Legal Counsel: Relationship Banking Legal

Empowering Africa’s tomorrow, together one story at a time.
- 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

Job Description

Key Accountabilities

Accountability: Management of Legal Risks
- 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’ reputation.
- Increase awareness of the Legal Key Risk Policies and report any breaches.
- Escalates risk and control issues appropriately.
- Takes ownership for identifying, analysing and communicating risk.
- 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.
- Build strong risk partnerships with colleagues in other functions (especially key control areas).
- Fully understand the role of Legal in AGL and how it interacts with other functions and the business.
- Identify and escalate non legal and legal risk issues.
- Contribute to the creation of policies and controls.

Accountability: Negotiate, Draft and Review Agreements
- Assist in structuring, negotiating & drafting legal agreements and documentation relating to standard agreements, transactions and new products.
- 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.

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 solutions.
- Provide specialist assistance to country legal teams in Absa Africa region.
- Manage external counsel where required.
- Distil and communicate and legal concepts in a simple, concise way that is easily understood by business stakeholders.
- Evaluate, manage and prioritise tasks in accordance with business need.
- Demonstrate effective communication and interactions with others inside and outside the team.
- Build strong relationships with other colleagues in Legal.
- Support the development of the team as a whole and contributes to the delivery of the team and business objectives.

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 control framework.
- Attend to ad hoc reports as requested by the Head, such as reports required by business stakeholders and Legal Executive Committee.

Role/Person Specification

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.
- Ability to advise at a senior business level and establish credibility with senior stakeholders.
- Appropriate Law Degree.
- Experience in drafting and negotiating agreements is preferred.

Academic and professional qualifications
- Admitted attorney in RSA.
- Strong Commercial Law experience.

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 under pressure and at speed.

Education

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