Job Description

R HIGHLY NEGOTIABLE PLUS ANNUAL PERFORMANCE BONUS

Our client who has been established in South Africa and investing on behalf of clients and has grown to become one of Africa's largest investment management companies. This company is an investment management firm focussed on building long-term wealth for their clients. The company's primary goal is to achieve long term wealth creation for its clients.

They now seek a legal advisor to join their team. You will report to the head of group legal. You are bright - strong academic results and a highly respected firm for articles. This is a technical role and results and experience level from articles is critical to the team.

JOB DESCRIPTION WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:

• You will be required, as part of the group legal department, to provide legal services to the business. This entails ensuring that the legal and regulatory business needs are satisfied by providing legal expertise and suppor.t for all legal and legal-related matters, as well as for certain regulatory compliance-related matters and company secretarial matters;
• You will be responsible for assisting or handling a variety of legal matters and projects; act as counsel on issues involving company compliance with governmental and regulatory standards; review legal documentation and provide advice on appropriate action; coordinate and/or oversee legal matters requiring external legal assistance; interact with regulators, industry bodies and other external stakeholders; cultivate constructive relationships that result in stakeholders proactively seeking group legal involvement; and on top of all this, contribute meaningfully towards ensuring that the business functions well for our clients;
• You will be required to participate in consultative and lobbying efforts and structures regarding legislative and regulatory developments; participate in corporate affairs and corporate governance related matters; provide work leadership and mentoring to less experienced attorneys, as well as functional advice and training;
• You will be required to provide legal input & opinions when agreements are being negotiated and vetting agreements drafted by other parties and commenting thereon;
• You will be required to draft and review a wide array of agreements, primarily of a financial services related nature such as retail distribution and service level agreements, e.g. with third party management companies, fund managers and LISPs; institutional client agreements, e.g. portfolio management agreements; various 3rd party service provider agreements across the business;
• You will be required to advise on ad hoc legal issues;
• You will be required to furnish legal opinions and advice concerning the company and its clients, such as in relation to contract and legislation interpretation;
• You will be required to advise management, employees and clients on all legal matters;
• You will be required to advise the Investment Team regarding various matters, such as corporate actions / transactions, 'inside information' matters, companies act and listings requirement issues;
• You will be required to have / quickly obtain a sound working knowledge and effectively deal with issues arising under the legislation mentioned above;
• You will be required to perform regulatory lobbying xe2x80x93 this includes to assist in commenting on new and draft legislation, including impact analyses;
• You will be required to represent the company at relevant industry workshops/working groups with regard to legislative developments;
• You will be required to engage with counterparties in our ex-SA offices;
• You will be required to provide input on various policies;
• You will be required to advise and assist in regard to client mandates, applicable legislation and internal rules, processes and policies;
• You will be required to advise on permissible investments;
• You will be required to assist in further developing, promoting, implementing and maintaining standards and procedures that enable employees to act in an appropriate manner;
• You will be required to advise company secretary on internal corporate related matters;
• You will be required to record-keep;
• You will be required to contribute towards the effective administration of the department;
• You will be required to assist with internal training and education as may be required - this includes work leadership and mentoring to other attorneys;
• You will be required to assist with the completion of statutory returns;
• You will be required to assist with and conduct the rolling out group legal policies;
• You will be required to assist with the preparation of report.

CORE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED, BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

• You have a strong work ethic;
• You have strong drafting (contractual and opinion writing) and research skills;
• You are methodical and have a keen eye for detail and accuracy;
• You are highly articulate;
• You have excellent communication (verbal and written) skills in English;
• You have the ability to effectively multi-task and self-manage in a fast-paced environment where the ability to meet deadlines is as important as accuracy and attention to detail;
• You have sound analytical skills, logical thought processes, sound judgement and decision-making abilities;
• You are able to consistently produce high quality work efficiently;
• You are reliable, responsive, resourceful and professional;
• You have a high level of integrity;
• You are well organised, delivery and deadline focused, flexible;
• You have effective time management skills;
• You are proactive / a self-starter & self-motivator;
• You have strong problem-solving skills with a 'can-do' attitude;
• You have the ability to confidently engage at all levels and amongst a diverse group;
• You have the ability to effectively prioritise workload;
• You have proven record of ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, as well as independently;
• You have the ability to manage projects to achieve the desired outcome.

CORE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• You have a LLB degree (or equivalent) with completed articles;
• You are an admitted attorney;
• You have very strong academics;
• You have a B.Com or similar - this would be a distinct advantage;
• You have a minimum of 3 years current, relevant PQE practical legal experience i.e. excluding articles - candidates with less than this experience may be considered at the company's discretion; but articles have to be at one of the big firms in their commercial division;
• You have experience in negotiating, drafting and process management of commercial transactions and agreements;
• You have ideally a proficiency within the financial services industry, asset management in particular;
• You have current and relevant knowledge of drafting financial services 'type' agreements and all legal aspects of a global best practise asset manager;
• You have working knowledge of and experience with applicable financial services legislation (including subordinate legislation), especially Financial Sector Regulation Act; Pension Funds Act; Collective Investment Schemes Control Act; Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act; Long-Term Insurance Act; Insurance Act;; Financial Intelligence Centre Act; Financial Markets Act; Requirements of the South African Reserve Bank in terms of foreign exchange control / Exchange Control Regulations and other key legislation, especially the Protection of Personal Information Act the Companies Act; Some proficiency with comparable legislation in ex-SA.
• You are abreast of ongoing regulatory developments and industry trends;
• You have experience at a financial services institution, preferably an asset manager, linked investment services provider and/or a management company;
• You have strong computer literacy, especially Microsoft Office/365 (esp. Outlook, Word, Teams, Power Point, Excel etc), and ability to produce management reports.

Great team; exceptional business standards; highly respected firm, globally!

Claire Bourquin Recruitment Consultants