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Senior Legal Counsel - Sustainability and Accessibility

Booking.com

Booking.com

Legal
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Posted on Feb 10, 2024

Job Description

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch start-up to the third largest e-commerce company in the world. Booking.com is the largest business within Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG) and accounts for the vast majority of Booking Holdings’ total revenue. Booking Holdings is a leading Fortune 500 e-commerce conglomerate with a market cap of approximately $80 billion.

With a mission to make it easier for everyone to experience the world, Booking.com invests in digital technology that helps take the friction out of travel. Booking.com connects travellers with the world’s largest selection of incredible places to stay, including everything from apartments, vacation homes, and family-run B&Bs to 5-star luxury resorts and even tree houses.

Paragraph about Role and Team

Booking.com’s growing Legal & Public Affairs Department has a unique opportunity for a Senior Legal Counsel - Sustainability and Accessibility to help develop and execute its business strategy in respect of Sustainability and Accessibility.

You will be providing legal advice on sustainability and accessibility matters and related (emerging) regulations on a global scale. In this role you will have a tangible impact on and interactions with internal and external stakeholders. You are a creative thinker that is well versed in legal and policy issues around sustainability and accessibility, are able to quickly understand the main business issues, and are able to translate complex regulatory requirements into actionable implementation strategies.

The successful candidate will be a member of the Competition and Consumer Law Team and will report to the Senior Managing Counsel, Compliance, Sustainability and Accessibility.

Key responsibilities:

  • Provides day-to-day guidance on sustainability, accessibility and related laws, and other emerging regulations across all jurisdictions.
  • Advises on sustainability and accessibility risks and opportunities and provides input and oversight to strategic projects/initiatives and new products.
  • Be a team-player, interested in building out the capabilities to support the expanding needs of a growing, international business.
  • Develops thought leadership and resources for awareness and compliance.
  • Enhance your impact by developing and maintaining knowledge and awareness of the regulatory and/or policy changes in the area of sustainability and accessibility with potential impact on Booking.com’s business.
  • Working closely with other team members and the wider Legal & Public Affairs department to ensure the team is aligned on the overall approach.

Skills and experience required:

  • 5-8 years practicing law, with a mix of in-house and big firm experience preferred
  • Familiarity with sustainability and accessibility legal and policy issues
  • Ability to thrive in an environment of change and ambiguity in the law
  • Creative thinker with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to develop in a fast-paced environment, handling multiple assignments simultaneously and effectively managing conflicting priorities
  • Excellent writing, communication, verbal and written, and organizational skills
  • Keen to learn about new developments in the wider context of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG)
  • Great interpersonal skills and stakeholder management

The Competition and Consumer Law team is based in Amsterdam and Brussels and can facilitate candidates in those locations.

Booking.com ensures equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, colour, family or medical care leave, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex, pregnancy and childbirth, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws and regulations. We aspire to have a workplace that reflects all of the diverse communities we serve and we welcome and encourage candidates from all backgrounds and experiences to apply for roles on our team. We work to cultivate an inclusive culture in which all of our employees can be their authentic selves.

Why join the Legal & Public Affairs Team now?

Booking.com’s Legal & Public Affairs team is on a transformational journey at a transformational time for e-commerce and travel (think: growth, innovation, changes to how we operate); you will have an opportunity to actively shape the Department’s future. The Legal & Public Affairs team is also a critical part of the enablement of Booking.com’s strategy of the Connected Trip (a travel experience that includes not just accommodation, but also transportation, attractions, experiences, payments, flights etc).

This is a journey that requires close business and Legal & Public Affairs partnerships to redefine our business model, navigate complex regulatory environments, build new products, and negotiate increasingly elaborate commercial deals, among other important projects our teams get involved every day. To tackle this mission, it all starts with a strong team passionate about growing Booking.com in an ethical and sustainable way!

Who we are

To match our global footprint and the array of challenges we face, we are proud to highlight the diversity that exists across this group. We are a team of approximately 165 professionals - representing more than 36 nationalities - with lawyers qualified in many different countries, as well as non-lawyers with public policy, economics, compliance and risk backgrounds. Our team’s previous experience spans across a multitude of industries with team members having worked for major global companies (including Uber, American Express, Airbnb, Amazon, Google, Nokia), tech and other startups, government entities (e.g., the Dutch Competition Authority), and reputable international law firms (e.g., Hogan Lovells, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Baker Mckenzie), and Public Affairs firms (e.g., FTI Consulting, FIPRA, Brunswick).

In addition to our day-to-day work, we actively seek opportunities for our team members to engage in the wider global legal and public affairs communities through speaking engagements, training programs, and association memberships. Some of our lawyers are Board members of Consumer Law associations, Competition Law associations, Privacy associations, etc. We also believe in actively engaging with stakeholders to share our insights on policies affecting the travel experience and how travel tech innovations can fuel the digital transformation of the travel industry. For example, we recently launched Booking.com’s Public Affairs blog, where we publish our position on key policy issues (A World Worth Experiencing).

As a team, we believe in:

  • Integrating with the Business and Legal having a “seat at the table”: we are decision makers that can have a real impact on Booking.com’s future
  • Booking’s mission of making it easier for everyone to experience the world. Travel helps people become more open minded, curious and flexible
  • Allowing members of our teams to experience different areas or, if they want to be specialists, give them the tools to become more effective in their jobs
  • Providing holistic legal and public affairs advice; our team should not work in silos
  • Always looking for better ways of doing things, improving our Legal Operations function, innovating and exchanging best practices
  • Accepting that it's OK to make mistakes as long as we learn from them
  • Having a sense of humour and having fun working together; we are a team that likes to collaborate and share in joys and challenges together!

Pre-Employment Screening:

If your application is successful, your personal data may be used for a pre-employment screening check by a third party as permitted by applicable law. Depending on the vacancy and applicable law, a pre-employment screening may include employment history, education and other information (such as media information) that may be necessary for determining your qualifications and suitability for the position.