Legal Counsel (Employment Law)

Complete Guide: Legal Counsel at Rentokil Initial

Rentokil Initial, one of the world's largest business services companies, is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Legal Counsel to join its legal team in Crawley, England. This is a full-time, permanent position offering a hybrid working model, requiring only one day per week in the Crawley office.

Role Overview

The successful candidate will act as a trusted advisor to the business, delivering commercial and pragmatic employment law support across a broad spectrum of contentious and non-contentious matters. Working closely with the Regional HR Director, the HR function, the regional General Counsel, and senior stakeholders, the Legal Counsel will support day-to-day employee relations and strategic projects in a dynamic, high-growth environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide employment law advice across the UK and Ireland region.
• Support employee relations issues, restructures, disciplinary and grievance matters, and business protection/anti-competitive issues.
• Advise on, develop, and refine employment contracts and HR/data protection policies.
• Support M&A activity, TUPE transfers, and workforce change programmes.
• Manage external counsel across jurisdictions in a cost-efficient manner.
• Advise on high-risk areas including whistleblowing, discrimination, restrictive covenants, senior exits, and settlement agreements.
• Deliver training to HR colleagues to improve capability and support compliant decision-making.

Eligibility Criteria

• Qualification: Qualified lawyer (UK or equivalent) or Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX).
• Experience: Approximately 4-6 years of Post-Qualified Experience (PQE) in both contentious and non-contentious employment law.
• Sector Experience: Demonstrable in-house experience (including secondments), ideally within fast-moving sectors.
• Skills: Strong communication, stakeholder management, and presentation skills, with a commercially aware and solutions-focused approach.

Compensation and Benefits

Salary is dependent on experience. The comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Annual performance-based bonus.
• Private healthcare scheme contribution.
• Enhanced pension contributions and life cover (up to 4x salary).
• Ability to purchase up to 5 days of additional annual leave.
• Access to virtual GP services and 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
• RI Rewards (discounts and cashback) and financial wellbeing assistance.

Application Details

Interested candidates can apply directly through the official job posting. For inquiries, candidates may connect with the job poster, Jess Girvan, via LinkedIn.

• Application Deadline: Not specified (Apply as soon as possible)
• Application Link: Apply on LinkedIn