Legal Counsel

A leading international multi-disciplinary Engineering company are recruiting for a Group Legal Counsel to join their team and be located in Cape Town, South Africa.

Role Purpose
As Group Legal Counsel you will be tasked with Providing group legal support across corporate governance, finance, bonding, structure, employment, litigation, commercial contracts, and other matters as and when arise in the group. Assisting Finance in respect of initial Company Secretarial as required (Group auditor provides Company Secretarial services).

**Key Functions of the Group Legal Counsel**:
Commercial Contracts - assisting Contracts Lead Manager in review, analysis, understanding of project contracts from tender stage through project negotiation to project commencement. Highlighting and negotiating key terms of contracts including limits of liability, indemnity levels, liquidated damage levels, ensuring insurance compliance to align with group requirements and risk tolerances.
Claims - assisting the Contracts Lead Manager and commercial teams in handling and managing claims and variations as they arise in the business.
Litigation - assisting external counsel in respect of any on-going litigation matters. Managing litigation matters as and when arise, advising the business as to the risks, instructing and managing external legal counsel when required.
Bonds - utilizing existing bond registers and bonds in place across separate bond providers to ensure that contracts, bonds and indemnities given to bond providers are aligned, and highlighting gaps that may provide a risk to the Group.
Training - providing training to management in respect of company law matters and risks to the officers of the group. Providing training in respect of recent case law matters pertaining to the business of the group. Develop guiding polices for contracts in conjunction with the Contracts Team to ensure the group follows best practice on project delivery and lessons learnt are captured, understood and passed to rest of the group.
Employment - review of group’s template employment contracts and policies to provide gap analysis and implement amendments where required to reduce risks to the business.
Regulatory advices - providing analysis and advises on GDPR and other statutory requirements that affect the business.
Banking security - review of the current banking security aligned against the facilities offered and the facilities letters issued.
Group Legal Counsel Responsibilities
In conjunction with your project team, you will be responsible for the execution of various stages of a project as follows:
Manage legal matters when same arise.
Provide clear direction to the Board, support function managers, project and commercial managers.
Provide guidance and support to key personnel regarding group’s contractual risks, liabilities, obligations, indemnities and conditions precedent T&C’s for contract compliance.
Lead and support contract negotiations within the group’s governance guidelines and escalate for approval contract risks prior to contract execution.
Advising executive, senior management and Board on various legal matters and risks that affect the business.
Assist in the development of group’s Legal/Contract/Commercial procedures/systems and in setting up governance for process mapping.
Coordinate approval and issue of Bonds, Guarantees and Insurances.
Assist in preparation of Project Risk Registers.
Promote a positive culture of contract awareness, risk management and mitigation and contract compliance across the business.
Develop and maintain relationships with various business functions to garner further understanding of the business functions.
Flexible to travel between business units to support projects ad-hoc, as required.
Proactively look for solutions and better practices to mitigate risk across the group.
Provide legal opinions and interpretations on various situations that arise in a timely manner.
Manage and deal with external parties including external counsel.
Contribute to functional leadership, bringing best practice into the business, involvement in Business Improvement Initiatives.
Participate in preparation, development and implementation of new Company Commercial Procedures.

Necessary requirement
3rd level qualification in Law coupled with 10+ years experience of which a minimum of 5 years will have been spent within the construction industry.
Ideally will possess experience of commercial contracts disputes & litigation
Exposure to financial structuring when pertaining to Debt + Equity
Experience with reviewing, interpreting, advising and developing of various forms of contracts
Commercial Awareness
Excellent communicator/strong interpersonal skills/communicates with impact
Excellent record keeper and administration skills
Drives for results
Leads and influences others.
Innovates and leads in mechanical/technical activity and challenges.
Plans and effectively manages projects.
Solves problems analytically and