EMEA Senior Legal Counsel – London

• Being a member of the Counsel office team and reporting to the Head of Legal – EMEA, the Senior Legal Counsel will be a member of the  General Counsel’s Office, located in the London office, with responsibility for providing legal and regulatory advice and guidance to businesses in EMEA.
• We are looking to hire an experienced lawyer with a keen interest in EU and UK financial services regulatory work, offering solutions to the marketplace, an inquisitive, growth mindset and an enthusiastic attitude, looking to flourish in a supportive and collaborative environment.
• The core of the activities will be to act as legal contact for businesses in London and abroad and take responsibility for the provision of advice with a view to crafting and implementing measures to align with legal or regulatory requirements while mitigating risks.
• This will involve working closely with colleagues and partners throughout the organization, locally and globally.
• We are looking for a lawyer that can be autonomous in their role, leveraging the support that the team provides as appropriate.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Proactive, and operate with a good degree of autonomy to facilitate and support business
• Ability to understand complex technical issues and provide accurate and commercial advice to the business on a wide range of topics under English and European Union law reliably and within the required timeframes
• Support the management of legal issues across regulated and unregulated businesses in EMEA
• Manage matters and projects, partnering effectively with cross-functional teams (e.g. Compliance, Business, Product, Tech, Operations, and Sales) fostering and building relationships built on trust
• Collaborate with other members of the Legal team, both in the Americas and APAC regions, to ensure a consistent approach to legal issues across the DTCC business
• Assist with the continuous improvement of standard form agreements, contract processes and legal policies and procedures in collaboration with other DTCC regions as required
• Assist with reviewing, drafting and negotiating a wide range of contracts balancing commercial objectives, operational requirements, regulatory requirements and risk management imperatives
• Regulatory horizon scanning to devise effective solutions in collaboration with Legal, Compliance and Management, to develop efficient defense strategies and protect the business from risks, including by providing advice on the development and structuring of new business initiatives, new products and service offerings, transaction execution and legal and regulatory change
• Maintain sound governance practices and monitoring the effectiveness of controls
• Experience with incident responses and/or investigations
• Provide regular updates on matters to the Head of Legal – EMEA and act as a key support for the Head of Legal – EMEA team in maintaining relationships with the regulators, industry associations and other institutions by keeping up with regulatory changes and updates
• Handle other routine corporate legal matters or ad-hoc projects or questions, at times on tight deadlines, as requested by the Head of Legal – EMEA
• Mitigate risk by following established procedures, spotting key errors and demonstrating strong ethical behavior

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5 to 12 years PQE or equivalent
• Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent experience
• 5 to 12 years qualified lawyer entitled to practice in the UK (e.g. solicitor or barrister with current practicing certificate for England and Wales)
• Experience as a practicing lawyer gained in private practice with a focus on financial services law, with experience working in a heavily regulated environment (preferably the financial services industry with knowledge of regulatory requirements in UK markets and/or dealing with regulatory agencies), ideally followed by in-house experience in a regulated financial entity
• An interest in technological development in the financial sector will be an advantage
• Experience and interest in general contract, corporate and commercial law
• Solid understanding of the requirements of legal risk management to facilitate business in compliance with regulatory requirements, internal policies and procedures, and within risk tolerances