Head of Legal

Full-time | Legal | London

Job Description

We’re on a mission to protect society from fraud and money laundering. We’ve already protected over 2 million people through life’s big transactions, with a core aim to protect 3 million people by the end of 2024.

Fraud and regulation are rising, costing the UK economy over £100bn every year; this makes it more difficult for businesses to protect themselves and their clients - individuals like you and me - from fraud and money laundering.

Our co-founders Olly and Jack were led to this area when a friend was defrauded of £25K when buying their first property. At the time, anti-fraud technology didn’t exist, which meant that completing the anti-fraud checks required in these processes was largely manual. These big life moments should be exciting, but instead are often confusing and scary due to the painful process of completing these paper-based checks and the risk of fraud.

Thirdfort helps businesses to facilitate these anti fraud checks so that individuals know they can transact safely and seamlessly with professionals during these big transactions. Our anti-fraud platform provides a secure way for professionals in regulated sectors like Lawyers, Estate Agents and Accountants to transfer funds and verify sensitive information through app based document checks, facial recognition and open banking.

Over 1,500 businesses now trust Thirdfort to verify their clients. We are FCA regulated and have raised over $33m in capital from leading Fintech investors Breega and Element Ventures, as well as the founders of Zoopla, Funding Circle, Comply Advantage, Tessian, Fenergo and Fidel.

Legal at Thirdfort

We're seeking a dynamic, solutions-oriented commercial lawyer to lead our Legal team. The Legal team has been integral to Thirdfort's growth story, working closely with the founders, C-suite, and all teams across the business to help achieve our goals. This role is varied, fast-paced, and demanding—you'll balance needs from across the organization, stay at the forefront of regulatory and industry trends, and help the business manage legal risk.

Priorities can often change in a fast-paced environment like ours, so this role includes, but is not limited to, the following responsibilities:

  • Providing strategic legal advice to the co—founders, C-Suite and broader leadership team as required.
  • Set and manage objectives and key results for the team and contribute to the broader planning and management requirements of the business.
  • Line management responsibility for a trainee solicitor.
  • Support Commercial teams to manage and close a wide variety of commercial deals with clients and partners. Improving legal and contracting processes, playbooks and templates.
  • Enable Commercial teams by helping answer questions and solve problems on privacy, commercial law, AI and more.
  • Manage the legal aspects of Supplier contracts, draft and negotiate outbound SaaS agreements, complex technology contracts, and key vendor agreements. Constantly iterate on the process for managing suppliers alongside other key procurement colleagues
  • Responsibility for managing and constantly iterating on the company’s data privacy compliance program.
  • Work with the founders, trainee solicitor and external counsel on potential corporate transactions i.e. fund raising or M&A
  • Report to the FCA in line with the company’s Open Banking licences
  • Think about how the legal team can work more efficiently and support the needs of the business as they develop, considering process, people or tool improvement.
  • Coordinate and implement any commercial litigation needs of the business.

  • This is a London based role. We’re a flexible environment & output-driven but we’d expect this role to come into the office 2-3 days per week on average.

    You may be right for this role if you:

  • Qualified solicitor (England and Wales) with at least 6 year’s PQE in an in-house legal department and/or a well-respected law firm.
  • Experience at a startup or high-growth is a significant plus
  • Excellent communication, negotiation, and writing skills as well the capacity to communicate Legal concepts and jargon clearly to the rest of the business, at pace.
  • High motivation and the ability to operate independently and act decisively on BAU as well as novel legal issues, within a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment.
  • Hungry to learn about the world of fraud and money laundering and use your legal and professional background to add value to the business.
  • Pragmatic, output focussed and enjoy working with and learning from colleagues from different teams and backgrounds

  • Studies show that women and other less represented groups are less likely to apply for roles unless they meet every requirement. We believe in building a diverse team, valuing different skills and experiences and so if you don’t think you have all the requirements listed here but feel this could be a role and environment you’d thrive in, we would still love for you to apply.

    Life at Thirdfort

  • Driven by our values, our culture promotes a collaborative and open environment where Thirdforters can take ownership, have impact, and feel empowered when it comes to their growth and development. We understand the importance of our teams wellbeing and recognise a one-size fits all approach rarely works, that’s why we aim to provide the flexibility individuals need to work in the way that suits them, and their families, best.

  • Our Benefits:
    We include compensation ranges on our job ads in the spirit of Operating Openly and in an effort to make our interview process more inclusive. We list a range that aligns with our internal banding which is based on varying factors including external benchmarking for our stage and size as a business. In terms of how we decide where an individual fits within the band, we’d take you through the interview process and assess you against our internal performance framework which gives us further clarity. We’ll also have open conversations with you throughout the interview process (starting in the first stage call) so we can be as open as possible about compensation as we understand how important it is to ensure we’re aligned.

    We’ve created our benefits package to reflect Thirdfort’s mission and values. We place a strong focus on Security first given what we do, extending this to our team’s physical, mental and financial security to support them through their big life moments. Our benefits exist to empower our team, ensuring they feel supported and able to work in the way that enables them to do their best work.

    When you join Thirdfort, you’ll get immediate access to our flexible employee benefits package that aims to support you across these areas:

  • Compensation - £110,000 - 135,000 p.a. base salary
  • Flexible Working Hours
  • Enhanced parental leave
  • Customisable wellness budget and £250 WFH Budget
  • Up to 30 days Working from Abroad
  • Uncapped holiday
  • Enhanced sick leave
  • Private healthcare with our provider, AXA
  • Regular company and team socials
  • Uncapped budget for personal development
  • Share options for all employees
  • Regular company and team socials
  • Enhanced employer matching pension scheme with salary sacrifice options
  • Access to our Cycle to Work scheme and our Electric Car Scheme
  • We’re committed to building an inclusive, equitable and diverse culture where everyone has a chance to make a difference. We’re purposefully building a team of problem-solvers that reflect our values - which is why we hire from all backgrounds. If you're a curious, kind individual who takes ownership, you'll be a great Thirdforter.

    If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview process, please let your dedicated Talent Manager know and we’ll do our best to accommodate.

    If you find this form difficult to navigate, please contact [email protected] and we’ll do our best to find a way to work with you