Head of Legal, Nigeria at ATC Nigeria

Job Description

• We are seeking a Head of Legal to join American Tower's Nigerian Legal department.
• The department negotiates, drafts, and reviews legal agreements governing real estate transactions and the administration of same.
• As a Head of Legal, the incumbent is the executive legal counsel for ATC Nigeria operations.
• You will be responsible for driving legal advice and assistance to the Nigeria leadership team, including with respect operational legal, regulatory, litigation and corporate law matters.
• The incumbent is also responsible for providing legal support to all business units in the execution of strategic operational decisions.
• The Head of Legal will be responsible for governance and compliance issues, public affairs, managing outside counsel and overseeing the work of the entire legal and regulatory department.
• The Head of Legal will also be the company secretary of ATC Nigeria and its related entities in Nigeria.

Essential Duties

What You Can Offer Us

• Ability to apply legal expertise and experience to make sound business decisions.
• Knowledgeable in practices, trends, technology, and information that affect the legal department and ATC Nigeria
• Ability to formulate and effectively articulate recommendations to business partners.
• Excellent negotiation skills, ability to effectively resolve complex issues and conflicts in relation to agreements and policy compliance.
• Excellent application of attention to detail in the preparation and review of contracts, complex agreements, and legal analysis.
• Exceptional ability to work as a team player and integrate with legal and non-legal personnel.
• Excellent planning skills and ability to effectively manage priorities for self and team to meet business requirements and deadlines.
• Ability to manage substantial workload in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to manage enterprise risks including anticipation, identification, and mitigation.
• Analytical problem-solver, able to quickly identify key issues and deal with them appropriately.
• Flexible regarding working hours and readiness to travel on short notice.
• Excellent leadership skills and ability to project manage and supervise projects with multi-functional teams.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Supervise and manage the performance of 4 direct reports:
• Senior Manager(s), Commercial
• Senior (Legal) Manager, Public Affairs
• Senior Legal Manager, Governance
• Proactively identify and resolve personnel issues in conjunction with Human Resources
• Recruit, develop and retain staff, partnering with Sr. Management and Human Resources. This includes on-boarding and orientation for new hires.
• Provide disciplined performance management for team. Define and communicate annual goals, perform formal and informal performance reviews, and provide feedback to relevant persons in a timely and professional manner.
• Create strong collaborative team environment.

Qualifications

What You Need To Succeed

Functional Knowledge:

• A solid background in Nigerian commercial law practice and telecoms’ regulatory matters
• Excellent understanding of the telecom infrastructure market, key customers, and challenges.
• Prior land law, M&A, and competition law experience
• Good public relations skills (e.g., ability to represent ATC Nigeria and generate positive influence in the external and internal communities).
• Strong negotiation skills.
• Strong organizational and relationship management skills.
• Strong commercial focus and orientation.
• Results-oriented.
• High degree of integrity.
• Proficient in Microsoft (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)

Minimum Qualification

• Admitted as a Legal Practitioner in Nigeria and a good standing member of the Nigerian Bar Association
• Over 12 years prior experience in commercial law practice in Nigeria of which at least the most recent 5+ years must have been as a senior corporate attorney, or as a counsel in the senior management team of a law firm – or a combination of both.
• Prior experience working for or advising multi-national companies in Nigeria.
• Postgraduate studies in law or business administration would be a plus