Legal Counsel - Digital Assets & FinTech at Ninety One

About the team:

• The Ninety One Legal team is a global team within Ninety One, with qualified lawyers in South Africa, the UK and the USA. The SA Legal team has a diverse and broad remit and is responsible for managing all aspects of the firm’s legal affairs across the African continent, including fund structuring, maintenance and distribution; regulatory lobbying and advice; client and commercial agreement negotiation; and corporate initiatives and governance. The team also works closely with colleagues in London and New York on various matters.
• This role is an opportunity to be a senior in-house generalist lawyer (with a focus on digital assets, tokenisation, blockchain, fund formation and product development) in an experienced legal team within a major player in the global investment management industry.  It is a strategic legal seat with direct exposure to senior stakeholders and an opportunity be involved in a variety of strategic initiatives and projects, particularly novel product initiatives, a diverse product set and transformational operational initiatives.  Ninety One has diverse and constantly evolving fund ranges and investment products (with a strong focus on digital assets, tokenisation and blockchain technology).  You will be at the heart of several novel and groundbreaking product initiatives in this space.

In this role you will:
Lead on Digital Assets, Fund & Product work across our African products and fund ranges:

• Lead the legal design, structuring and advice in relation to launching and maintaining Ninety One’s tokenised/digital asset products and platforms, mutual funds and retail products. Including tokenisation initiatives, digital assets, blockchain/DLT, retail-ised investment products, CIS/unit trusts, AMETFs, hedge funds and alternative funds in Africa (primarily South Africa, Namibia and Botswana) and also where global initiatives have an African element.
• Structure and negotiate strategic partnerships and relationships for the distribution of Ninety One funds and products.
• Draft, negotiate, and maintain core product/fund documentation including prospectuses, trust deeds, supplementals, terms and conditions, app and transaction forms and client communications.
• Oversee the distribution of Ninety One’s digital assets, mutual funds and retail products. Drafting and negotiating terms of business; distribution; platform; broker and SLA agreements.
• Advise on all aspects related to Ninety One’s African products and funds, including putting relevant relationship, counterparty, internal plumbing and governance arrangements in place, and overseeing external counsel where necessary.
• Work in tight alignment with our Global Product, Foundry, Compliance, Operations and Investment teams.
• Provide advice in response to queries regarding our digital asset/tokenisation products, mutual and retail funds and products.
• Support the retail legal team on matters relating to our unit trust and linked investment services platform (LISP) and retail products.

Lead on product-specific regulatory work:

• Act as a regulatory lead on any regulatory or legislative initiatives that impact the African products and fund ranges. This includes driving lobbying efforts, interpretation, advice and implementation of complex regulation and legislation impacting our funds and products (particularly in the digital assets, crypto assets and tokenisation space).
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to shape our engagements and interactions with regulators in relation to Ninety One’s funds and products.
• Representing Ninety One on industry bodies and initiatives.

Distribution relationships:

• The nature and extent of Ninety One’s distribution relationships for its funds and products is expanding and evolving.
• Maintaining, negotiating and plumbing complex new distribution relationships with asset allocators, intermediaries, multi-managers, DFMs and strategic partners.

Lead on M&A, special projects and reputationally sensitive work:

• Ninety One is involved in a multitude of complex projects; corporate M&A transactions; joint ventures, strategic relationships; collaborations with major industry players across the globe; shareholder activism and ESG/active management initiatives; outreach, CSI and corporate upliftment initiatives; dispute resolution and reputationally sensitive engagements with external parties; and also internal corporate initiatives to achieve specific outcomes.
• These initiatives all require significant amounts of strategic legal direction, oversight and sound judgment (together with mix of industry knowledge, business acumen, regulatory knowledge, and an ability to drive actionable decision-making) in order to implement successfully and soundly.

AI and technology into our legal processes:

• Drive and implement AI and technology solutions – this is an important part of the role as we are in a phase of rapid technological advancement, adoption and implementation.

You should consider applying if you have:

• 5+ years PQE with strong exposure to digital assets, tokenization, crypto, mutual funds, alternative funds and structured investment products.
• LLB or related tertiary legal qualification is essential.
• Mix of private practice and in-house experience preferred, ideally within asset management or financial services experience.
• Demonstrated experience in structuring, maintaining and distributing digital assets and mutual funds (including unit trusts, AMETFs, hedge funds, alternatives funds, tokenized funds).
• Good working knowledge and familiarity with fund structures and legal/regulatory regimes in core jurisdictions (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana). In particular, CISCA, COFI, FAIS, crypto asset regulations, FSRA, FMA, Banks Act, Namibian FIMA.
• Demonstrated experience in autonomously handling complex projects/transactions and reputationally sensitive matters, including crisis response, media issues, and stakeholder management.
• Broad generalist foundation across investment management, corporate, commercial, dispute resolution, and governance — able to triage and lead on matters outside your core specialty.
• Able to lead and own matters independently with minimal supervision.
• Exceptional judgment on reputational risk.

Some of the attributes we look for in a person are:

• The ability to build and maintain meaningful relationships
• The ability to ‘approach and own’ and continuously look for opportunities to develop
• A confident communicator who can present complex legal concepts clearly to non-lawyers and senior stakeholders
• Driven and intellectually curious, with a strong attention to detail
• High conviction and be comfortable sharing opinions and driving actionable decision-making
• Visible leadership – shaping direction, not just validating outcomes
• Comfortable in agile, cross-functional environments where priorities shift and innovation is constant.