Head of Legal Italy

Location: Rome, Italy
Reporting to: Legal Director, Avis Budget Group International (Bracknell, UK)
Travel: Occasional domestic and international travel required

About the Role:

Italy is a key market for Avis Budget Group in Europe, and this is a high-profile in-house legal leadership opportunity within the international business. Reporting to the Legal Director, International, and working closely with the Group General Counsel based in the United States, the Head of Legal, Italy will play a critical role in supporting and protecting the business across a broad range of legal and regulatory matters.

This is a hands-on leadership role with responsibility for managing the Italian Legal Team and overseeing relationships with external counsel. The successful candidate will provide commercially focused legal support across multiple business functions, balancing legal risk with operational and commercial objectives.

What We’re Looking For:

We are seeking a commercially minded legal professional who enjoys working close to the business and taking ownership of a broad and varied workload. The ideal candidate will be practical, resilient and comfortable operating in a fast-paced international environment, while maintaining strong attention to detail and sound judgement.

If you are looking for an opportunity to make a meaningful impact within a leading global mobility business, we would love to hear from you.

Responsibilities:

-Management and handling of regulatory affairs, litigation and disputes ranging from small claims to material matters which have group level impact.

-Review and drafting of contracts and provision of legal advice include the following areas:

• B2B Commercial:  corporate rate agreements, marketing programmes, tour operator agreements and agency agreements, non-disclosure agreements, review of RFP’s;
• B2C Commercial:  terms and conditions, product structuring advice and standard terms and conditions, rental terms and conditions, voucher terms and conditions, promotions, marketing;
• Fleet:  fleet purchase agreements;
• Franchising:  franchising agreements, disclosure documents, dispute resolution and third party due diligence;
• HR:  contentious and non-contentious legal advice and litigation if required;
• Operations & Property:  concession and lease agreements and property related queries;
• Procurement:  goods, services, and goods and services agreements, purchasing agreements and third party due diligence.
• Regulatory: consumer law compliance, data privacy, insurance related claims, product related queries and managing third party enquiries.

-Operational compliance, including compliance with litigation reporting, internal practices and working with the Global Compliance Department to implement compliance related training and action plans.

-Management of the Italian Legal Team, which is comprised of a lawyer and paralegal/law graduate.

-Management of external Italian counsel and facilitating communication between external Italian Counsel and the Legal Director and where required, the Group General Counsel.

Candidate Profile :

Essential Qualifications & Experience :

• Experience of working in private practice in a recognised International/Italian law firm.
• In-house legal experience.
• Excellent (English) communication skills (verbal and written) and ability to influence senior stakeholders.
• Proactive, commercial and flexible approach and have good common-sense/judgement.
• To be successful in this role the individual will need to be keen to get involved in basic tasks, with a can-do attitude, and able to build good working relationships with a wide variety of individuals in the Pacific Region and across the wider business.
• Experience working in matrix organisations and cross-functional teams.
• Experience within the car rental, automotive, travel or hospitality sectors.