Senior Legal Counsel (Alternative Asset Management) at Barclays Africa Group Limited

Job description

A very challenging and exciting opportunity has become available for a Senior Legal Counsel. The successful incumbent must ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Barclays Policies and Policy Standards Understand and manage risks and risk events (incidents) relevant to the role.

Overall purpose of the role

You will be responsible for identifying and managing legal risk for the Africa business. You will be the key point of contact on a day-to-day basis for the business team and responsible for providing pro-active legal advice, support and risk management. This role involves establishing a centre of excellence for the credit business providing dedicated legal support, putting in place a working model in order to maximize synergies between legal and the business area to ensure that they work together in the most effective way. Given the specialized nature and risks associated with the various forms of credit structures and underlying instruments, the role requires legal involvement in relevant transactions from inception to roll out.

Key Accountabilities

• Accountability: Management of Legal Risks
• To identify opportunities to develop new processes to strengthen the legal risk control framework.
• Manage, evaluate and prioritize tasks in accordance with business needs
• To communicate and distil legal concepts to the business function, ensuring that lessons learned are communicated both within and outside the Legal fraternity.
• Ensure effective and appropriate verbal and written communication of the legal policies to internal clients.
• Proactive monitoring of compliance of the legal risk control framework.
• Immediately report any breach of the legal risk control framework to the head of his/her department.
• Immediately record legal risks on the legal risk reporting forms in an accurate manner and provide it to the head of the department.
• Act on legal risks notified in the legal risk reports, by raising it with the business stakeholders and addressing it as far as possible in whatever way and means required to sufficiently mitigate risk.
• Have knowledge of new regulatory requirements and provide comments to draft bills, regulatory documents and regulations issued by any governmental department and/or regulatory body.
• Accountability: Advisory and opinions
• Ensure technical correctness of documents drafted by ensuring that the latest legal precedents have been included in the documents. This is done by doing regular research on legal developments and attending training interventions.
• To provide concise, accurate, timely legal advice to the business.
• To provide legally sound solutions to business problems.
• Have a good understanding of the financial environment to be able to ensure that financial and business requirements are correctly incorporated in the documents.
• Ensure that all risks are sufficiently addressed in agreements entered by the business; understanding the requirements of business, legal issues and possible business risks and incorporating clauses in the agreements to address such risks and requirements.
• At all times ensure that sufficient legal knowledge has been obtained and updated with latest legal developments to ensure that they are correctly reflected in the agreements drafted.
• Where relevant, ensure that all terms and conditions in approved term sheets or templates are incorporated in the necessary legal agreements by checking the term sheet against the legal agreement.
• Accountability: Negotiate, draft and review Agreements.
• Assist in structuring, negotiating & drafting legal agreements and documentation relating to standard agreements, transactions and new products
• Help to develop working structures and best practice guides for use within business
• Address all probable risks by seeing to it that they are sufficiently addressed in legal agreements drafted
• Consider, comment, negotiate and give advice on documents/ agreements for the business
• Give legal advice on transactions or deals to be done, or transactions that have been concluded – providing “cradle to grave” legal support
• Conduct legal due diligences on transactions and assist the internal client whilst the transaction is being implemented
• Provide advice on legality, the lawfulness and enforceability of agreements and documents
• To take principal responsibility for drafting and periodically reviewing Standard Terms or template documentation, in particular to deal with legal risk trends and opportunities to prevent recurrence and to improve business performance and recoveries.
• Accountability: Stakeholder Management
• To build relationships with key senior stakeholders within the legal and business functions across BAGL and become a trusted advisor.
• To be the point person for the business team for credit related legal matters.
• Meet with internal clients (relevant business unit or person within Business unit to whom legal service is provided) on matters being worked on and to ensure that he/she understands the internal clients' requirements and business.
• Explain legal concepts, clauses in agreements and risks to internal clients.
• Provide training that is beneficial / informative to internal clients by way of presentations, such as training on new legislation or recent legal precedents.
• Become well versed in legislation and draft papers affecting the credit industry
• Manage external counsel where instructed on specific work. Represent Barclays Africa on relevant industry forums and professional bodies where required. Attend external meetings with internal stakeholders, such as meetings with clients and prospective clients and their representatives.
• Accountability: Legal Leadership
• Actively raise the profile of the Legal function and improve on Legal Key Risk management and awareness by embedding legal policies and control requirements in all areas of the business.
• Provide high quality support to the business as required by interacting with different legal and business stakeholders.
• Be an active and accountable member of the legal team by participating in initiatives and work streams across Legal.
• Ensure values aligned behavior is displayed in all methods of communication.
• Be a values ambassador for the Legal function.
• Accountability: Team Management or coaching
• Ensure that there is a transfer of appropriate skills and knowledge regarding all products, solutions and services to other members in the team.
• Make recommendations on how to improve the workflow plans and suggest how resources could be reallocated in case of excessive workload.

Professional/technical experience

• Significant Legal experience, ideally 5 years’ PQE.
• Significant corporate / wholesale credit / financing experience is preferred. Experience in property development (brown and greenfield transactions), mezzanine financing, private equity transactions and project financing would be of benefit.
•  Ability to advise at a senior business level and establish credibility very quickly.
• An understanding of the commercial credit business and product offerings would be of benefit.
• Some in house financial services experience would be of benefit.

Academic and professional qualifications

• Law degree: B Juris or B Proc or LLB
• Minimum of 5 years PQE
•  Credit / financing experience//mezzanine financing/ private equity / project financing
• Admitted attorney or advocate in RSA or other similar jurisdiction
• Degree from a leading educational institution with good academic results
• Lawyer / attorney qualified to practice in South Africa or other similar jurisdiction

Personal attributes

• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to manage a large (and often fluid) workload with effective prioritization as well as deliver under pressure and at speed
• Very strong interpersonal skills, especially communication skills
• Well organized and efficient
• Excellent negotiating and influencing skills
• Integrity and reliability
• Excellent attention to detail
• Business awareness, prioritization of risk and strong commercial focus
• Ability to take a commercial view within legal constraints