Apply here by 1 December 2021
Salary: Competitive
Location: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester
Vacancy Type: Business Services Professionals
Business Area: General Counsel, Risk & Compliance
Contract Type: Fixed Term Temporary
The General Counsel & Risk (GC&R) team focuses on strategic risk management advice and projects across the firm’s UK and international offices. This includes advising the firm on regulatory and professional practice issues, drafting and agreeing firm-wide policies and procedures, and assisting the General Counsel, Conflicts Partner, Money Laundering Reporting Officer and Anti-Bribery & Corruption Officer. The team is also responsible for implementing, embedding and monitoring compliance and risk practices across the firm, globally.
The Team
The Business Acceptance Unit (BAU) forms part of the Firm’s GC&R Directorate. The role reports to the BAU Conflicts Manager and involves the analysis of conflict and confidential information issues in accordance with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (‘SRA’) Code of Conduct 2019.
The team comprises of Assistants and Advisors processing and analysing conflict searches in relation to the Firm’s inbound client and matter instructions. The team is also responsible for implementing and maintaining Information Barriers and Insider Lists in accordance to Market Abuse Regulation (MAR), and dealing with general client and matter inception queries including elements of matter management and engagement letter maintenance.
The BAU Conflicts Advisor provides support and guidance to BAU Conflicts Assistants, and works closely with other Advisors, the BAU Conflicts Manager and General Counsel and Risk Lawyers (GC&R) to resolve conflict and confidential information issues. Advice is provided to partners and fee earners in relation to the Firm’s procedures and conflict checking obligations.
This full time role is based in Leeds with occasional travel to other offices as required.
The role involves:
• Processing and filtering conflict search results, conducting legal and commercial analysis of potential conflict and confidentiality issues. Reporting only key issues to partners, fee earners or the GC&R team. Developing and launching the team’s training program for conflicts analysis working with the BAU Conflicts Manager, GC&R and divisional fee earning teams to deliver a strategy and approach.
• Liaising with partners and fee earners to discuss complex and multifaceted instructions, undertaking thorough research and analysis on all aspects of the Firm’s inbound and existing client and matter work.
• Acting as a key point of contact to pro-actively engage with partners, fee earners and GC&R to improve working practices and service with the support of the BAU Conflicts Manager.
• Analysing confidential records to assess relevance and supporting GC&R in referrals to the Conflicts Committee / Conflicts Partner.
• Training and mentoring of BAU Conflicts Assistants, supporting the BAU Conflicts Manager in developing the team’s knowledge on legal and commercial analysis in accordance with paragraph 6.1-6.5 of the SRA.
• Reviewing systems and processes for effectiveness, making recommendations for change and taking responsibility for implementing any changes.
• Conducting weekly audits of conflict search results and providing comprehensive feedback to assist in the development of the BAU Conflict Assistant team.
• Dealing with price sensitive information and other highly sensitive information issues, including the maintenance of the Firm’s Dealing List and processing share dealing requests.
• Drafting material and delivering training sessions for partners, fee earners and PAs.
• Leading team meetings to discuss workload, training and issue resolution. Pro-actively arrange workshops and meetings to develop team members and provide refresher training.
• Monitoring of the team’s workload ensuring work is prioritised in accordance with service level standards.
• Supporting the BAU Conflicts Manager in key compliance work, client matter inception related projects and other work as required.
• Draft, review and update new and existing BAU procedures in accordance with regulatory changes and Firm policy under the supervision of the BAU Conflicts Manager and GC&R team.
• Compiling Management Information (‘MI’) statistics for stakeholders.
A successful applicant will need the following skills and competencies:
• Minimum two years’ experience in a law firm conflicts role. Strong and demonstrable conflicts analytical skills in filtering and analysis work with an ability to deal with high volumes of information. Understanding complex areas of law and applying relevant legal and commercial knowledge to make judgements in relation to inbound and existing client and matter work.
• Knowledge of the SRA Code of Conduct 2019 (specifically paragraph 6.1-6.5) and MAR.
• Confidence to liaise with partners and other stakeholders to provide advice on legal and commercial issues, regulations and firm policy.
• Excellent organisation skills and attention to detail with an ability to work under pressure whilst managing competing deadlines.
• Experience in motivating, coaching, mentoring and providing feedback to team members.
• A flexibility and willingness to adapt to the needs and changing pace of workload across the wider team.
• A dedicated self-starter who can autonomously manage their workload and is confident in making calculated, daily risk based decisions.
• A strong team player. Delivering results and providing proactive solutions to difficult issues, as well as delegating work to other team members.
• Project management skills or experience of working on project related activities.
• Excellent IT skills – proficient in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Email and Internet usage.
AG is an equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate on the basis of a person’s gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We are committed to having a diverse team and actively encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds and communities, particularly those from underrepresented demographics. We want our recruitment practices to be as inclusive as possible, so please let us know if you need us to make any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview process to help you perform to your best.
Apply here by 1 December 2021
