The posting
Job Description
Position Title: Senior Legal Counsel reports to the General Counsel and Board Secretary
2. JOB PURPOSE:
- We're looking for a talented and highly motivated legal counsel to support our rapidly growing and evolving businesses and provide comprehensive and advanced in-house legal support to the Group of Companies on all legal matters related to contracts, insurance, projects and new ventures, and Corporate Governance & legal compliance.
- You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced environment with broad, generalist responsibilities, but with specialist legal subject skills in commercial law and matters pertaining the Petrochemicals and Chemicals sector. You will be responsible for counseling the business operations, by giving pro-active, professional, competent, (cost) effective and creative legal support.
- You'll need to bring negotiation and drafting skills and business sense to deal with multiple functional teams in a rapidly scaling business.
- You will collaborate with local business leaders as well as with supporting areas advising on legal risks, business strategies and other issues related to the Companys businesses.
- You will be required to work independently as well as part of various teams and take on projects in addition to the daily day job.
- To progressively work closely with the General Counsel in providing creative legal advice across the full range of business activity where legal input (of all types) is required, which may include:
- Corporate transactional advice
- Progressively provide supporting day-to-day commercial and contract law advice.
- Maintaining contractual legal templates
- To advise on complex commercial contracting matters (of any nature) within the Group.
- Commercial contentious matters pre-litigation with a view to early settlement
- Supporting the Governance and Compliance team and providing advice on regulatory matters
- To provide legal training to junior members of the Legal Department and to other departments within the organization.
3. KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES:
Description
Contracts and Binding Documents
- Understand the individual business unit needs in terms of contracts, tenders, press releases, controls and policies and draft and revise contracts, advising on legal risks when applicable to achieve optimal business interests, consistency with corporate documentation and compliance with laws and regulations.
- Facilitate joint review sessions with the business to ensure that the drafted contract represents all the required clauses and adequately represents the needs of the business and protects the business against any possible risks.
Ensure providing proper assessment of the risks associated with the contracts and agreements in
order to ensure that CLIENT is not exposed to uncontrolled risk and use the right protective legal instrument to hedge against the identified risks.
- Provide legal opinion on legal claims on different commercial matters e.g. customers, suppliers, vendors, contractors etc. with a view of recovering companys rights or minimise liability and reaching amicable settlements in line with Managements discretion.
- Manage the negotiation of agreements, tenders, and contracts to obtain the best terms for the Company.
Insurance Policies and Claims Management
- Lead all aspects of insurance matters of the Company, including preparing tender documents for insurance policies, reviewing the wording of the various insurance policies and evaluating bids and making recommendations to the relevant Tender Committee for the selection of the insurance policies to ensure adequacy and legal compliance at optimum cost.
- Manage the insurance claims process for all insurance policies including filing the required notices and claims and follow up with the insurance companies for settlement to ensure that the process is in compliance with the company standards.
Advisory Services
- Provide accurate, relevant, and timely advice to the company and other members of staff on a variety of legal topics that relate to the business sector and their products or services to protect the interest of the company.
- Strategically manage complex external investigation and litigation surrounding critical business issues. The role shall include but not limited to; (a) managing external counsels and carefully manage budgets in respect of the above external investigation and disputes; (b) proactively advise the business regarding the risks associated with the internal, external investigations and disputes; (c) working alongside with user departments to collect data in respect of the internal, external investigations and disputes and provide support to the external counsels to mitigate risks; and (d) contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of handling the internal, external investigations and disputes by obtaining all necessary approvals needed regarding contentious aspects.
- Conduct extensive legal research related to all legal matters to maximize knowledge in legalities pertaining to relevant matters and offer informed legal advice in the light of complex information.
- Conduct investigations related to violations committed by employees and recommend appropriate disciplinary action.
Projects, New Ventures, and subsidiaries
- Evaluate individual business unit needs for new venture support and provide recommendations to the CLIENTs management on legal implications of the new projects, investments, including joint ventures, creation of new entities, alliances, mergers etc. to protect the corporate interests and minimise liabilities.
- Conduct research based on the individual business units needs for new ventures, provide legal feedback related to the documents and ensure the incorporation of the feedback to mitigate potential risks for the business.
Understand the legal needs of CLIENTs subsidiaries and on an ongoing basis provide sound and
legal advice and recommendations to the leadership team of all CLIENTs subsidiaries to protect the legal interests of the company against any liability.
Corporate Governance & Legal Compliance
- Assisting to develop and implement the Corporate Governance framework.
- Review and advise management on the legal implications of internal policies and procedures, controls, contracts etc., based on the interpretation of the existing and new laws, legislations, policies, and regulations to ensure compliance with the state laws and regulations.
- Continuously monitor legal compliance of all CLIENTs documents to ensure compliance with statutory obligations and advice management accordingly.
Policies, Systems, Processes & Procedures
- Support enhancement of departmental policy and procedures and enhance procedures related to respective section, implement procedures and controls covering all areas of legal function to ensure adherence and effective implementation.
Statements and Reports
- Ensure the preparation of timely and accurate departmental statements and reports to meet CLIENTs and department requirements, policies and standards.
Related Assignments
- Perform other related duties or assignments as directed by the General Counsel and Board Secretary.
4. COMMUNICATIONS & WORKING RELATIONSHIPS:
Internal:
Chiefs and Mangers
- Heads of all divisions/departments
- Relevant department staff at different levels for the purpose of legal services
External
- CLIENTs subsidiaries, affiliates and companies operated by CLIENT
- Legal/governmental bodies
External law firms and consultants.
- Insurance companies and brokers.
5. DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY:
- Key decisions having significant impact on the legal department are referred to the General Counsel and Board Secretary for approval before implementation.
6. QUALIFICATIONS, EXPERIENCE & SKILLS:
Minimum Qualifications:
- Degree in law from a European or North America recognized university.
- Masters in law is preferable.
Minimum Experience:
- 12+ years of hands-on experience either as in house counsel or in law firm environment with exposure to different aspects of law
Experience in the Energy industry is preferred.
Job-Specific Skills (Generic/Technical):
- Extensive experience in major contracts negotiation, formulation, and management.
- Extensive experience in handling legal matters related to new ventures and major projects
- Extensive experience in Corporate Governance and legal compliance requirements
Extensive experience in insurance policies and claims and interaction with brokers
- Conflict management and dispute resolution skills
- Outstanding inter-personal skills and an ability to connect with people at all levels to drive successful relationships
- Advanced analytical and conceptual thinking
- Ability to provide objective and unbiased recommendations in line with the companys interest
- Excellent English language skills both written and spoken.
- Very Good computer knowledge of Microsoft Office and electronic communications
- High on integrity and conscientious
