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Quince is a manufacturer-to-consumer (M2C) fashion and accessories brand on a mission to deliver high-quality essentials at low prices, fairly and sustainably. The company operates across apparel, accessories, and home goods, serving tens of millions of customers globally through a direct-to-consumer model that eliminates traditional retail layers.
We are seeking a UK-qualified Legal Counsel to be the second UK hire and scale Quince's UK and EU presence. This is a high-autonomy, foundational role for someone comfortable with ambiguity, making sound judgments without established playbooks, and taking ownership from day one. You will own matters and projects end-to-end and provide support across the full scope of the business, including commercial contracting, employment, logistics, intellectual property, data protection, and product compliance.
You will work directly with leaders and cross-functional partners across product, engineering, operations, HR, logistics, marketing, merchandising, and customer service to launch and scale UK and EU operations, build practical legal processes from scratch, and move priorities forward with a bias for action. This role is hands-on: you will do legal work directly rather than delegating to external counsel, manage external relationships pragmatically, balancing specialist advice with cost efficiency, and say "yes, and here's how" more often than "no" while protecting the business from material legal risk.
Key responsibilities include:
**Generalist Legal**: Serve as legal contact for UK and EU-based teams; provide strategic and day-to-day counsel across commercial, regulatory, and operational matters; focus on scaling to new EU markets; escalate material issues to the Legal Director while owning day-to-day matters independently; horizon scan for UK and EU legislative updates.
**Employment**: Work with the People Director to build UK and EU playbooks and policies; support onboarding, terminations, restructures, and performance issues across multiple jurisdictions; maintain awareness of emerging employment law changes.
**Data Privacy & Consumer Protection**: Advise on UK and EU GDPR, data subject rights, transfer mechanisms, and cookie compliance; advise on marketing practices, pricing strategies, and sustainability claims; collaborate on privacy policies, terms of service, and consent flows; ensure product claims and environmental representations comply with UK/EU standards.
**Technology, AI & Digital Innovation**: Advise on AI governance, responsible AI frameworks, and bias/fairness considerations; support procurement and deployment of AI and machine-learning tools; review technology platform contracts; keep the business informed on emerging technology regulation including the EU AI Act; advise on intellectual property ownership of AI-generated content.
**Commercial, Compliance & Operations**: Draft, review, and negotiate vendor contracts, logistics agreements, SaaS licenses, and supplier agreements; provide legal support for fulfillment operations; manage external counsel relationships efficiently; ensure compliance with product labeling, environmental standards, and trade regulations; support supplier compliance and ethical sourcing.
**Intellectual Property & Brand**: Advise on UK and EU trademark registration, protection, and enforcement; support IP ownership documentation; assist with monitoring and responding to IP infringement and counterfeiting; work with operations and product teams on trademark compliance.
**Risk & Governance**: Assist with pre-litigation matters, disputes, and inquiries; liaise with outside counsel on specialist matters; establish and maintain risk register for UK/EU operations.
**Requirements**
Required:
- UK-qualified solicitor with 5+ years post-qualification experience (PQE)
- Strong generalist background, ideally with top-tier law firm training and in-house experience at a high-growth, technology-led, or retail company
- Demonstrated ability to deliver pragmatic, commercial legal advice and operate independently with minimal supervision
- Proven track record of owning legal projects end-to-end and building legal processes and frameworks from scratch
- Comfortable working cross-functionally with business stakeholders, non-legal teams, and distributed teams
- Proactive, business-minded, and hands-on with a strong bias toward execution and clarity
- Ability to manage a high volume of work independently, prioritize effectively, and make sound legal judgments with incomplete information
- Commercial pragmatism and comfort operating in a fast-paced, high-growth environment without established playbooks
- Confidence using AI tools and incorporating AI to increase efficiencies in legal team delivery
Preferred:
- Experience with product liability, environmental regulations (textiles, packaging), or ESG compliance
- Experience advising on AI governance, responsible AI, or machine learning deployment and familiarity with the EU AI Act, UK pro-innovation AI regulation, and Digital Markets Act
- Experience supporting EU expansion and advising on multi-jurisdictional compliance
