Associate, Legal at FSD Africa

Job Summary

• The Associate, Legal supports FSDAi’s investment and operational activities by delivering high-quality legal analysis and advisory.
• The role ensures transactions, partnerships, and institutional arrangements are robust, compliant, and effectively structured.
• Working closely with the Principal, Legal, the role contributes to safeguarding the organisation’s legal and regulatory position while enabling investment decisions and portfolio activities to align with applicable laws, financial regulations, and internal policies.
• Operating across FSDAi and, where required, FSD Africa, the role ensures legal considerations are effectively integrated throughout the investment lifecycle, including due diligence, transaction structuring, and documentation.
• By supporting the management of legal risks, strengthening governance arrangements, and enabling clear coordination with internal teams and external counsel, the Associate contributes to consistent, efficient, and well-governed execution of both investment and grant-related activities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ROLE REQUIREMENTS

Legal Advisory Support 

• Provide legal analysis and advice to ensure FSDAi’s activities and investment decisions are aligned with applicable laws, regulations, and internal policies.
• Analyse legal and regulatory frameworks relevant to FSDAi’s activities and interpret their implications for investment decisions and operations
• Apply legal analysis to transaction-related and operational matters to ensure alignment with applicable laws and internal policies
• Identify legal issues arising from investment activities and develop practical, risk-informed solutions
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments across relevant jurisdictions and assess their impact on FSDAi’s activities and investment approach

Strategy & Governance Support

• Deliver legal research and advisory inputs across FSDAi and FSD Africa, including ad-hoc legal matters
• Provide legal input into governance structures and strategic initiatives to ensure compliance, sound legal structuring, and effective institutional arrangements.
• Prepare and review governance-related legal documentation, ensuring accuracy, completeness, and alignment with regulatory requirements
• Provide legal input into partnership structures, strategic initiatives, and institutional arrangements
• Analyse legal aspects of shareholder structures and governance frameworks, identifying risks and implications

Investment Portfolio Legal Support

• Draft and review agreements and legal instruments that support partnerships and organisational arrangements
• Deliver legal input across the investment lifecycle to ensure transactions are appropriately structured, risks are identified, and processes are effectively coordinated.
• Conduct legal due diligence on prospective investees, identifying legal and regulatory risks and assessing compliance
• Analyse investment proposals and contribute legal input to transaction structuring, including appropriate instruments and key terms
• Draft and review legal inputs into investment agreements and funding arrangements to ensure accuracy and alignment with agreed terms

Contracts & Transaction Documentation

• Coordinate legal inputs across the transaction process, ensuring effective coordination across due diligence, documentation, approvals, and execution stages
• Ensure all contracts and transaction documentation are accurate, complete, and consistently applied through structured systems, templates, and legal frameworks.
• Draft and review investment agreements, commercial contracts, and grant-related documentation to ensure legal accuracy and alignment with agreed terms
• Review and incorporate counterparty comments into transaction documentation, proposing revisions that reflect FSDAi’s legal and commercial positions
• Ensure transaction documentation is complete, internally consistent, and reflects agreed terms with a high standard of accuracy and attention to detail
• Coordinate document review, approval, and execution processes to ensure timely and accurate completion of transactions

Legal Risk and Compliance Oversight 

• Maintain legal documentation systems, frameworks, templates, standard clauses, and precedent documents to improve consistency and efficiency 
• Identify, monitor, and manage legal and regulatory risks to ensure compliance and appropriate escalation of material issues.
• Identify and assess legal and regulatory risks arising from FSDAi’s investment activities and operational processes
• Track legal risks across transactions and portfolio activities, ensuring issues are documented and escalated appropriately
• Monitor legal and regulatory requirements and changes across jurisdictions assessing their implications for FSDAi’s activities and compliance obligations

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Contribute to the development and implementation of legal compliance tools, templates, and internal guidance materials to support consistent application of legal and regulatory requirements.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams and external stakeholders to ensure legal inputs are effectively integrated into FSDAi’s activities and decision-making processes.
• Work closely with investment, risk, finance, and portfolio teams to integrate legal considerations into transaction and portfolio processes
• Coordinate engagement with external legal counsel, including preparing instructions, reviewing outputs, and ensuring alignment with FSDAi requirements
• Facilitate communication between legal, deal teams, and external stakeholders by clearly articulating legal issues, risks, and requirements to support informed decision-making.
• Capture and share legal insights and lessons learned to support consistency and continuous improvement across the organisation
• Carry out any other duties or special assignments as assigned by the Management.

COMPETENCIES

• Competencies describe the key behaviours that drive success in all of FSD Africa’s roles, regardless of technical specialism. They have been derived from systematic research correlating performance with personal attributes. 
• Competency Levels 
• Level 1: Basic
• Level 2: Foundation   
• Level 3: Specialist
• Level 4: Senior Specialist      
• Level 5: Leading Expert          
• Level 6: Executive

ESSENTIAL FOUNDATIONS
Commitment & Alignment

• Demonstrates commitment to serving our partners and alignment with the values and vision of FSD Africa

Change & Challenge

• Has a strong sense of ownership that leads to learning, self-starting, taking initiative, driving change and leading development

ACHIEVEMENT COMPETENCIES
Situational Awareness & Thinking

• Thinks clearly and intentionally, analysing information objectively, understanding issues, solving problems, and making decisions

Drive for results

• Is keenly motivated to achieve goals & act with accountability to deliver quality results

PEOPLE COMPETENCIES
Relationships & Collaboration

• Discerns and appreciates the values, viewpoints, or abilities of others; effectively reconciles different interests and displays emotional intelligence

Communication & Influencing

• Deliberately adjusts behaviour to accommodate others; communicates clearly, confidently, and appropriately to influence others

Qualifications and Education

• Master’s degree (LLM) with 3 years’ of experience or bachelor’s degree (LLB) and 4 years’ of experience. 
• Relevant post-graduate qualification in Law with a practising certificate.
• Excellent skills in written and spoken English.

 Essential Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Experience in corporate, finance, investment, or commercial law, preferably within a law firm, financial institution, development finance institution, or investment organisation.
• Working knowledge of investment transactions, including exposure to legal due diligence and contract drafting.
• Experience supporting the drafting and review of investment agreements, commercial contracts, or financing arrangements, including contribution to negotiation processes
• Ability to collaborate effectively with investment teams, external legal counsel, and internal stakeholders during transaction processes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver work within agreed timelines.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to work in a collaborative and multidisciplinary environment.

Desirable

• Experience working in an international or multicultural environment.
• Exposure to development finance institutions, impact investment platforms, or donor-funded programmes.
• Knowledge of ESG or sustainable finance considerations in investment transactions.
• Familiarity with corporate and commercial legal frameworks relevant to cross-border transactions in Africa
• Understanding of development finance principles and the role of legal frameworks in enabling responsible investment
• Languages: French, local African languages