Master Trading Agreements Negotiator

**Cognia Law is recruiting experienced master trading agreements negotiator to work US hours**
**Company Profile**
Cognia seamlessly extends corporates, banks and law firms’ legal capability to deliver sustainable outcomes. Our goal is to connect the legal sector, moving it from a siloed approach to integrated partnerships. We help in-house legal teams by bringing simplicity to complex matters and replacing broken procedures with efficient processes.

Cognia is a Chambers-ranked law company which integrates how legal services are provided so our team, partners, clients and communities thrive together with people at the heart of what we do. We encourage our people to bring their whole self to work and focus on enabling them to realise their full potential.
**Role Description**
Cognia Law is currently recruiting qualified lawyers or experienced inhouse legal professionals with master trading documentation experience to form part of a dedicated project-based financial documentation negotiation team.
**Key Responsibilities**:
Working in partnership with an esteemed international law firm to provide financial documentation negotiation services to the Transactional Legal Department of a US-based investment bank.
The scope of financial documentation includes several master agreements, including:

- International Swaps and Derivatives Association Agreements (ISDA),
- Credit Support Annexes (CSA),
- Global Master Repurchase Agreements (GMRA),
- Global Master Securities Lending Agreements (GMSLA),
- Cleared Derivatives Execution Agreements (CDEA), and Master Regulatory Reporting Agreements (MRRA).

Daily tasks include
- preparing first drafts based on stakeholder instructions, reviewing client templates and comments,
- Reaching out to the bank's various stakeholders to discuss proposed terms, and
- Corresponding with the bank's clients directly to negotiate the terms of these agreements.

**Job Requirements**:
The requirements for the role include the following:

- Experience in negotiating financial markets documentation including but not limited to ISDA, GMRA, GMSLA, ISDA/FIA CDEA and CSAs
- 2+ PQE years’ experience at a law firm or in-house legal
- Law degree from a top South African or UK/ EU based tertiary institution
- Strong banking and finance background
- Awareness of, and experience with related regulatory and legal issues, and communicate effectively
- Able to manage a large portfolio of multiple ongoing negotiations in a target driven environment.
- Resilience in dealing with demanding clients
- Asset management experience (desired but not compulsory).
- Languages: English - spoken and written (required)

Honest communication
- Takes time to fully understand brief, uses questions to regularly check understanding, and confirms how to approach scenarios not specifically covered in brief
- Escalates issues to team leader/ manager and speaks up if there is a problem
- Explicitly and proactively manage deadlines

Being agile
- Be a self starter
- Applies lessons learned to current work/project
- Generates solutions to issues and suggests process improvements
- Proactively looks for growth opportunities e.g. new and different work

Bringing the values alive
- Makes requests to take on work and responsibilities which will provide growth opportunities
- Is prepared to take on extra responsibilities but not to detriment of their own wellbeing
- Nurtures and promotes the Cognia values

Building strong relationships
- Makes the time to be supportive of colleagues
- Is appreciative of support and assistance from others
- Willing and able to work with a wide range of colleagues
- Provides on-the-job mentoring to more junior colleagues

Delivering excellence
- Manages own workload and time to ensure outcomes are achieved
- Reliable, does what is needed to deliver a high-quality, timely outcome
- Seeks more challenging work
- Provides guidance to assistants