Senior Legal Counsel

Job description

Some careers open more doors than others.

If you're looking for a career that will unlock new opportunities, join HSBC and experience the possibilities. Whether you want a career that could take you to the top, or simply take you in an exciting new direction, HSBC offers opportunities, support and rewards that will take you further.

Role Purpose

To provide legal advice, guidance and support to all business and product teams operating from HIBU including CIB, GTS, GPS and MSS and such other businesses and product teams that may offer products from HIBU in the future. The legal support provided shall include review of credit and lending and product documentation, agreements and contracts, litigation, and such other matters as deemed appropriate from a Legal FIM perspective to ensure that the Group's exposure to legal risk is managed effectively.

Principal Accountabilities

Impact on the Business

• Provide counsel and legal support on a variety of legal matters, or in a specialist area, including matters that may be complex or may have substantial impact.
• To be considered to be a trusted adviser to the businesses as stated above by ensuring that commercially sensitive, pragmatic and practical legal support and advice is provided in a cost-effective manner to the mentioned departments/business.
• Provide support and guidance to the departments/business mentioned above, with regard to legal risks arising in jobholder's area of expertise, including handling complaints.

Customers / Stakeholders

• Provide prompt, commercial, practical and sometimes complex (under supervision) and / or specialized legal advice to the respective business/department.
• Be proactive in the provision of legal support and in advising the respective business promptly of material legal developments and their implications.
• Recommend selection of panel law firms and other appropriate external parties.

Leadership & Teamwork

• Maintain and develop positive and professional working relationships with all team members within INM LGA, and the respective business departments for which the jobholder is responsible.
• Participate effectively as part of the INM Legal Team.
• Share legal knowledge and best practices with legal colleagues.
• Manage internal support staff as appropriate.

Operational Effectiveness & Control

• Provide legal services in a cost-effective manner.
• Co-ordinate and manage the approach to legal risk in INM legal and business departments for which the jobholder is responsible, to ensure that the interests of the HSBC Group are adequately protected.
• Assist the business to remain compliant with legal risk management requirements set out in the Group Standards Manual and Legal FIM.
• Awareness of the operational risk scenario associated with the role and to ensure that all actions during employment with HSBC take account of the likelihood of operational risk occurring.
• Oversight over all legal matters and the management of operational risk.

Major Challenges

• Ability to adapt work style to meet complex and varied workloads.
• Ability to prioritize workloads in terms of legal risk and commercial consideration.
• Maintain knowledge of HSBC Group operations and policies.
• Ability to think independently being mindful of maintaining an appropriate balance between management and mitigation of legal risk and business efficacy.
• Deepening knowledge of areas of specialty with ability to take a view as to how law is developing in order to advise client and reach a solution.
• Increasing ability to handle more complex tasks with less supervision.
• Enhanced relationship with higher levels of management inspiring confidence of customers/stakeholders.
• Ability to balance the need for further analysis and the need for a timely decision given commercial pressures.
• Keep abreast with the changes in laws and regulations.
• Formulate strategy for reducing customer complaint & its management more effectively.

Role Context

• The jobholder shall assist Managing Associate General Counsel – HSCI to manage legal risk across HIBU in accordance with established policies and procedures. The diversity of HSBC's business, its geographic spread and the constant changes internally and externally means the diversity of matters which the jobholder is required to manage and advise on is very wide;
• The role requires an understanding of the structure of the HSBC Group and its culture and the ability to handle increasingly complex legal issues; The jobholder must also establish close mutually supportive working relationships with other members of INM Legal team, ASP Legal Function and the Global Legal Function.
• Works largely autonomously, but seeks management input on unusual situations, highly complex issues, and matters that may pose significant legal, financial and / or reputational risk to the company.

Management of Risk

• Adhere to processes and controls to identify and mitigate risks and ensures timely escalation of control issues and reputation risks.

Observation of Internal Controls

• Maintain HSBC internal control standards and addresses audit points and/or any issues raised by regulators in a timely manner.

Role Dimensions

• Work towards keeping the Operating Expenses to minimum.
• Local Legal Environmental complexity ie number of HSBC Group Companies operating locally, breadth and complexity of the business / products, clarity of local legislation / regulations, maturity / reliability / efficiency of the legal / judicial system, propensity of disputes / litigation, local regulatory requirements including whether regulators are difficult, rigid, flexible etc, any bias in favour of local banks by government / regulators (ie competitive disadvantage).
• Strategic and business potential of the Line of Business / Function.

Requirements

• Qualified Lawyer
• Knowledge and experience of banking, corporate and securities law concepts and a working knowledge of the laws in the major jurisdictions in which HSBC operates;
• Corporate experience and Compliance experience an advantage, but not essential
• Knowledge of the HSBC Group corporate structures, its business and personnel and a clear understanding of HSBC's corporate culture;
• Developing Leadership skills;
• Ability to prioritize;
• Communication and inter-personal skills;
• Lateral thinking/problem solving.

Useful Link

Link to Careers Site: Click HERE

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