Head: Contracts & Corporate Transactions at Liberty Group South Africa

Purpose

• The primary purpose of the role is to be accountable for legal support and to provide expert and comprehensive legal solutions to all departments and subsidiaries within Liberty group and all its subsidiaries.
• This will include providing legally sound solutions to the Liberty group with a particular focus on commercial contracts with third parties and corporate transactions (including all mergers and acquisitions, private equity and banking and finance type transactions) and proactively supporting the Board, Group Exco, senior management and their Business Unit on all corporate and commercial transactions.

Minimum Qualifications

• LLB or higher Qualification
• An admitted Attorney or advocate

Experience

• 8 or more years’ post qualification experience and 5 years thereof being in Financial Service Sector
• An in-depth knowledge and detailed understanding of the mergers and acquisitions (both in country and cross border) and general corporate and commercial transactions in the financial service sector;
• Management experience; and
• Expert knowledge of relevant financial services legislation.

Key Responsibilities

Management:

• Managing a team of legal specialists responsible for providing legal support and advice to the Liberty group and its subsidiaries on all corporate transactions;
• Managing the daily activities of the team including workflow in accordance with agreed service levels with business units;
• Overseeing the ongoing professional development of the team through informal coaching and training and where required through formal training;
• Managing all IR aspects regarding team members in consultation with the Group Counsel and HR department.

Specialist Legal Services:

• Maintenance of expert knowledge on relevant legislative amendments, industry best practice and provision of proactive and holistic advice and solutions to relevant stakeholders;
• Proven experience in conducting cross border mergers and acquisitions;
• Experience dealing with the JSE Listing Requirements and the JSE Debt Listing Requirements;
• Interaction and engagements with Regulators (ie Competition Commission, Takeover Regulations Panel and PA)

Additional Responsibilities

Specialist Legal Services:

• Understanding and applying relevant legal requirements in the provision of advice, training, publications, legal advice, contracts and product development;
• Keep abreast of new legislation and regulatory changes and manage the team’s response to this together with Group Legal;
• Manage legal risk in company policies and procedures of the business;
• Managing legal costs, litigation and legal advice for internal and external clients when external attorneys are utilized;
• Manage the drafting and vetting of contracts, corporate transaction documents (ie sale of shares agreement, sale of business agreement, limited partnership agreements, preference share subscription agreements, loan agreements, policies and service level agreements);
• Managing, editing and writing publications for internal and external use;
• Responsible for researching complex legal matters and giving input into business projects;

More Responsibilities

Specialist Legal Service

• Lobbying and giving input to the regulators on legislation in collaboration with Group Legal;
• Deliver exceptional service that exceeds customers’ expectations through proactive, innovative and appropriate legal solutions;
• Cultivate and manage objective working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including external attorneys and Group Legal Services to ensure that the business is in a position to obtain expert opinion on specialist areas of Law;
• Translate strategies into actionable goals and execute relevant projects / initiatives aligned to strategic objectives with specific performance measures and control systems to track progress;
• Comply with governance in terms of legislative and audit requirements;
• Identify and communicate current and anticipated legal issues or risks;
• Work collaboratively across Liberty to provide excellent and effective legal advice;
• Assist and support the General Counsel;
• Costs management.