Legal counsel at Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY)

Job purpose

Responsible for driving legal projects and activities relating to the General Counsel’s Office function, servicing  South Africa and assisting the General Counsel with servicing Africa with special emphasis on reviewing and negotiating various contracts and providing internal legal advice to other teams across service lines while adhering to EY’s internal policies (both locally and internationally).

Duties and responsibilities will include the following:  

General Counsel Office (GCO):

• The Commercial Lawyer (Senior Manager) will assist the GCO with the following tasks across the Africa Region of EY, and across all service lines in the EY Africa Region with an initial focus on the Tax Service Line -
• General Drafting and negotiating various agreements across audit and advisory service lines, including global framework agreements, local implementation agreements, service level agreements, technology agreements, intellectual property agreements, procurement agreements, confidentiality agreements and data usage agreements;
• Ability to advise leadership team and engagement teams on all current commercial contracts( eg. Structuring, development of templates);
• Reviewing and contributing to drafting firm policies including authority and delegations framework;
• Supporting the Assurance service line on all legal matters;
• Acquisitions – current legal work on local acquisitions including working with external counsel on deal structure and acquisition agreements, coordination with other members of Legal for cross-border acquisitions;
• Corporate law – Advise regional cluster leader and manage co-sec legal compliance work on all legal entities;
• Litigation – Coordination of litigation matters in close relationship with Africa Regional General Counsel and relevant Quality Service Line Leader (including risks and prospects analysis and briefing external legal counsel);
• Providing advice to business units on potential claims as well as forming part of special ad hoc panels to manage the risk of potential claims;
•  Providing input/reporting to legal risk committee;
• Assist the GCO in the rendering services of the following to the service lines:
  • Reviewing and negotiating Engagement letters suggested clients changes to of amendments to EY’s standard terms and conditions,
  • Terms of Business, Reviewing, negotiating and drafting various agreements across various service lines (including Advisory, Tax, Transactions, and Assurance) including but not limited to – Hold harmless letters,
  • Confidentiality and Request for Tenders, Bid submissions or Request for Proposal,
  • Reviewing various agreements inclusive of the following type of agreements:
  • Sponsorship Agreements
  • Non-disclosure agreements
  • Service level agreements
  • Global framework agreements
  • Responses to requests for proposals/bids 
  • Teaming agreements
  • Consortium agreements
  • Subcontractor agreements
  • Service provider Agreement
  • Secondment Agreements
  • Memorandum of Understanding
  • Any other bespoke agreement required by the service lines
• Consider the legal risks in the agreements inclusive of Limitation of Liability – request to exceed normal limit;
• Provision of internal legal opinions to as requested by the service lines or the General Counsel negotiation, drafting/reviewing of agreements and other legal documentation;
• Assistance dealing  with managing disputes and litigation matters(commercial) , and compliance, legislative and regulatory requirements as requested by the General Counsel;
• Consultations and drafting of all types of contracts and agreements but specifically those in respect of business relationships, consortia, subcontracting arrangements, alliances and secondments;
• Dealing with subpoenas and claims brought against the firm;
• Manage the Master Template Database of contract and other legal precedents;
• Assist in the maintenance of a register of legal work done;
• Assist in the maintenance of register of deviations from standard contract terms;
• Drafting and research for legal opinions. Research on matters as required by the General Counsel;
• Assistance with Projects as undertaken by the GCO;
• Assistance with the notification of claims and circumstances project (which happens twice a year);
• Liaison with external legal practitioners, and Ernst & Young (EMIA) and Global (EYG), where appropriate;
  •  Attending to data privacy review of EY applications;
  • Assistance with selected areas of compliance issues; 
  • Assist with legal support to the Africa EY practices on various legal matters;

Qualifications

• Minimum bachelor of laws degree         
• Solid commercial drafting, reviewing and negotiating skills
• Extensive experience in the audit industry, with detailed knowledge of audit rules and regulations
• Business acumen
•  Experience within a similar industry sector and/or financial services
•  Exposure across the African continent would be beneficial
• Top administration skills with a high proficiency in the use of Microsoft office programmes
• Excellent relationship skills which sometimes may be tested when dealing with pressure      
• Assertive, proactive and energetic
• Willingness to work overtime when necessary
• Strong team player
• Strong organisational and project management skills
• Well rounded corporate and commercial experience
• Experience in an auditing firm and with compliance and company secretarial matters will be an advantage
• Adaptive and ability to think on your feet
• Decision making capabilities
• Ability to manage with matters with little or no assistance
• Flexibility to travel if required

Key Requirements

• Qualified to practice law in South Africa.
• At least 7 years of post-qualification legal experience, preferably with an international law firm and/or multi-national corporation with at least a significant portion of such experience occurring in South Africa.
• Ideally, in-depth experience of the professional services industry.
• Developed commercial awareness with an outcome orientated approach and the ability to apply legal principles pragmatically.