellectually curious and will keep abreast of legal and regulatory developments and what these mean for our business
• Commercially–minded, you use your expertise to support rather than hinder the business and you will make sure that our contracts work for us e.g. paying attention to price increase clauses, SLAs

• A competitive salary + stock options
• 28 days of annual leave plus the usual public holidays
• Personal development budget of 3 days and GBP1000 per year
• Regular team socials & company–wide events
• A chance to make a meaningful contribution to people's lives and deaths

Making your application as smooth as possible:

If this sounds like what you'd love to be doing, we can't wait to hear from you. If you're not sure that you exactly fit the above criteria, get in touch anyway. Ability and attitude is just as important as experience.

At Farewill, our mission is to change the way the world deals with death – to make it simple, personal, fairly–priced & accessible to everyone. To do that, we want to build a workplace that's great for everyone, that celebrates diversity in all its forms, and where everyone who works for us feels like they can be themselves and be treated fairly, equitably and respectfully.

We believe flexibility is important, so we're happy to chat to you about flexible working options. And, if you need any adjustments in our interview process to help set you up for success, please let us know.