Legal Counsel at One Acre Fund

Job Description

The Senior Legal Counsel will be an integral part of the Legal Department and work closely with country and departmental leadership to identify and manage legal risk for One Acre Fund. The Senior Legal Counsel will collaborate with other teams to streamline our processes, including contract review and negotiation for procurement and distribution of inputs to our farmers. You will also provide legal and regulatory advice to our innovations teams on new products and programs and help manage our internal investigations team. As part of our growing Legal Department, the Senior Legal Counsel will also advise on legal strategy, structure and compliance issues across countries.

Primary Duties And Responsibilities

As a growing organization, we are ready to hand over significant responsibility for specific, well-defined strategic initiatives to address risk as well as day-to-day management of legal transactional work to the person in this role. As such, we are seeking an exceptional lawyer with 5+ years of work experience, and a long-term career interest in international development. This professional will serve in a career-track position that combines transactional work with legal advising in a fast-paced entrepreneurial work environment. This role will report directly to the Chief Legal Officer.

In addition to the responsibilities outlined above, the Senior Legal Counsel will be responsible for the following:

• Provide legal advice on regulatory and legal matters for One Acre Fund’s field operations and innovations
• Review and draft major contracts as well as develop templates and standard commercial agreements across our different geographical and operational areas of work
• Support contract negotiation and collaborate with business teams on developing effective relationships with contractors and vendors
• Perform due diligence and risk assessment on all major transactions
• Maintain and manage relationships with outside counsel, vendors, and other organizational partners
• Support our internal investigations team as needed
• Advise human resources teams on employment law requirements
• Advise on and institute systems for external compliance
• Develop internal policies and standard operating procedures for managing legal and operational risk across different areas of business and operations
• Assist with general legal tasks as needed to meet departmental and organizational priorities

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager and a global support team will commit significant time to your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about.

Qualifications

We are seeking an extraordinary candidate who will help us take the organization to the next levels of impact and scale. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• 5+ years of legal work experience preferably as an associate/partner with an international law firm or international in-house legal team.
• Law degree from a top university and admitted to practice in at least one jurisdiction.
• High degree of professional flexibility and ability to coordinate many unrelated projects at the same time. You need to be very comfortable working across all areas where One Acre Fund needs legal support and mixing those areas on a daily basis.
• Highly professional and commercial approach to problem-solving. We operate as a business and need to facilitate transactions in a proactive and efficient manner.
• Proven ability to manage complex transactional work in a corporate, non-profit or in-house practice setting.
• A strong team work ethic and excellent people skills. We have a small, but great team and are looking for someone to collaborate with to achieve our organizational goals.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills, including both verbal and written communication. You need to be an excellent and concise writer who can explain complex legal issues to non-lawyers a quick and accurate manner.
• A willingness to commit to living in an East African capital city with frequent travel to rural areas for at least two years – this is a long-term, career-track position and a great opportunity to step in as a senior legal member of a quickly growing team.
• The ideal candidate will have at least one year demonstrated experience working in the developing world, although this is not a strict requirement.

Travel: while based in Nairobi or Kigali, this position will require some travel within East Africa, but likely no more than 25% depending on where you are based.

Language: English required, working proficiency in French is a plus.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible

Job Location

Nairobi, Kenya; Kigali, Rwanda

Duration

Minimum 2 years commitment, full-time job