Legal Counsel at Puma Energy

Main Purpose:

Involving varied legal work, the role is focused on the provision of general legal and contractual support for the Company’s Businesses in the Africa region, taking a commercial and pragmatic approach and ensuring effective management of legal risk.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities, Key Responsibilities:

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drafting, reviewing, negotiating and advising on a variety of commercial contracts which may include: Joint Ventures, documentation associated with M&A’s, disposals, documentation associated with various renewable projects and on occasion general agreements such as master service agreements, statements of work, consultancy contracts, IT agreements, loan agreements, discount receivable agreements, inter-group financing arrangements, and supply agreements;
• Supporting the General Counsel and the Head of Africa Legal on Regional projects as needed;
• Managing contentious matters including Litigation, Arbitration and Mediations
• identifying other opportunities for innovation and process improvement to increase overall efficiency of the legal function;
• Keeping abreast of relevant legal and regulatory developments and facilitating sharing of knowledge and best-practice within wider legal team and more widely as relevant;
• Providing day-to-day legal advice.

REQUIREMENTS

Experience: 

• Qualified lawyer having passed a reputable board or bar examination.
• Minimum of 5-8 years’ post qualification experience gained at a high-quality law firm and/or multinational company.  Strong preference for solid law firm experience.  Previous in-house experience in an international company of advantage.
• Experience Petrochemical, energy, commodities, retail (specifically in downstream) and / or mining industry as well as renewable energy experience.
• Experience working in an international environment and matrix organisations.
• French/Portuguese language skills would be an advantage.

Skills:  

• Strong business mindset and problem-solving attitude, with strong aptitudes to identify and foster pragmatic approaches 
• Ability to handle complex situations and transactions with little or no supervision
• Ability to influence and persuade key stakeholders, shareholder representatives and senior counterparties

Key Relationships and Department Overview:

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Internal –Finance, Compliance, Company Secretarial, Tax, HR, HSSE, General Managers and various business areas
• External –law firms, regulatory authorities