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In-House Legal Counsel (Legal & Regulatory Compliance)

Leeds or Manchester

About Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland represents the combination of two firms with a shared culture, values and commitment to client service excellence. We are each known for our commercial awareness and industry knowledge and for providing innovative and tailored solutions for every client.

As a full service law practice, we act for the public and private sector across the UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia and the US providing legal advice to clients across the Company Commercial, Employment, Labour & Pensions, Litigation and Dispute Management, and Real Estate practices.

With over 70 offices across over 30 countries worldwide, we have become one of the largest law practices in the world and a great place to work and develop your career.

Europe

We have offices in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Nordics and Baltics, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Eastern Europe and the UK. We deal constantly with large-scale projects involving multiple jurisdictions as well as countless day-to-day activities that help our clients manage their operations across the world.

We have local knowledge, combined with an international overview, and complex European work is handled by some of the leading lawyers in the business. Our multi-office structure also gives us the flexibility to apply creative and competitive pricing solutions. From our European offices, we specialize in many areas. These include: banking, litigation/international arbitration, competition and regulatory, tax, financial services (including insurance, pensions and funds advisory), M&A and private equity, major international infrastructure projects.

In addition, we have experts in sectors such as industrials, real estate, consumer, energy and transport and technology.

The Governance & Compliance Team

The Governance & Compliance Team consists of the firm’s in-house counsel team headed by the General Counsel working with lawyers and other colleagues around the business to develop and implement effective policies and procedures and ensure compliance with new legislative and regulatory requirements. The Governance & Compliance Team also manages the firm’s insurance, claims and in-house legal matters, and oversees other issues affecting the firm’s risk profile and reputation. The Governance & Compliance Team is successfully creating a robust framework for managing risk across all parts of our business, which continues to expand internationally.

The Role

As part of the Legal and Regulatory Compliance Team within Governance & Compliance, this role will involve assisting the team in the development and roll-out of governance and compliance initiatives across all of Eversheds Sutherland’s offices, as well as assisting on a wide range of day-to-day governance and compliance related matters that arise in a firm like Eversheds Sutherland.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities:

• Working closely with senior In-House Counsel in the Legal and Regulatory Compliance team to advise the firm at a strategic level on various governance and compliance issues
• Horizon scanning legal and regulatory changes that impact the firm and working with senior In-House Counsel to develop and implement compliance programmes to address them e.g. DAC6, Modern Slavery
• Assisting the firm in its intended growth plans to open new offices in other jurisdictions.
• Working with colleagues on projects to manage risk across the firm’s network of offices (UK/International) e.g. Brexit
• Actively participating in International Operations Team (“IO”) initiatives to ensure the needs of the business are met and address any governance and compliance issues (e.g. a review of the firm’s client money strategy, or review of the firm’s arrivals and departures process)
• Responding to enquiries from clients and other third parties on various governance and compliance issues
• Advising the firm on various governance and ethical issues, including SRA compliance
• Investigating and responding to conduct complaints against the firm or individuals at the firm
• Liaising with regulatory bodies as necessary on behalf of the firm including reporting misconduct to the SRA
• Researching and advising on local law and local regulatory requirements in respect of the firm’s network of offices
• Contributing to the ongoing development and roll-out of the firm’s mandatory governance training programme
• Reviewing/updating the firm’s policies and facilitating the development of new policies and guidance notes where necessary, including the internationalisation of UK focused policies
• Working with other members of the governance and Compliance team and wider business as required to support in the delivery of the firm’s objectives
• Working with colleagues in other parts of the Governance & Compliance Team and IO and, where relevant, senior partners in other jurisdictions, to ensure the firm’s constitutional arrangements comply with applicable regulatory requirements
• Liaising with senior partners and ‘risk reps’ in our international offices to share with them knowledge and information about new policies, regulation, legislation and risk issues emanating out of the UK and to obtain from them similar information emanating from their respective regions

Skills and Experience

Skills and experience:

• Qualified Solicitor with a minimum of 4 years PQE
• Ideally experience of working in a governance and compliance environment, with experience of undertaking international projects, and familiarity with international governance structures
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal and the ability to deliver sensitive messages tactfully when required
• Strong commercial and financial awareness, and experience of budget ownership
• Excellent level of IT and systems literacy
• Strong organisational skills
• Excellent time management skills
• Enjoys working under pressure and meeting tight deadlines
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Adopts a pragmatic and innovative approach to meeting client needs
• Demonstrates commercial awareness when providing technical advice
• A passion for governance and compliance matters
• Proven ability to think independently, contribute to projects and confidently engage with and influence colleagues at all levels
• Impressive attention to detail

Key competencies:

• A strong team player, but also the ability where required to work with minimum supervision, in an autonomous and independent way
• A lively, energetic personality and enthusiasm for providing excellent client service
• A tenacious yet practical approach to problem solving
• Excited and challenged by the pace and demands of a corporate environment
• High degree of commercial awareness, with the ability to contribute to the wider business agenda
• A range of influencing skills, personal impact and communication skills that will ensure success and command instant credibility at all levels of the organisation
• A high degree of flexibility and responsiveness in approach to work
• Service-orientated with an ability to understand the varied issues facing the offices across the firm’s network and provide possible solutions to challenges
• Resilient under pressure and willing to work with the challenges brought by change

Diversity and Inclusion

At Eversheds Sutherland, we recognise that having diverse talent across our business brings many benefits, and we are committed to accessing a wide range of views and thinking in all that we do. A culture of inclusion, where each person feels able to be their true self at work and reach their full potential is key. We recognise that bringing together the perspectives of individuals of all backgrounds, life experiences, preferences and beliefs is critical if we are to serve our global client base, people and communities as a leading global legal practice.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments to enable participation in the recruitment process, please contact us so that we can discuss how best to assist.

We are open to considering flexible working options for our vacancies. Whilst we are not able to offer flexible working across all of our roles, many of our people work flexibly in some way, and we would encourage you to talk to us about this during the hiring process if you would like to explore further.

We are a LGBT+ inclusive employer and are Stonewall Corporate Champions.