Futures Execution & Derivatives Clearing Lawyer – Vice President

JPMorgan’s Futures Execution & Derivatives Clearing Legal team is seeking a Vice President-level lawyer to act as a trusted advisor to the EMEA Futures Execution & Derivatives Clearing business, with a particular focus on drafting and negotiating complex clearing and futures & options documentation, and on providing structured, opinion-led legal analysis across the clearing model and client documentation suite.

As a Futures Execution & Derivatives Clearing Lawyer – Vice President in Markets Legal Practice department you will support the Futures & Options and cleared derivatives business, advising on execution, clearing and give-up arrangements and the related client-facing contractual framework (including futures and options client documentation and cleared OTC derivatives documentation). You will have the ability to interpret and apply legal opinions (including netting, collateral and CCP opinions) and to translate complex clearing structures into clear escalation recommendations and contractual positions.

Job responsibilities

• Drafting, negotiating and advising on documentation for futures and options and derivatives clearing relationships, including (as relevant) futures and options client agreements, give-up documentation, and cleared OTC derivatives documentation.
• Providing legal support across the clearing model and trade lifecycle, including margin and collateral mechanics, segregation/account models (e.g., omnibus vs individually segregated structures and related operational/legal consequences) and default scenario analysis.
• Leading and coordinating internal approvals (including escalations) and ensuring deviations from templates are appropriately risk-assessed, approved, and recorded.
• Client and external counsel engagement, including explaining, negotiating and defending contractual positions with clients and their counsel, and driving negotiations to execution with a clear audit trail.
• Advising on regulatory and structural issues affecting the documentation suite - including where relevant clearing rule sets and CCP documentation considerations.
• Mentoring and providing oversight on complex or sensitive matters for more junior members of the team, ensuring consistency with the team’s playbook approach and approvals framework.
• Interpreting and assessing legal opinions including but not limited to netting, collateral and CCP opinions (see specialist focus below).
• Providing legal support and advice in relation to industry developments and assessing new clearing models (e.g. the FIA-sponsored European Agent Trustee Model (EATM)). 
• Being comfortable operating with a high degree of autonomy in technical analysis, particularly where the answer depends on careful reading of legal opinions and their assumptions/qualifications and on mapping those conclusions onto the firm’s templates and client mark-ups.
• interpret netting opinion concepts and limitations as they apply to clearing documentation structures and default mechanics; interpret collateral opinion conclusions (including security interest vs title transfer analyses);
• analyse CCP opinion style issues (including close-out netting/set-off enforceability, account segregation impacts, collateral characterisation and default/resolution interference risk) and reflect that analysis in internal risk articulation.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Capabilities 

• Qualified lawyer - minimum PQE 5 years. 
• Significant post-qualification experience in financial markets/trading legal work, with strong evidence of independently managing complex negotiations and stakeholders.
• Clearing and futures & options documentation experience mandatory.
• Demonstrable experience working with legal opinions (netting/collateral/CCP or equivalent).
• Excellent drafting and negotiation skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts clearly and pragmatically to business stakeholders and counterparties.
• Strong technical legal analysis and attention to detail, with sound judgement on when to escalate and how to articulate “what is the risk” in a way that supports decision-making.
• Commercial approach and ability to prioritise while running multiple matters in parallel.