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Allen & Overy is a leading global law firm operating in over thirty countries. We work on some of the most challenging and important deals and have built a reputation for delivering exceptional legal solutions that help our clients grow, innovate and thrive. The legal industry is changing, and we're committed to leading that change, putting our people first, embracing new ways of thinking and integrating technology into our everyday work. Our business teams work hand-in-hand with our lawyers, Consultants and other specialist teams, and are ambitious, driven and leaders in their field.

With us, you will constantly be learning and growing. We invest in you by offering exceptional professional and personal development – providing training, mentoring and practical support. We offer rewarding careers that are built around your strengths and designed to ensure you can achieve your personal and professional goals, recognising that those may look different for everyone.

We have a powerful commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We’re determined to play our part in advancing a workplace where progress is made by harnessing our differences – whatever defines you, we ask you to bring your whole self to work. What truly defines a career at Allen & Overy? We recruit the best and ask for the best of you. We provide challenge, support and a place for you to belong. And together we excel, working on meaningful projects of global significance.

Department purpose

The role of the Business Acceptance Unit is:

• to review and advise Partners on client terms of engagement (including Outside Counsel Guidelines), as well as amendments to A&O standard terms of engagement;
• to receive, review, monitor and keep a central record of Outside Counsel Guidelines or other non-standard terms of engagement agreed with clients.
• to work with Partners and other fee earners to ensure that our terms of engagement with clients are clear and documented and to advise on unusual/non-standard terms and on aspects of the firm's Engagement Terms Policy;
• to ensure that A&O’s engagement terms policies and processes are kept to up to date and meet A&O’s business, legal and regulatory requirements;
• to process requests from Partners for A&O to accept new legal matters including, in particular, performing anti-money laundering and background checks on new clients and performing conflicts checks (within internal databases) on each new matter (for both new and existing clients);
• to obtain the required evidence of identity for new clients (and existing clients where appropriate);
• to screen and analyse conflict search results and, in consultation with the originating lawyers, determine whether or not the new legal matter is clear of conflicts and appropriate for the practice to take on;
• to authorise the opening of new legal matters when checks have been completed and any issues or problems satisfactorily resolved;
• to facilitate resolution of legal conflict issues in consultation, where appropriate, with A&O senior management;
• to facilitate resolution of business conflict issues in consultation with relevant partners/senior lawyers including, if necessary, A&O senior management;
• to determine the need for information barriers to enhance the internal security of information and to facilitate them being established to meet the requirements of the situation;
• to intervene (where needed) to direct the required levels of matter/virtual file security within the A&O virtual filing system; and to deal with business acceptance queries (including conflicts and anti-money laundering ID queries.

Role and responsibilities

This role is in the Engagement Terms Team (the ETT), within the BAU. It requires being a proactive member of the team with a general responsibility for providing administrative support to the ETT Legal Team, as well as providing support to other members of the BAU and the business more widely with engagement terms queries, responsibilities will also include:

• Reporting to the Team Lead and supporting her and the and other In-House Lawyers (Terms/OCGs) in their reviews of client’s Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCG) and A&O own form Engagement Terms (Terms).
• Supporting the Team Lead with some PA duties such as setting meetings, calendar maintenance and inbox management.
• Managing the workload tracker for the team on a daily basis, maintaining a record of the team’s reviews and attending weekly meetings with the Team Lead to ensure this is kept up-to-date.
• Managing the ETT calendar through organising meetings, booking office spaces when required and updating an annual leave calendar for the Team Lead when required to manage absence requests.
• Managing and overseeing the on-boarding process for all ETT new joiners, ensuring they have the required equipment, training materials and information, as well as managing their training calendar.
• Creating and maintaining the ETT intranet page & keeping the Global Risk Teams Site up-to-date.
• Supporting the Team Lead in the creation and maintenance of know-how resources relating to OCGs and Terms for use within the team.
• Assisting the Team Lead in retrospectively auditing OCG’s and Terms that are currently in place and identifying any previous negotiation records we have on file.
• Assisting the Team Lead with research and detail orientated projects, managing communications across various A&O offices across the globe, maintaining progress trackers, taking ownership of all the administrative duties related to a project and taking care with the presentation of any documents, demonstrating excellent IT skills.
• Proactively seeking to identify areas in which processes can be streamlined and efficiency improved within the ETT.
• Performing tasks under the pressure of tight, business driven deadlines and showing a willingness and ability to work effectively and consistently under such pressure.
• Being flexible in undertaking your responsibilities and any others as required, for example in providing support to the ETT Paralegal team when so required in relation to other aspects of the ETT’s role.