Head of Legal Operations

Function Legal Operations, Compliance and Contracts

Experience 12 to 18 years

Education LLB (mandatory)

Leadership scope Leads a team of lawyers

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced legal skilled to lead our legal operations. The Head of Legal Operations will own the day-to-day legal function of the company across compliance, contracts and regulatory obligations, lead a team of lawyers, and build the technology infrastructure and processes that give management a complete, water-tight view of the company's compliance status and contractual obligations.

This role combines deep legal expertise with leadership, project management and a strong commercial understanding of the business. The ideal candidate is as comfortable negotiating a complex contract as designing a workflow that lets the business self-serve routine legal requests.

Preferred Background

Candidates from leading law firms, legal advisory firms, professional services organisations (audit, consulting, research), advertising or PR agencies, and media or publishing houses with established legal, compliance or corporate advisory functions are encouraged to apply.

Key Responsibilities

1. Legal operations and team leadership

- Lead, mentor and develop a team of lawyers; set objectives, allocate work, plan capacity and build a culture of high performance.
- Run ongoing legal operations of the company, ensuring timely, consistent and high-quality legal support to business teams.
- Define the legal function's operating model, including intake and triage of legal requests, escalation paths, service levels and approval workflows.
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior management on legal risk and the business implications of legal matters.

2. Contracts and commercial negotiations

- Oversee drafting, review, negotiation and execution of client, vendor, partner and employment-related contracts.
- Lead negotiations on complex or high-value agreements, balancing legal protection with commercial outcomes.
- Develop and maintain standard templates,



clause libraries and contracting playbooks to speed up turnaround while preserving risk guardrails.
- Maintain a centralised contract repository with clear metadata so that key dates, renewals and obligations are always visible.

3. Compliance and regulatory management

- Build and maintain a compliance framework covering applicable laws, regulations and contractual obligations.
- Track regulatory developments and assess their impact on the company; advise management on required actions.
- Create a consolidated compliance and obligations view for management, with clear ownership, deadlines and status reporting.
- Support audits, due diligence exercises and corporate advisory requirements, including corporate law matters.

4. Technology, process and automation

- Select, implement and administer legal technology, including contract lifecycle management (CLM) tools such as Spotdraft, and drive adoption across the business.
- Design and continuously improve workflows, templates and self-service tools to reduce manual effort and cycle times.
- Define and track KPIs such as contract turnaround time, volume of requests, compliance status and outside counsel spend; present dashboards to management.

5. Litigation, disputes and external counsel

- Oversee commercial litigation and dispute matters, working with external counsel on strategy, cost and outcomes.
- Manage the panel of external law firms, including scopes of work, fee arrangements and performance reviews.
- Maintain a clear record of all legal matters, risks and exposures, reported to management on a regular basis.

6. Budget and cross-functional partnership

- Plan and manage the legal function's budget and control legal spend.
- Partner with Finance, HR,



IT, Procurement and business leaders to embed legal and compliance requirements into everyday processes.
- Run legal awareness and training sessions for business teams.

Candidate Profile

Experience

- 12 to 18 years of relevant experience heading the legal function and operations of a professional services firm, such as a law firm, audit firm, consulting firm, advertising agency, research firm, or media or publishing house.
- Proven track record of managing a team of lawyers and handling corporate law, commercial litigation, due diligence and regulatory compliance matters.
- Experience of operating or managing CLM tools such as Spotdraft, including rollout and adoption.

Skills and competencies

- Negotiation, research and presentation: excellent legal negotiation skills, with the ability to research complex issues and present clearly to senior management.
- Commercial orientation: ability to understand the business implications of legal matters and offer practical, risk-balanced advice.
- Leadership: capability to build, nurture and retain high-performing teams.
- Project management: ability to plan and deliver multiple initiatives, such as technology rollouts and process redesign, to deadline.
- Process and data orientation: comfort with workflows, dashboards and metrics to give management clear visibility.
- Communication and integrity: strong written and verbal communication, stakeholder management and absolute discretion with confidential information.

Educational Qualifications

- LLB is a must.
- An LLM or a specialization in corporate or commercial law is an advantage.
- Certifications in legal operations, compliance or project management are a plus.

Why Join Us

This is a senior leadership opportunity to shape a legal function from the ground up, with direct visibility to management and the freedom to build the people, processes and technology that will support the company's growth.

Please share your updated cv with [email protected]

📌 Head of Legal Operations (Mumbai)
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