Deputy General Counsel at MainOne

Department: Legal
Job Type: Permanent

Responsibilities

• The Deputy General Counsel (DGC) shall be responsible for all legal matters, commercial contracts, company agreements, board matters and providing instruction to external counsel
• The DGC shall also be responsible for ensuring the Company complies with all statutory and regulatory requirements, processes and guidelines across multiple jurisdictions where the Company operates or plans to operate or provide services

Legal Services Specifics:

• Provide internal advisory services to management as well as other business units and departments within the Company with respects to effective operations and performance of the different units of the business.
• Drive and implement commercial and corporate legal strategy for the Company and manage external and internal legal and corporate resources for implementing these strategies.
• Provide commercial legal support on IT transactions and including equipment supply, lease of IP and transmission capacity, colocation, value added and other services
• Support the Company’s in the review and implementation of business strategies and overall corporate strategies and development activities.
• Review, draft and negotiate a wide variety of legal agreements, such as sales agreements for the all the Companies products and services, landing party agreements, inter-carrier agreements, master services agreements, professional services agreements, joint venture and joint marketing agreements, collaboration agreements
• Provide all the foregoing support and supervision to all the Company’s subsidiaries in the different jurisdictions.
• Supervise and assist external counsels on material and complex legal and corporate transactions including commercial contract, vendors’ contracts and strategic contracts.

Regulatory & Government Relations Management Specifics:

• Drive and implement Regulatory strategy for the Company and manage external and internal stakeholders to maintain conducive operating environment for the Company.
• Represent the Companies with relevant government agencies on issues with respect to statutory, regulatory, permitting and licensing activities.
• Generally supervise and manage internal and external resources and activities related to government relations and regulatory affairs for the
• Monitor policies and developments in government, regulatory and administrative agencies that may pose risk to the business of affect the Company’s operations and recommend measures that helps to manage the potential risk and ensure needed compliance.
• Preview proposed regulations, policies guidelines and standards of the industry regulator and other relevant government agencies in order to identify threats to and opportunities for the Companies operations and advice management
• Ensure the Company’s compliance with the telecommunications regulatory rules, regulation, practices and convention and facilitate key relationship with relevant Government agencies and public institutions.
• Manage and supervise the procurement of required operating licenses, permits and approval for the Company for current and future businesses.
• Monitor and provide overall supervision for the Company’s compliance with all Statutory, Regulatory and Policy rules, practices and relevant prescriptions with a view to ensuring the Company’s products and services comply with relevant market rules and regulatory prescriptions.
• Provide all the foregoing support and supervision to all the Company’s subsidiaries in the different jurisdictions.

Qualifications, Skills & Competencies

• LL.B/BL required; LLM is an added advantage
• At least 12 years’ experience with 3 – 5 years in a management role.
• Thorough understanding of general and specific Company and commercial law.
• Experience in licensing, permitting and regulatory affairs.
• Experience in consumer-facing businesses, capacity sales businesses a plus, knowledge of telecom and/or support for sales clients preferred.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills;
• Must be able to work effectively with others, develop and nurture a team as well as promote collaboration across multiple locations.
• Exceptional judgement and strong initiative.
• Outstanding inter-personal skills
• Proven ability to effectively juggle competing priorities.
• Ability to work under pressure with keen attention to detail.
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to interact effectively with other attorneys and staff, diverse in-house client groups, senior executives, opposing counsel and outside personnel.
• Ability to interact effectively with business and technical clients in a fast-paced environment;
• Skilled at managing client expectations, problem- solving and dispute resolution.

Demand on the Job

• Ability and willingness to work long hours and meet tight deadlines.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Excellent team working ability to ensure smooth operation in the Legal & Regulatory Department as a whole.
• Constant awareness of sensitivity and confidentiality involved in the function.
• Good research skills.