Job Description

The Department and Role Summary

This is an excellent opportunity for a mid-entry level associate to join one of the leading competition law teams in South Africa, one that gives pragmatic, commercial advice in a business-friendly way.

Our South African antitrust and competition team are recognised leaders in their field. Our team has advised both South African and international companies on high-profile, complex multijurisdictional antitrust matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, prohibited business practices, cartel investigations and dawn raids. We advise on competition law issues across a broad range of industry sectors including financial services, property, construction, telecommunications, information technology, oil and gas and petrochemicals, mining and metals. Our lawyers have been involved in many of the high profile matters before the South African Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal and have advised foreign policymakers on South Africa's competition law regime. With the increase of international mergers and acquisitions, obtaining competition approval from regulators across Africa is now a significant part of many transactions. Our team has advised clients on mergers filed with COMESA Competition Commission and other African countries.

The Johannesburg team is an integrated part of the Firm's Global Antitrust & Competition group which is located across 54 offices and is the second largest in the world. It ranks among "The Global Elite," a listing of the world's top competition practices by Global Competition Review.

Our global team helps navigate shifting antitrust and competition policies worldwide with precision and ease. We have the systems and standards xe2x80x94 as well as more than 300 antitrust lawyers and professionals xe2x80x94 to carry out the most complex, cross-border compliance strategies. We were the first law firm to coordinate multijurisdictional merger filings successfully and have since facilitated some of the largest global mergers.

Competitive Salary and Benefits

The Firm

Baker & McKenzie is a truly global law firm. We have more offices in more locations than any other law firm and most of our work has an international dimension. With more than 10,000 people in 47 countries, few other firms can claim to be so multi-national.

Yet big does not mean impersonal. One of the things you'll notice about Baker & McKenzie is our culture. We call it Fluency, which describes how we work, think and behave when we are at our best. Every person in the firm is measured not just on the basis of how they perform but how they perform in this Fluent culture.

And, because we have no global head office, at the local level we can offer you the best of both worlds: the work, pride and experience of being part of one of the world's leading law firms but in a local office environment that is friendly and supportive. No matter what the role or level, our strategy is to encourage and support every Baker & McKenzie person to be the best they can be.

With its rich natural resources, growing financial markets and rapidly expanding economies, Africa is fast becoming the new frontier for global investors and multinationals. South Africa is particularly attractive given the sophistication of its financial markets, low business tax rates and strong transportation infrastructure.

For more than 30 years, Baker & McKenzie has been helping clients seize opportunities in South Africa and across the continent. Our Johannesburg-based team, an integrated part of our international Africa Practice, has worked on significant projects in more than 40 countries. We advise governments, domestic and multinational companies, project sponsors, banks and other financial institutions on a wide range of legal issues, including project finance, M&A, capital markets, dispute resolution, private equity and regulation.

As the world's second largest continent, we have a deep knowledge of Africaxe2x80x99s local markets and a big-picture view of the economic and cultural diversity. In order to meet the increasing legal and business needs of our clients in this region we need to ensure that we have a team of professionals who can help deliver and offer practical and innovative solutions in our growing South Africa office.

Responsibilities

• Advising clients on a wide range of matters, with a particular focus on merger control work and the opportunity to be involved in compliance and market investigations work. Associates work in a collegiate environment, for a range of partners, and can expect a good variety of work.
• Developing relationships with clients including gaining a good knowledge of the clientxe2x80x99s businesses, economic drivers, market and sector requirements in order to ensure advice is relevant and commercial.
• Associates are given regular and direct contact with clients, with a culture based on associates being given the level of responsibility they are ready for, rather than a PQE based method of work allocation.
• Engaging in business development activities and being active in the promotion of the firm and seeking opportunities for new work.
• Working as part of a team including assisting with the supervision of junior lawyersxe2x80x99 work, and taking an active part in sharing knowledge and experience with the team.
• There are regular opportunities for secondments with clients. Posting to other offices under the firm's associate transfer programme is also a possibility.

Job Holder Requirements

The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate all or the majority of the following:

• A qualified lawyer with excellent academics credentials
• Experience in the Competition department of a leading South African firm
• First rate technical skills needed to support the client work of the department
• Commerciality and demonstrable business development experience
• Excellent written communication and drafting skills
• Initiative and proactivity
• Maturity and gravitas
• Strong service orientation - a "client first" culture
• Ability to develop strong relationships with clients and to take responsibility for this relationship
• High work standards
• Flexible work practices
• Outstanding communication skills and the ability to adapt style as required
• Ability to work well in both a team and individually
• A keenness to learn

Diversity & Inclusion

Respects and enjoys the diversity of cultural, social and academic backgrounds found in the Firm

Baker & McKenzie, South Africa, is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion for all. This is intrinsic to everything we do and underpins Baker & McKenzie's vision to be the premier global law firm. This vision cannot be achieved without harnessing the imagination and the creative problem solving capability of talented people whatever their background. Our unique international culture is reflected in the drawing together of a worldwide family of individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds in all of our offices.

The Johannesburg office mirrors the wider firm in encouraging the best people, regardless of race, religion or belief if any, gender, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation or age, to fulfil their professional aspirations with us so as to create an exciting and diverse legal environment.

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