In House Counsel - APAC
The Access GroupWe’re looking for people to join the Access family, who share our passion for believing in better, and who will help us continue to grow.
Love Work. Love Life. Be You. - is central to our success and how we give our customers the freedom to do more of what's important to them.
What does Access offer you?
We offer a blended approach to office working, encouraging you to collaborate and connect in one of our thriving offices. We deliver on what we say, taking the development of our people seriously. We’ll work with you to progress your success plan and provide opportunities to accelerate your career.
On top of a competitive salary, our wellbeing days taking you to 25 days leave a year and a health contribution, you’ll also be able to choose from a range of benefits to suit you. We’re an organisation that likes to give back, so you’ll also have three charity days allocated to support a cause that matters to you.
About You:
Are you based in Kuala Lumpur and actively looking for a new opportunity? Or just checking the market? Well… you might just be in the right place!
We’re looking for an enthusiastic In House Counsel to provide dedicated legal support across our APAC region. The role reports to our UK-based Global Legal Director for Contracts and has a broad remit: commercial contracts will be the core focus, but the successful candidate will also assist the relevant global directors in managing disputes, regulatory matters and data protection matters arising in the region.
Day-to-day, you will:
support our high performing sales teams (across several divisions) that sell into markets across the APAC region.
create templates and other internal materials that help create consistency and efficiency in terms of contract risk management across the relevant Access group businesses in the APAC region.
manage a high volume of deals and ensure that sales into APAC markets are consistent with risk, commercial and pricing policies adopted across Access’s other geographies.
manage the contractual aspects of enterprise sales deals throughout the sales cycle, both at bid stage and at the point of contract finalisation.
review, draft and negotiate partnership agreements, licence distribution agreements, contract variations, licensing agreements and confidentiality agreements and provide advice to the relevant Project and Sales Managers on the application of terms and conditions of those contracts.
review supplier contracts as part of our supplier management programme.
provide strategic support on corporate governance matters for APAC subsidiaries, including advising on subsidiary board structure, director obligations and entity-level governance questions.
work collaboratively with the wider legal team to execute on the global legal team’s AI and legal operations strategy in the APAC region, including deploying AI tools for contract review, drafting assistance and knowledge management, maintaining the APAC contract repository and matter tracking, and contributing to playbook development.
support data protection compliance across APAC operations, including under PDPA (Malaysia), the Privacy Act (Australia and NZ) and other applicable regional regimes, working with the Global DPO function.
maintain horizon scanning across the APAC footprint, including Australian Consumer Law, financial services-adjacent regulatory requirements relevant to our accounting and tax workflow products, and emerging regulatory developments affecting SaaS businesses in the region.
act as the primary point of contact for APAC-based stakeholders on all day-to-day legal matters.
assist the relevant global directors in managing disputes and regulatory matters arising in the APAC region, providing on-the-ground support to UK-based colleagues.
manage and instruct external counsel across Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia, including matter management and cost control across partner firms.
help to ensure that contracting activities are carried out in accordance with local legislation and the Access group’s policies and procedures
Report to our UK-based Global Legal Director for Contracts.
Skills and Experience:
Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in commercial contracts, working in private practice and / or in-house (preferably in a tech / SaaS setting). 2+ years post-qualification experience preferred.
Excellent skills drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial contracts. Experience in SaaS contracts will be preferred.
Ability to identify, assess and manage legal issues arising from the diverse range of jurisdictions across the APAC region, including an awareness of how local law differences may affect standard contract terms.
AI curiosity and competence: active interest in how AI tools are changing legal practice, with hands-on experience using AI for contract review, drafting, research or workflow automation, and the ability to evaluate AI outputs critically in a legal context. Experience contributing to a legal AI or legal operations programme would be a significant advantage.
Specialist expertise beyond core contracts would be positively considered in any of the following areas: data protection / privacy (PDPA, GDPR, Privacy Act or equivalent APAC regimes); M&A and corporate (due diligence, IP assignments, post-acquisition integration); employment law (APAC jurisdictions); disputes and litigation support; or regulatory compliance in financial services, health tech or SaaS.
Ability to balance competing priorities and influence a wide number of senior stakeholders to drive excellent outcomes for the business.
Ability to build strong and effective relationships with colleagues in different timezones (including UK).
A high degree of self-awareness and judgement with exceptional interpersonal skills will be required.
The successful candidate will be a pragmatic problem-solver with a strong work ethic, someone who enjoys exchanging ideas with others and working as part of a diverse, inclusive and open-minded team.
What does Access offer you?
We are a growing software company and we deliver on what we say we do! We take the development of our people very seriously! We will work with you to carve out your success plan and an opportunity to accelerate your career and make a real difference.
In addition to our standard benefits of 25 days holiday, a match contributory pension and healthcare you will get:
Competitive Salary
Giving Back/Charity days
6 weeks Sabbaticals (after 6 years of service)
The Access Group Big Break: our all-expenses paid holiday
Become part of our amazing Access family!
At Access we're all about helping everyone Love Work and Love Life because we believe people can only be at their best when they can be themselves, love what they do and do what they love.
We love the fact that we’re all different. Having more diverse perspectives at work improves how we run our business, helps us support our customers, and when you think about it, it's just more fun. So, no matter what makes you individual, as long as you’re qualified, we can’t wait for your application.
What are we all about?
The Access Group is one of the largest UK-headquartered business management software providers. It provides solutions that empower more than 160,000 small and mid-sized organisations in commercial and non-profit sectors across Europe, USA and APAC, giving every employee the freedom to do more of what's important. Its innovative cloud solutions and integrated AI software experience across multiple Access products transform how business technology is used.
With over 9,300 talented individuals driving innovation and customer excellence, we’re shaping the future of work. And we want you to be part of it. At Access, people are at the heart of everything we do. We’re committed to creating an inclusive, high-performing culture where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to thrive. If you’re excited about this role - even if your experience doesn’t tick every box - you might be exactly who we’re looking for.
We believe in equality for all and the transformative power of diversity. So why not join our vibrant team, where you can love what you do, love how you live, and most importantly, be authentically you?
Let’s make a difference together.
Love Work. Love Life. Be You.