Legal Officer - Sandton at Absa Group Limited (Absa)

Job Summary

• To be a member of the legal team in Absa and to contribute to the development of the Legal Function. The role will primarily focus on providing legal support and advice to the business generally including taking responsibility by providing specific advice and preparing responses to, inter alia, court documents, subpoenas, reckless lending complaints etc. To support the Legal Counsel in Group Litigation with a variety of legal work and legal administrative matters. To mitigate the legal risk implicit therein and provide advice in respect of certain legal work and legal administrative matters or other court documents/subpoenas/reckless lending complaints received Group-wide.

Job Description

Key Accountabilities

Accountability:  Legal risks Administration

• Receive legal queries and complaints from group wide stakeholders (the various Business Units- Retail, Corporate & Business Banking etc) and external bodies (NCR, Banking Ombudsman etc) to record, respond to or to forward to the relevant legal counsel.
• Categorise and evaluate queries and complaints in terms of complexity, urgency, risk and priority level to ascertain which queries to respond to and which queries and complaints to forward to a legal counsel
• Assist legal counsel to whom matters have been assigned by preparing a first draft of letters or responses to queries and complaints.
• Ensure the bank’s legal position is managed effectively in all situations in which disputes arise, at all times safeguarding Absa’s reputation.
• Increase awareness of the Legal Key Risk Policies and report any breaches.
• Mitigate risks wherever possible.
• Attend necessary training sessions to ensure commerciality and continued legal professional development.

Accountability:  Effective Litigation Administration

• Identify matters of reputational consequence and timeously refer to internal and/or external Legal Counsel. Support and provide technical assistance to Legal Counsel in such instances.
• Provide advice in respect of issues arising in respect of any court documents /subpoena/reckless lending complaint etc.
• Address all probable risks by seeing to it that they are sufficiently addressed in respect of any court document /subpoena/reckless lending complaint etc.
• Prepare and submit the relevant responses in respect of any court document /subpoena/reckless lending complaint.
• Ensure that an accurate and comprehensive database of information is precisely maintained, from which a variety of reports may be extracted.
• Identify, interpret and explain emerging trends, and where appropriate provide early warning of potential vulnerabilities.

Accountability:  Stakeholder Management

• Liaise (written & verbal) with external parties, including hostile legal practitioners, various Court Officials, members of the South African Police Services, National Credit Regulator, South African Revenue Services, SA Reserve Bank, and a variety of other Regulatory bodies, in relation to any court orders/subpoenas/reckless lending complaints.
• Communicate (written & verbal) with internal stakeholders and manage the on-going relationship, in respect of the physical production of documentation and preparing the necessary responses to any court document/subpoena/reckless lending complaint.
• Assist legal counsel in the feedback to stakeholders by regular interaction with the stakeholders in order to discuss legal developments and matters with them.
• Assist legal counsel to provide stakeholders with legal advice, support and legal solutions.
• Manage external counsel where required.
• Distil and communicate legal concepts in a simple, concise way that is easily understood by business stakeholders.
• Evaluate, manage and prioritise tasks in accordance with business need

Accountability:  Reporting

• Analyse and determine legal risk matters that need to be reported to legal counsel.
• Extract information from the Litigation Management Tools to measure and report on legal activity levels and trends in respect of court documents /subpoenas/reckless credit complaints.
• Attend to ad hoc reports as requested by the Head, such as reports required by Absa / LEXCO.

Role/Person Specification

Education and Experience Required

• NQF Level 5: National Diploma or Higher Certificate
• Qualifications Required (Essential) • ParaLegal Certification
• Qualifications Required (Preferred) • Additional courses in legal subjects or legal risk management
• Qualifications Required (Optional) • LLB Degree
• Four (4) years relevant paralegal experience preferably within a litigation environment.
• Exposure to a corporate environment, preferably within the banking industry.
• Regular interaction with external legal practitioners and /or Regulatory Bodies.

Skills and Competencies:

• Ability to work as part of a team
• Very strong interpersonal skills, especially communication skills
• Well organised and efficient
• Excellent negotiating and influencing skills
• Excellent attention to detail
• Integrity and reliability
• Business awareness, prioritisation of risk and strong commercial focus
• Ability to take a commercial view within legal constraints
• Ability to manage a large (and often fluid) workload with effective prioritisation as well as deliver under pressure and at speed

Education

• Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Law, Military Science and Security (Required)