The Associate Counsel provides legal expertise in commercial contracting, technology law, and compliance, advising on legal matters, managing contracts, and ensuring adherence to regulations.
As a neutral not-for-profit, GS1 Canada works across industries to drive the adoption of global standards that improve the efficiency, visibility, and integrity of supply chains.
Reporting to the VP, General Counsel, the successful candidate will play an integral role on a lean, high-functioning legal team, providing sound legal expertise and proactive risk management across a broad range of matters. The role involves meaningful exposure to commercial contracting, technology law, not-for-profit governance, privacy, regulatory compliance, and other areas of legal practice.
This is a substantive role requiring approximately 3-5 years of post-call experience. The successful candidate will have made a deliberate, informed choice to work in-house and will bring a practical, solutions-oriented approach to legal issues with a clear understanding of the distinction between advising and deciding. Under the direction of the VP, General Counsel, this role is expected to respond effectively to internal stakeholders, independently manage commercial agreements from instruction through execution, develop and improve standardized templates and policies, and represent GS1 Canada's interests internally and externally with consistent attention to financial, reputational, and legal risk.
Key Responsibilities
- Advise internal teams on legal matters as a neutral, not-for-profit organization, including corporate, intellectual property, competition, privacy, and not-for-profit law, as well as other legal issues as they arise.
- Draft, review, and negotiate a broad range of commercial agreements, including but not limited to: Terms and Conditions of Service, NDAs, MSAs, sows, licensing agreements, and vendor contracts, managing these end-to-end with limited supervision.
- Manage contract lifecycles including renewals, expiries, SLA compliance, and escalation of material risk issues to the VP, General Counsel.
- Develop, improve, and maintain standardized contract templates, internal policies, and legal processes to reduce recurring work and strengthen operational efficiency over time.
- Support organizational compliance across applicable provincial, federal, and global regulatory frameworks.
- Monitor applicable provincial and federal legislation and collaborate cross-functionally to ensure continued compliance.
- Provide substantive legal opinions on ad hoc matters, including clear identification of risk, assumptions, and recommended mitigations.
- Analyze, identify, and communicate legal risk on an ongoing basis to the VP, General Counsel and other internal stakeholders as required.
- Collaborate with and manage external counsel as required, with attention to efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
- Additional legal matters as assigned by the VP, General Counsel.
Skills, Knowledge & Expertise
- Law degree from an accredited Canadian or American law school.
- Called to the bar in Ontario, Canada; currently in good standing to practice law in Ontario.
- 3-5 years of post-call experience, with a meaningful portion in commercial contracting; a combination of top-tier or strong regional private practice and in-house experience is welcomed.
- Demonstrated proficiency in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial agreements across a range of transaction types.
- Familiarity with technology law concepts, including Software as a Service and data governance.
- Knowledge of regulatory compliance obligations across multiple jurisdictions (federal and provincial), including PIPEDA, CASL, AODA, and ESA.
CRITICAL COMPETENCIES
- Strong foundation in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial agreements, with specific understanding of critical legal issues including intellectual property rights, licensing, limitation of liability, confidentiality, and indemnification.
- Working understanding of technology concepts related to Software as a Service, including technology law and data protection.
- Awareness of anti-trust, competition, and not-for-profit compliance principles and frameworks.
- Robust experience in commercial contracting and corporate or not-for-profit law, with familiarity in employment and privacy law.
- Effective collaborator across internal teams, external stakeholders, and global partners, maintaining consistent attention to protecting GS1 Canada's interests.
- Advanced communication skills, with demonstrated ability to explain complex legal issues clearly, succinctly, and practically to non-legal audiences, in writing and verbally.
- Unwavering commitment to professionalism, ethical practice, transparency, accountability, and integrity.
- Treats colleagues, subscribers, and external partners with consistent respect and contributes positively to team culture.
- Skilled negotiator with demonstrated experience managing adversarial third parties with strategic focus and professionalism.
- Demonstrated ability to manage a high volume of concurrent matters independently: prioritize effectively, identify legal risks early, assess context and business impact with sound judgment, and escalate appropriately.
- Applies a resourceful, efficient approach to legal work, calibrating analysis and output to the complexity and urgency of each matter, with an aptitude for developing competency in new areas of law as required
About
GS1 Canada is committed to helping all employees, customers, stakeholders and subscribers in an effective and timely manner by preventing and removing barriers for persons with disabilities. Our policies and practices are intended to foster diversity, inclusiveness and accessibility, while also ensuring that the workplace is free from discrimination and harassment.
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