Job Description

Bring your possibility to life! Define your career with us

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 CIB Legal is currently looking for a Senior Legal Specialist to join its Global Markets Legal team. The role will contribute to management, identification and mitigation of legal risks across the Global Markets (GM) business in South Africa and where applicable or required across the continent. This position will be expected to provide accurate, expert and specialised legal advice on legal and regulatory matters and involvement in the structuring of transactions in line with the relevant GM and general banking practices, procedures and regulations. The role will be a key point of contact on a day-to-day basis for the GM business team, and responsible for providing on the go pro-active legal advice, support and risk management.



Management of Legal Risks

• To actively identify opportunities to develop new processes to strengthen the existing legal risk control framework.
• Proactively manage, evaluate and prioritise tasks in accordance with business needs.
• To communicate and distil legal concepts to the GM business representatives while ensuring that where necessary, lessons learned are communicated both within and outside the GM Legal team environment.
• Effective management of legal risk and continuously improve controls and efficiency of processes (consistent and proactive approach).
• Proactive monitoring of compliance of the legal risk control framework.
• Immediately report any breach of the legal risk control framework to the Head Markets Legal.
• Immediately record legal risks on the legal risk reporting forms in an accurate manner and provide it to the head of the department.
• Act on legal risks notified in the legal risk reports, by raising it with GM business stakeholders and addressing it as far as possible in whatever way and means required to sufficiently mitigate risk.
• Keep abreast of industry specific knowledge and key developments.
• Have knowledge of new regulatory requirements and where applicable provide comments to draft bills, regulatory documents and regulations issued by any governmental department and/or regulatory body.

Advisory and opinions

• Ensure technical correctness of documents drafted by ensuring that the latest legal precedents have been included in the documents. This is done by doing regular research on legal developments and attending training interventions.
• To provide concise, accurate, timely legal advice to the business.
• To provide legally sound and commercial solutions to GM business challenges.
• Have a good understanding of the financial and banking environment to be able to ensure that financial and business requirements are correctly incorporated in the documents.
• Ensure that all risks are sufficiently addressed in agreements entered by the bank; understanding the requirements of business, legal issues and possible business risks and incorporating clauses in the agreements to address such risks and requirements.
• At all times ensure that sufficient legal knowledge has been obtained and updated with latest legal developments to ensure that they are correctly reflected in the agreements drafted.
• Where relevant, ensure that all terms and conditions in approved term sheets or templates are incorporated in the necessary legal agreements by checking the term sheet against the legal agreement.

Negotiate, draft and review agreements.

• Draft, vet and negotiate legal agreements, specifically Over The Counter derivative agreements including confirmations and other agreements for structured products
• Draft and/or negotiate ISDA (including CSA), GMRA and other master agreements and related agreements for structured transactions. Assist and advise the dedicated documentation team in the negotiation of ISDA (including CSA), GMRA and other master agreements
• Draft /vet and negotiate confidentiality agreements, clearing agreements and other ad hoc legal agreements for GM
• 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
• To take principal responsibility for drafting and periodically reviewing standard terms or template documentation, in particular to deal with legal risk trends and opportunities to prevent recurrence and to improve business performance and recoveries.

Stakeholder Management

• Deliver superior client service and top quality service delivery by focusing on:
• Solution Orientated delivery

• To build relationships with key stakeholders within the legal and business functions across CIB and become a trusted advisor.
• To be the point person for the business team for all legal matters.
• Meet with internal clients (relevant business unit or person within GM) on matters being worked on and to ensure that he/she understands the internal clients' requirements and business.
• Explain legal concepts, clauses in agreements and risks to internal clients.
• Provide training that is beneficial / informative to internal clients by way of presentations, such as training on new legislation or recent legal precedents.
• Manage external counsel where instructed on specific work. Represent Markets Legal on relevant industry forums and professional bodies where required. Attend external meetings with internal stakeholders, such as meetings with suppliers of the bank or attorneys of such bank supplier

Professional/technical experience

• Minimum 3- 5 yearsxe2x80x99 PQE.
• Ability to advise at a senior business level and establish credibility very quickly.
• An understanding of global markets and global markets product offerings.
• In house financial services experience is preferred

Education

Bachelor Honours Degree: Law (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

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