Commercial Counsel - Motorsport UK
Department: Legal
Location: Motorsport UK, Bicester Motion.
Hours of Work: Full Time (37.5 hours per week). Core hours are 09:00 until 17:30, Mon – Fri.
Working Pattern: Hybrid: 4 days office-based, 1 day remote.
Line Manager: Regulatory Counsel
Direct Reports: None
Grade: D
Salary: £50,000 - £55,000 depending on experience
Role Purpose
The Commercial Counsel will lead the delivery of Motorsport UK’s commercial legal function, with primary responsibility for managing day-to-day commercial matters and the effective triage and progression of instructions received by the Legal Department.
Working closely with the Paralegal and Consultant General Counsel, the role will provide practical legal advice across the organisation, manage routine contractual matters.
The role provides an opportunity to develop broad in-house experience within a national governing body operating across sport, regulation, commercial activity and governance.
Primary Objectives
The Commercial Counsel will be expected to exercise sound judgement in identifying matters requiring senior input. Complex, strategically significant or high-risk matters will be escalated to the Consultant General Counsel.
These may include litigation, material safety or safeguarding matters, major commercial arrangements, corporate governance issues and strategically significant projects. The role therefore requires someone capable not simply of identifying a legal issue, but of understanding its wider organisational significance and ensuring that risk is appropriately managed and escalated
Key Responsibilities
In addition to the objectives listed above, the Commercial Counsel will be responsible for:
Commercial & Data:
- Review, draft, and negotiate commercial contracts, including supplier agreements, services agreements, consultancy agreements, NDAs, event organisation agreements, and other standard commercial arrangements.
- Manage the Legal Department’s contract schedule, including tracking contractual deadlines, renewals, termination dates, and outstanding actions.
- Support internal stakeholders through the contracting process and ensure appropriate approvals and execution requirements are followed.
- Provide day-to-day advice to internal stakeholders on contractual matters, engaging at an early stage to support the development and negotiation of commercial arrangements, including events, championships, and sponsorship agreements.
- Advise on procurement, intellectual property matters and managing the data protection process, including processing DSARs and advising and acting on potential data challenges and potential breaches.
- Advise on data protection and privacy matters, including licence declarations, consent requirements and compliance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
- Escalate complex, high-value or strategically significant commercial matters where appropriate.
Legal enquiries and stakeholder management:
- Manage and triage incoming Legal Department enquiries from internal and external stakeholders, ensuring matters are appropriately prioritised and allocated.
- Provide clear, pragmatic, and commercially focused advice to teams across Motorsport UK.
- Maintain appropriate records of legal instructions, advice, and case progression.
- Support the development of guidance, templates, and self-service resources to enable departments to manage routine matters independently.
Wider legal support:
- Support the Regulatory Counsel and Consultant General Counsel on more complex matters where required.
- Contribute to policy development and implementation across the organisation.
Core Competencies
We are looking for a commercially minded and pragmatic lawyer who is comfortable working in a fast-paced sporting environment. The successful candidate will need to balance sound legal analysis with practical judgement, acting as an enabler to the sport and wider business, not a barrier.
Below are the core competencies, knowledge, and skills required to be successful in this role:
- Qualified solicitor or barrister in England and Wales, or equivalent UK qualification.
- At least 2 years of in-house legal experience, within sport is desirable.
- Strong legal analysis, drafting and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex legal issues into clear, practical advice.
- Experience advising on data protection matters.
- Experience of managing and advising on commercial contracts, whether in-house or in private practice.
- Sound judgement and the ability to identify and assess legal, regulatory, corporate, liability and reputational risk.
- Ability to interpret and apply policies and procedural frameworks consistently and proportionately.
- Confidence advising and constructively challenging stakeholders at various levels of seniority.
- Strong organisational and case-management skills, including the ability to triage a high volume of competing matters and prioritise according to urgency and risk.
Desirable Competencies
- Experience in sports, media, or entertainment matters.
- A working knowledge and ability to advise on competition law matters.
- An understanding of motor sport and its sporting and regulatory structures would be advantageous, but it is not essential.
How to Apply
To apply for this position please send a covering letter which makes clear how you meet the requirements for the role, and your updated CV, to
