Legal Advisor - Sandton at Discovery Limited

Areas of responsibility may include but are not limited to:

• Providing senior legal support to the Head of Legal, by providing accurate and timely legal advice to the relevant business stakeholders and where required, to Senior Management, on a variety of legal topics.
• Providing strong senior legal support to the Head of Legal, by independently vetting, drafting and conducting contract negotiations on complex legal, banking and technology related contracts.
• Collaborating with the relevant business stakeholders to draft client specific legal requirements including product terms and conditions, legal notices and other contractual documentation.
• Conducting research and analysing legislation with a view to identifying legal risks to be highlighted to the Head of Legal for effective management and resolution thereof.
• Communicating and negotiating with external parties (external counsel, service providers etc.) in respect of drafting of legal documentation.
• Drafting agreements, contracts, and other legal documents to ensure the company’s full legal rights are entrenched and that the obligations of all parties are incorporated.
• Supporting the Head of Legal and various business stakeholders by dealing with complex legal matters across multiple stakeholders.
• Providing clarity on legal language or specific interpretation to various stakeholders.
• Providing an advisory role to business in the legal construct of Bank products.
• Reviewing and vetting of terms and conditions as well as marketing material in respect of related Bank products.
• Collecting, recording and execution of 3rd party legal investigation requests, regulatory inspection requests and court pleadings such as, subpoenas, summons, court orders, warrants of execution.   

Education and Experience

• Bachelor of Laws (LLB) or equivalent law degree.
• Must be an Admitted Attorney.
• At least 5 years’ legal working experience specifically within the Information Technology Law sector (required).
• At least 3 years’ legal experience within the financial services / banking sector.
• At least 2 years’ legal experience specifically within retail banking (preferred).

Technical skills and Knowledge

• Strong and technically competent working knowledge and legal contract drafting and negotiation skills on technology related agreements, such as software and hardware licensing, software and hardware support and maintenance, development, configuration, implementation, related service level and other professional service agreements.  
• Interpretation of legislation to mitigate Legal risk.
• Ability to convert business requirements into contractual clauses.
• Commercial and retail banking contract drafting across various stakeholders, including negotiation in respect of contracts.
• Ability to advise and agree on legal construct and to negotiate best position for bank in inter group agreements.
• Working knowledge of applicable legislation, including the Banks Act, the National Credit Act, FAIS, FICA, ECTA, POPIA and Code of Banking Practice.
• Ability to translate legislative requirements into technical specification of respective products.
• Ability to draft documents aligned to legislative requirements in respect of all related. Business documentation.
• Ability to draft Terms and Conditions.
• Enabling business decisions through advice on legal construct.
• Providing legal opinions within the Bank.
• Drafting reports for submission to the Head of Legal in respect of various matters in the legal department.