UK Government Affairs and Policy Advisor

Job Description

Job title: UK Government Affairs and Policy Advisor

Company: Kennedys Law

Job description: ROLE

Kennedys is currently recruiting for a Government Affairs and Policy Advisor to join our Corporate Affairs team. The role is focused on shaping the policy and regulatory environment for Insurance and the sectors it serves, which includes Life Sciences, Healthcare, Transport, and Construction.

Kennedys is looking for an experienced candidate who can take our government affairs action to the next level. You will play a critical role in developing or influencing government or regulatory policy. You will help meet the objective of elevating Kennedys’ expertise to shape the business ecosystem and become the highest rated partner from industry for those in the policymaker ecosystem.

You will play an important role in making sure that Kennedys is kept up to date with relevant policy and regulatory developments in the insurance space. While the focus of the role will be on the UK, you will bring knowledge of the policy landscape in other jurisdictions including the EU.

Your insights will play a vital role in ensuring that client-facing teams are able to give the most up-to-date and accurate advice to our clients. You will work closely with Kennedys’ Corporate Affairs team, helping to distil fast-emerging regulation in priority themes into insight-led and action-oriented advice for corporate clients. Current priority themes include climate, AI technology and innovation, ESG and dispute resolution.

Our ambition is to enhance our approach by building trusted relationships with policymakers, regulators and other stakeholders at the national level and with an eye on the international community. We aspire to identify ground-breaking interventions and then advocate for them using data, insights, the expertise of our people and engagement tools.

You will be a key strategic advisor to our Director of Corporate Affairs and others from the Leadership team. You will enable them to demonstrate that Kennedys is a respected international legal authority with unrivalled on-the-ground experience of the risks and opportunities posed by issues that are in – or should be in – the policy-maker arena.

Kennedys has the ambition to be the world’s best global legal services firm that helps clients find more certainty in an increasingly uncertain world.

Government affairs is crucial to realising this vision as our clients look to us as a partner and convenor of businesses across sectors and to show we know industry leaders’ concerns on upcoming regulations.

TEAM

Kennedys Corporate Affairs team is an advisory team drawn from law, business, academia and government. It partners with our lawyers to build stronger relationships with clients and other stakeholders so Kennedys can provide more effective and insightful leadership and advice on business critical issues, in order to facilitate business growth and resilience, and protect reputation.

Drawing on professional writing skills, the team examines emerging business risks, as well as the impact of legal and political shifts on the international business environment, providing valuable insights into the risk landscape for insurance clients, as well as a broader range of stakeholders.

Key features of the team include the creation of market reports for clients, which involves turning insights into strong and compelling content for multiple formats and across all marketing channels. Implicit in that function is curating and managing a pipeline of content-led activity.

Promoting our clients’ interests in the public policy space is at the core of the team’s activity. We monitor regulatory and legislative developments and regularly engage with the government, regulators and industry bodies, often by way of responding to consultations on topics including sustainability, diversity & inclusion, dispute resolution, disruptive technologies, data privacy and legislative change more broadly.

The Corporate Affairs team is based in London and is set to grow to other regions in the Kennedys network.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the development and execution of Kennedys’ public policy engagement strategy and objectives in respect of UK policy.
• Help Kennedys and our clients understand the impact of forthcoming regulatory change, through political, legislative and regulatory analysis.
• Partner with Kennedys’ experts and the Corporate Affairs team to define policy positions and corporate red lines.
• Represent Kennedys at stakeholder meetings and brief the Corporate Affairs Director and other senior leadership on UK engagements.
• Deliver regulatory and policy documents clearly and concisely, enabling client teams to digest the key developments.
• Deliver external environment briefings to Kennedys’ leadership team and clients.
• Help to develop Kennedys’ external presence and connectivity.
• Utilise a strong existing network to bring in external speakers to help colleagues and clients hear the latest developments.
• Lead the relationship with Public Affairs agencies and partners for Government Affairs and Policy Programme, driving high quality, on budget delivery.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• Excellent understanding of how policymaking and the insurance industry works.
• Proven experience – at least 6 years of related experience (government relations; politics; financial services or professional services industry).
• Demonstrated experience in developing integrated, public affairs campaigns.
• Demonstrated experience in developing policy positions.
• Demonstrated experience in developing written responses to government consultations and calls for evidence.
• Demonstrated experience in the communications field, with an ability to deliver a message succinctly, ideally using data and not words.
• Past experience working in a large or global organisation, or within a matrixed structure.
• Demonstrated ability to build strong, mutually respectful relationships across stakeholders of varying seniority.
• A “get up and go” and proactive attitude.
• Has a developed and active network of professionals and experts in the political and regulatory spheres.
• Strong organisational skills with a focus in high quality delivery.

This is a developing role and the job description is not exhaustive and may vary in line with changes in the team’s objectives and firm policy.

ABOUT KENNEDYS

Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,400 people worldwide across 44 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.

Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We’re a fresh-thinking firm, and we’re not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

WHAT DO WE OFFER?

We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you’ll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.

Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive. Our values are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.

We develop careers in an innovative and collaborative global environment, with our values at the core. We believe that supporting individual growth and development puts us in the best position to attract and retain talented individuals. Regardless of role or level, everyone has access to virtual learning to help you develop your skills, wherever you are in the world. A variety of other exciting opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices as well as a comprehensive benefits package (details are available upon request).

We’ve created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust. We deeply value the relationships we build with our clients and we know that they value our warm, friendly human approach. We are here to provide answers, recommendations, strategy and tactics.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.

Expected salary:

Location: London

Job date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 04:26:53 GMT

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