Legal Counsel: Product Solutions Cluster

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- With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.Job Summary

To be a member of the legal team by managing Legal Key Risk in Absa Africa and to contribute to the

**Job Description**:
Accountability: Management of Legal Risk
- Ensure the bank’s legal and regulatory position is managed effectively in all situations in which legal disputes or regulatory issues arise, at all times safeguarding Absa’s reputation.
- Increase awareness of the Legal Key Risk Policies and report any breaches.
- Identify and articulate risks associated with proposed transactions, projects and activities that the business intends to undertake.
- Mitigate risks wherever possible.
- Attend necessary training sessions to ensure commerciality and continued legal professional development.
- Ensure regulatory & statutory compliance.
- Provide a clear record of relevant business transactions and legal advice given that effectively mitigates legal risk.
- Develop and sustain effective risk and control frameworks.

Accountability: Negotiate, draft and review agreements.
- Assist in structuring, negotiating & drafting legal agreements and documentation relating to standard agreements, transactions and new products.
- Provide legal support to the Product Solutions Cluster: Secured Lending teams, including Retail Deceased Estates and Debt Review, and working closely with product, recovery and litigation specialists, on various types of accounts
- Help to develop working structures and best practice guides for use within business.
- Address all probable risks by seeing to it that they are sufficiently addressed in legal agreements drafted.
- Consider, comment, negotiate and give advice on documents/ agreements for the Business.
- Give legal advice on transactions or deals to be done, or transactions that have been concluded.
- Conduct legal due diligences on transactions.
- Provide advice on legality, the lawfulness and enforceability of agreements and documents.
- Provide legal advice on various types of security and the realization/disposal of security

Accountability: Supplier Management
- Support Business, Procurement and Commercial Legal during Supplier contracting and on-boarding process
- Support business with their assigned Suppliers, where required.
- Deliver compliance to all Procurement Policies
- Obtain and cascade relevant information and analytics to conduct reviews that manage legal risk, where necessary.
- Participate in formal supplier performance reviews, where necessary.

Accountability: Stakeholder Management
- Determine needs of stakeholders by regular interaction with the stakeholders in order to discuss legal developments and matters with them
- Provide stakeholders with legal advice, support and legal and commercial solutions
- Provide specialist product support to Africa Regional Office legal teams.
- Manage external counsel, where required
- Distil and communicate legal concepts in a simple, concise way that is easily understood by business stakeholders.
- Evaluate, manage and prioritise tasks in accordance with business need

Accountability: Reporting
- Compile lists of matters and registers of work or instructions received
- Provide reports as required to support the assessment of the legal risk management framework.
- Attend to ad hoc reports as requested by the Legal Head/ Team Leader, such as reports required by Absa/ Legal Executive Committee (LEXCO).

Professional/technical experience
- Junior lawyer, ideally 2-5years’ PQE
- Experience of working in a highly regulated, fast paced environment, where there are often competing demands
- Experience in legal collections, litigation and debt recovery is essential
- Working knowledge of Deceased Estates & Insolvency Law would be preferred
- Experience with the National Credit Act, Consumer Protection Act and Rules of Court is essential
- Some in house experience would be beneficial.

Academic and professional qualifications
- Law Degree: LLB or BProc
- Admitted Attorney/Advocate in RSA

Personal attributes
- Ability to work as part of a team
- Very strong interpersonal skills, especially communication skills
- Well organised and efficient
- Excellent negotiating and influencing skills
- Excellent attention to detail
- Integrity and reliability
- Business awareness, prioritisation of risk and strong commercial focus
- Ability to take a commercial view within legal constraints
- Ability to manage a large (and often fluid) workload with effective prioritisation as well as deliver accurately under pressure and at speed

Education

Bachelor Honours Degree: Law (required)
- Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised_