Legal Counsel - Corporate and Institutional Clients at Standard Chartered Bank

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Business Partnering

• Executes transactions and cases in a timely and effective manner for the C&I segment across the region.
• Corporate & Institutional client business types to be supported include (amongst others) lending, corporate finance, project finance, private equity, trade finance, structured trade finance, trade, cash, financial markets (including in part some vanilla derivative products).
• Effectively manages the process of engaging external counsel, including providing effective instructions to external counsel and negotiating appropriate fee structures for the transaction / case in question.
• Supports and facilitates internal product development through the new products approval process.
• Develops appropriate forms of documentation for products and transactions in the country and region and, where required, supports the creation of global standard documentation.
• May be regarded as a key contact in relation to particular area(s) of product specialism.
• Uses technical knowledge of all business products undertaken in the jurisdiction to provide sound, technical product, legal and transactional advice to the business and to anticipate the impact of legal developments on the business and communicate such impact to the business.
• Drives the development and maintenance of good relationships with internal and external business stakeholders at appropriate levels ensuring an open and cooperative environment.

Legal and Product Risk

• Leads in the proactive and strategic identification of material legal risks in the business, including those related to products - both existing products and those under development - and customer segments. Influences stakeholders to improve the management of legal risk at a regional level.
• As part of the global new products approval process, ensures material legal risks in a country are appropriately addressed.
• Provides legal advice, briefings, recommendations and reports on material legal risks and issues to business, country and functional stakeholders.
• Contributes to Team Legal risk governance through providing country perspective on legal risk policies and procedures and ensuring consistency in the Country and region's approach to legal risk management. Responsible for rolling out Legal Risk policies and procedures in-country. Responsible for rolling out Legal & Compliance Risk policies and procedures within the business.

Regional Leadership

• Acts as a central point of reference for business legal issues in the region, business and functional stakeholders.
• Working together with the Country Heads of Legal Africa, to support business growth and address all legal risks.
• Implements consistent Team Legal objectives, priorities across the team, ensuring alignment with the global Team Legal agenda and policies.
• Coordinates legal training with the Country Heads of Legal to ensure that a balanced training programme is available to the lawyers in the region.
• Raises awareness of, and addresses, legal risks and issues within the wider business area of responsibility through specific legal training.
• Promotes active cooperation between the business legal teams to encourage a collegiate working environment across the businesses.
• Ensures that team works effectively and proactively with other support function teams to manage all country legal risks.
• Ensures that external legal engagements are coordinated and effective and provides support for panel arrangements when required.
• Manages costs of the business legal team in accordance with the budget process.
• Identification and mitigation of legal risks
• Determine adequacy, validity and enforceability of contractual and collateral documentation.
• Manage documentation templates automation.
• Legal knowledge management.
• Assist with review of and compliance with policies and procedures.
• Assist in process governance committees and operational risks committees

Qualifications & Skills

• Minimum of a 2nd class lower degree in Law. Qualified lawyer, preferably in a common law jurisdiction.
• Experience in general commercial banking.
• Experience working in the markets of the bank's footprints (desirable).
• Effective engagement of the business to understand their needs and execute their transactions.
• Timely execution of transactions; effective engagement; lowering of legal risk.
• Advanced understanding of a significant number of products sold by the Corporate & Institutional client businesses and the related legal issues.
• Management experience including ability to organise tasks; ability to engage and motivate a team; willingness to advance.

In compliance with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Act of 2004, all applicants should ensure that they have completed the mandatory NYSC programme. A discharge certificate will be required as evidence of completion of the programme. Where an exemption has been granted, a certificate of exemption will also be required.