Legal Associate at Britam

Job description

Job Purpose

The role holder will be responsible for provision of legal advisory services and ensuring effective management of legal and contractual risks. This role is responsible for the Legal matters in Group, Property and the Regions.

Key Responsibilities

• Assist in giving advice on legal issues, risks, company policies and procedures;
• Assist in providing legal counsel to the regional businesses during product development process;
• Keep abreast with upcoming laws and regulations and advice the business accordingly;
• Assist in the conduct of legal due diligence for pending and upcoming business transactions;
• Provide assistance in Intellectual property issues including registration rights, clearance rights, IP strategies;
• Assist in conveyancing transactions where the Group and Property company are involved, all land related transactions, change of user and lease management;
• Assist in reviewing Group projects where the group legal team is involved, structure and advise on legal issues related therewith and manage external counsel involved;
• Assist in managing external Advocates on the Britam panel of Advocates through pro-active interaction and correspondence;
• Review and advise the business on legal implications of internal policies and procedures;
• Instruct Advocates to prosecute and or defend matters on behalf of the company;
• Prepare, modify and review all contracts or any other documentation where the company has committed itself and assess legal implications that need to be brought to the executive management’s attention;
• Review advocates legal costs to ensure that the same are within the Advocates Remuneration Order 2009 as well as attempt other cost saving measures such as out of court negotiations;
• Receive and review status updates as received by the various legal departments and regions in line with reporting guidelines;
• Advice on and monitor on compliance issues relating to laws and regulations including legislative review, lobbying and updates;
• Attend court hearings and “watch brief” for the company on vital legal cases;
• Responsible for the training of new staff within the department as succession planning as well as train new employees on the role of the legal department at Britam;
• Facilitate and participate in training programmes initiated by the Legal department as value addition to fellow colleagues;
• Ensurecompliance with auditors requests, Group LLP compliance and custody of Group LLP’s; and
• Perform any other duties as may be assigned from time to time.

Requirements

• Hold a minimum LLB degree from a recognized university
• Be an Advocate of the High Court
• Possess a Valid Practicing Certificate
• Post graduate Diploma from Kenya School of Law
• 4-5 years’ experience of Law in a busy commercial organisation or commercial and conveyancing department of a busy law firm

Essential Competencies

• Leading and Supervising: Provides team with a clear direction based on the overall strategy and objectives of the department; motivates and empowers others with a clear sense of purpose; creates a positive climate that fosters learning and development; acknowledge high potential talent within the team; sets and articulates the vision and values through own personal behaviour.
• Persuading and Influencing: Gains clear agreement and commitment from other; promotes the departmental strategy and objectives during team conversations; promotes ideas on behalf of the team and or department; makes a strong personal impact on others; takes care to manage the team’s impression and brand on others.
• Presenting and Communicating Information: Speaks fluently; expresses opinions, information and key points of an argument clearly; responds quickly to the needs of an audience and to their reactions and feedback; projects credibility.
• Adhering to Principles and Values: Upholds ethics and values; demonstrates integrity; encourages team and individual responsibility towards the community and the environment.
• Analysing: Analyses numerical data and all other sources of information, to break them into component parts, patterns and relationships; probes for further information or greater understanding of a problem; makes rational judgements from the available information and analysis; demonstrates an understanding of how one issue may be a part of a much larger system.
• Planning and Organising: Sets clearly defined team objectives; plans activities and projects well in advance and takes account of possible changing circumstances; identifies and organises resources needed to accomplish tasks; manages time effectively; monitors team performance against deadlines and milestones.
• Delivering Results and Meeting Customer Expectations: Focuses on customer needs and satisfaction; sets high standards for quality and quantity; monitors and maintains quality and productivity; works in a systematic methodical and orderly way; consistently achieves projects goals.