Legal Advisor

Job Description

To provide legal solutions to complex legal and business challenges to mitigate against legal risk and partner with the business on the implementation of policies to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and business processes

Provides guidance and management to more junior legal advisors

Purpose

FNB Commercial is looking for a Senior Legal Counsel in its Structured Finance Solutions Legal team to provide legal advice, services and support (as set out in more detail below) to the Debtor Finance and Selective Invoice Discounting business units within FNB Commercial.

Responsible for:

- Reviewing, commenting and drafting of documents relating to debtor finance and selective invoice discounting transactions that the bank seeks to enter into, including but not limited to debtor finance agreements, syndicated lending arrangements, common terms agreements, security sharing agreements, facility letters and security documents.
- receiving and reviewing credit limit approvals for Debtor Finance and Selective Invoice Discounting related transactions (or relating to any other product house transaction within Structured Finance Solutions) to ensure that the transaction makes legal sense and to ensure the successful implementation of such transactions from a legal perspective.
- providing legal advice and support the Bank’s transactors in relation to a Debtor Finance transaction that the bank is funding or to a Selective Invoice Discounting transaction.
- in need, briefing external attorneys on transactions or projects as well as liaising and monitoring with the external attorneys in this regard from approval to deal implementation especially when it comes to syndicated transactions for debtor finance.
- projects, research and opinion work on various Legislation such as the New Companies Act No 71 of 2008, as amended as well as applicable relevant Bills etc.
- providing input on new products to be launched from a legal perspective within Debtor Finance, Selective Invoice Discounting (or other product houses within FNB Commercial) as well as doing legal risk assessments in this regard as and when applicable.
- meeting client expectations with regard to turnaround times.
- dealing with any comments received from clients or their attorneys on Bank’s draft funding agreements, common terms agreements, security sharing agreements, facility letters, security documents etc or any reply to any comments made by the Bank in respect of client agreements which are associated to the funding request such as sale of business agreement etc.
- close partnering with the business on the implementation of certain necessary measures to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and business processes.
- template management for the respective business units, including identifying relevant legislation having an impact on legal agreements.
- identify the key legal, commercial and other risks which need to be mitigated in contracts and the ability to mitigate these risks appropriately by drafting watertight clauses in contracts.
- understand underlying banking products solutions, operations, processes and business drivers.
- find solutions to complex legal problems.
- provide consultative support to the business.
- conducting research and formulating sound legal opinions.
- assist with the assessment and re-formulation of the impact of certain legislation on the business.
- arrange and co-ordinate training sessions and compile the contents thereof when deemed necessary.
- keep the team adequately updated on changes and trends in law which may affect the business.
- collate monthly statistics on documents drafted and vetted as well as queries received.
- attend Business ManCo and credit meetings and provide valuable input to stakeholders.
- draft and provide input to reports on pertinent risk matters and manage solving those risks.
- close proximity to the business is key (deployed model).

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Professional Registrations

Experience
- Admitted as an attorney of the High Court, South Africa
- At least 10 years post Articles experience in commercial law and banking and finance work (preferably from a leading law firm or other leading banking institution).
- In-depth knowledge and understanding of relevant Legislation, including Protection of Personal Information Act, international papers on Factoring and the Companies Act
- Specialist industry expertise, i.e. Contract Drafting, Debtor Finance, Invoice Discounting, Factoring
- Strong technical drafting skills
- Very good attention to detail and an ability to see the bigger picture
- Ability to innovate and collaborate
- Has a good understanding of commercial legal terminology and legal principles related to finance and related banking transactions.
- Understands the various levels of lending structures such as senior debt and mezzanine funding,
- Ability to run with syndicated lending structures is critical.
- Ability to structur