Role Purpose    

• Accountable for analyzing and identifying the legal risks and implications of all of the business’s transactions, keeping the senior management in all departments and relevant stakeholders informed of developments in laws and regulations that potentially affect the business. Provide specialist legal advice on legal disputes and litigation matters to ensure legal soundness of operations and effective execution of commercial transactions across the business.

Requirements    

• Relevant Legal degree (B Com, BA, B Juris or B Proc)
• Master of Law (LLM)
• Admitted attorney or advocate in South Africa
• Post graduate qualification preferred
• At least 8-10 years’ post admission experience in managing corporate law
• Solid compliance and corporate commercial experience preferably from a law firm
• Demonstrable experience in merger and acquisition processes
• Solid experience in insurance industry specifically short term and life insurance
• At least 10 years leadership experience of which a minimum of 5 years must be at senior management level
• Managing a legal team and providing legal counsel to senior management
• Demonstrable experience gained at a law firm highly advantageous

Duties & Responsibilities    

• Provide expert advice to business on various legal and technical matters in line with legal framework and best practice
• Manage litigation related matters to enable a consistent approach and mitigate risk
• Provide the business executive leadership with a view of legal issues and status of risks and provide expert opinion on any matters arising from this forum
• Ensure that all legal execution documents are executed in accordance with relevant industry legislation and requirements
• Provide legal advice to all stakeholders on any corporate legal related matters to ensure soundness of commercial operations enabling business to achieve its objectives
• Advise, assist or lead on legal negotiations, including the reviewing and drafting of all legal documentation
• Provide legal advice on client and supplier contractual matters to business stakeholders
• Review and ensuring that all relevant client and supplier contractual documents are in line with business and legal requirements
• Review, anticipation and guard against legal risks facing the company in projects and transactions
• Update and educate the business on changes or amendments to business laws and advise how this may affect the business and provide plans to address changes
• Develop and drive the implementation of a legal strategy and framework in line with business strategic objectives that ensures stakeholders receive optimal legal support
• Communicate and distil best practice legal concepts into business, ensuring that lessons learned are communicated both within and outside the legal community
• Identify opportunities to develop new processes and practices to strengthen the quality and consistency of legal opinions
• Develop and maintain a platform for sharing legal options, agreements and repositories of information to support the consistency and quality of legal opinions across the business
• Continuously monitor the environment to proactively identify potential legal risks and notify the relevant stakeholders of risks and potential solutions to mitigate legal risk
• Review legal documents for technical correctness and ensure that the latest legal precedents have been included in the documents
• Provide support in structuring, negotiating and drafting agreements and documentation in line with business requirements and best practices
• Provide legal advice and recommend solutions on strategic projects and initiatives
• Draft and periodically review standard legal documents or templates in collaboration with the legal community
• Provide authoritative, expert advice and litigation support to stakeholders
• Build and maintain relationships with clients and internal and external stakeholders
• Contribute to the process of negotiating objective and realistic service level agreements, monitor appropriateness and recommend adjustments
• Define service practices which build rewarding relationships, encourage innovation and allow others to provide exceptional client service
• Deliver on service level agreements made with clients and internal and external stakeholders in order to ensure that client expectations are managed
• Make recommendations to improve client service and fair treatment of clients within area of responsibility
• Participate and contribute to a culture which builds rewarding relationships, facilitates feedback and provides exceptional client service
• Create a positive work climate and culture to energise employees, give meaning to work, minimise work disruption and maximise employee productivity
• Demonstrate exemplary leadership behaviour, through personal involvement, commitment and dedication in support of organisational values
• Select and recruit suitably qualified talent in line with Employment Equity principles and Guardrisk values
• Drive a culture that guides and directs best practice, fostering an environment of continuous learning, improvement and cohesiveness
• Enable a learning and growth culture whereby information regarding successes, issues, trends and ideas are actively shared between team members
• Execute effective workforce planning practices to ensure that staffing requirements are accurately forecasted
• Identify employee growth and development needs and schedule interventions to enable ongoing development, training and personal growth
• Effectively manage performance within the team in order to ensure business objectives are achieved
• Encourage innovation, change agility and collaboration within the team
• Support the building of the team’s capability in order to ensure that the team is equipped to strategically partner with business and provide leading solutions
• Contribute to the financial planning process within area
• Identify opportunities to enhance cost effectiveness and increase operational efficiency
• Manage financial and other company resources under your control with due respect
• Provide input into the risk identification processes and communicate recommendations in the appropriate forum

Competencies    

• Business acumen 
• Client commitment 
• Motivating and Inspiring 
• Drive for results 
• Judgement and decision making 
• Collaboration 
• Innovative