Senior Legal Counsel

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Job Summary

To provide strategic legal advisory and transactional support to the Indian Ocean Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) division, ensuring legal risk is proactively managed while enabling the execution of vanilla and complex domestic and cross-border financial transactions. The job holder is responsible for supporting the Head of Legal (Indian Ocean) in the provision of legal advice to Business Units in Mauritius and Seychelles. This role also involves identifying and managing legal risks across Absa Mauritius and Seychelles by: Providing end-to-end legal counsel on complex CIB products and transactions, including real estate finance, syndicated lending, capital markets, trade finance, and derivatives; Structuring, negotiating, and reviewing a wide range of agreements such as vanilla loan agreements, and term sheets, and bespoke transaction documentation; Translating legal and regulatory implications into actionable business insights and risk mitigation strategies; Serving as a legal risk filter for product innovation, deal reviews, and transaction approvals; Planning, managing and monitoring the implementation of legal activities and processes in order to deliver on approved operational plans in an effective and efficient manner; Managing the reporting of legal risks within Business Units; Providing training to Business Units in key areas of law affecting the operations of Business Units; Managing responsibilities in support of the Legal Function and team members

Job Description

Business Partnering & General Legal Risk Management

• Understand and articulate the strategy/goals for the team and broader department

• Understand needs of Business Unit and provide legal advice and/or opinion, research and support to business in area of specialisation to enable the provision of legal risk management and identify which legal risks are commercial in nature

• Ensure that legal advice and/or opinions are current and correct by remaining up to date with the latest legal developments

• Provide tailored, commercial advice and recommendations on legality, the lawfulness and enforceability of agreements and documents as well as concisely explaining legal risks, concepts and clauses to Business Units.

• Have a good understanding of relevant products and services across AGL and assist in structuring, negotiating and drafting legal agreements and documentation

• Provide legal support to Business Units at meetings with other banks and/or clients and assist them to negotiate the terms of legal agreements, security documents and other documents especially where deadlocks are reached in negotiations between the bank other banks and/or clients

• Provide comments on existing agreements and/or agreements drafted by other banks, clients or their attorneys

• Ensure that legal agreements, security documents and other documents contain adequate provisions to manage and mitigate legal risks

• Ensure effective and appropriate verbal and written communication of the legal risk control framework policies to Business Units

• Monitor compliance of the legal risk control framework and immediately report any breach of the legal risk control framework to the Head of Legal & Company Secretariat (Indian Ocean) and accurately record legal risks on the legal risk reporting forms

• Act on legal risks notified in the legal risk reports to ensure the successful mitigation of the risks

• Provide legal input on draft bills, regulatory documents and regulations issued by governmental departments and/or regulatory body

• Manage any litigation or claims by or against the bank including negotiating settlement agreements in relation to relevant Business Units

• Exercise sound risk judgement based on practice, previous experience and ensure that all activities and duties are carried out in full compliance with regulatory requirements, Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework and internal Absa Policies and Policy Standards

• Have a broad understanding of key risks in other areas and partners with others to manage and address them

Reporting Management and Information

• Identify and meet management information requirements for the measurement of legal risk exposure, key legal issues and trends

• Provide input into legal risk report submissions

• Ensure that any changes to the legal or regulatory environment are correctly reflected in the documents contained in the Standard Legal Documents Databases for Mauritius and Seychelles and in all other agreements drafted

Legal Operations, and Training of the Central Functions

• Participate in the development of training on legal risk issues.

• Provide training to Business Units on legal documentation, developments and issues including the production of legal bulletins and seminars.

• Maintain up to date knowledge of relevant Absa governance requirements and policies.

• Ensure that any changes to the legal or regulatory environment are correctly reflected in the documents contained in the Standard Legal Documents Databases for Mauritius and Seychelles and in all other agreements drafted.

• Sharing know-how and experience with the business team and within the Absa Legal function

• Assist to develop working structures and best practice guides for use within business

Role/person specification

Preferred Education

• Law Degree with at least 10 years relevant work experience

Preferred Experience

Essential

• At least 10 years' post qualifying experience as an in-house legal counsel in a financial institution or at least 10 years working experience in a reputable law firm.

• Extensive knowledge of Banking and finance law

• Extensive knowledge of Commercial law

• Extensive knowledge of law of Contracts

Preferred

• Qualified Lawyer - Admitted Attorney or Barrister in Mauritius, Seychelles or another recognised jurisdiction

• Expert working knowledge of finance and security documentation, both domestic and cross-border

• Project finance (including public private partnerships)

• Corporate and structured finance

• Good knowledge of Property law

• Good knowledge of Insolvency law

• Good knowledge of Public Sector Finance

• Good knowledge of Trade (import and export) laws

• Good knowledge of mergers and acquisition

• Good knowledge of competition law

Knowledge and Skills

Technical Skills

• Communications skills - verbal Level: Do and Instruct

• Communication skills - written Level: Do and Instruct

• Ability to work under pressure Level: Do and Instruct

• PC Literate Level:  Do and Check

• People skills Level: Do without Supervision

• Coaching Level: Do and Check

• Relationship Management Level: Do and Check

• Negotiation skills Level: Do and Instruct

• Analytical skills Level: Do and Instruct

• Presentation skills Level: Do and Check

• Report writing Level: Do and Check

• Risk management Level: Do

Technical Competencies

• Writing and reporting

• Presenting and communicating information

• Deciding and initiating action

• Delivering results and meeting customer expectation

• Adhering to principles and values

• Persuading and influencing

• Applying expertise and technology

Education

Bachelor Honours Degree: Law, Military Science and Security (Required)