Associate General Counsel

About the Role

DHL Supply Chain is seeking an Associate General Counsel to serve as Head of Legal Commercial for its US and Canada operations. This role provides strategic legal leadership and business partnering to senior management, focusing on developing and implementing legal strategies to mitigate risks, protect interests, and support business objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead commercial legal support for DHL Supply Chain in the US and Canada.
• Define and implement divisional legal strategies, policies, processes, and standards aligned with business objectives, DHL Group Policies and Procedures, contract approval processes, the Code of Conduct, and the Supplier Code of Conduct.
• Partner with senior management to review, support, and facilitate business and commercial strategies, ensuring operations comply with DHL Group risk parameters and applicable laws across multiple jurisdictions.
• Draft, negotiate, and oversee complex, significant, and cross-jurisdictional transactions, including customer, supplier, CSI, and M&A agreements.
• Support the integration of newly acquired entities, including corporate governance matters.
• Manage disputes to mitigate reputational and financial harm, engaging with business teams, insurers, risk management functions, and external counsel.
• Support DHL Supply Chain compliance reporting, investigations, and ensure effective legal support to Compliance Officers, including ESG and competition-related matters.
• Communicate, train, and upskill business colleagues on legal and compliance principles, risk identification, management, and mitigation.
• Collaborate with global legal colleagues to maintain consistency, share expertise, and manage cross-jurisdictional legal matters.
• Implement best-in-class legal processes and procedures, utilizing DHL Legal Services digitization tools, including legal intake.
• Maintain knowledge of local laws and applicable industry standards.
• Present key management messages to the business and represent the legal function in leadership forums and business communications.

Stakeholders

• Partner with country, regional, and global senior management across DHL Supply Chain to shape business strategies and advise on legal and compliance issues.
• Negotiate critical customer, supplier, M&A, and other agreements across multiple jurisdictions.
• Build trusted relationships with Global Business Services, Compliance, IRM, Finance, HR, Security, IT, Strategy, and Data Protection teams.
• Collaborate with Express and DGF Legal Practice Groups and other global legal colleagues to align legal approaches and support cross-border transactions.
• Communicate and train at all organizational levels on legal and compliance principles, risk identification, management, and mitigation.
• Represent DHL and communicate effectively with regulators, government officials, customs-related stakeholders, customers, suppliers, external counsel, and trade associations.

Management Responsibility

• Lead the Commercial legal team supporting DHL Supply Chain in the US and Canada.
• Ensure appropriate allocation of legal support and provide direction, coaching, and development to legal professionals.
• Attract, develop, motivate, and drive high performance, promoting consistent standards, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.

Qualifications

• Law degree and professional qualification as a lawyer.
• Senior Head-level legal experience.
• Substantial post-qualification and in-house experience.
• Experience providing legal advice to business partners worldwide in areas such as contracts, negotiations, litigation, and commercial law.
• Experience working in a matrix organization.
• Experience with ESG and competition-related matters.
• Experience using digitization tools for legal services.
• Knowledge of local laws and applicable industry standards.

Tech Stack & Tools

• DHL Legal Services digitization tools, including legal intake.