Senior Legal Advisor, Global Markets, Interest Rates & Bonds

Liberty is seeking a knowledgeable and strategic Senior Legal Advisor to join their Global Markets division, focusing on Interest Rates and Bonds. This role is based in Johannesburg and offers a challenging opportunity for a seasoned legal professional to make a significant impact within a leading Africa-focused financial services group.

About the Role

This is a critical strategic position, tasked with ensuring the attainment of legal objectives across Liberty's Global Markets operations. The Senior Legal Advisor will act as the primary legal subject matter expert for Interest Rate Derivatives (IRD), Bonds, and Money Market products. You will provide essential legal oversight and direction, guiding Standard Bank's extensive trading and treasury businesses.

Your responsibilities will extend to shaping the legal landscape for these financial instruments. This includes developing and implementing robust legal standards, establishing frameworks for documentation governance, and leading the charge on managing legal risk. A key aspect of the role involves collaborating with a diverse range of external stakeholders, including regulators, central counterparties, market infrastructure providers, and various industry bodies. The aim is to foster consistency in legal risk management practices across different jurisdictions, ensuring a unified approach to legal compliance and risk mitigation.

The Senior Legal Advisor will be instrumental in driving legal strategy and execution. Key duties include:

• **Subject Matter Expertise:** Acting as the go-to legal authority for Interest Rate Derivatives, Bonds, and Money Market products, offering strategic legal guidance and oversight to the organisation's trading and treasury functions.
• **Framework Development:** Leading the creation and refinement of legal standards, overarching frameworks, and governance processes for documentation related to IRD, bonds, and money market products.
• **Stakeholder Engagement:** Engaging proactively with regulators, central counterparties, market infrastructure providers, and industry associations to ensure alignment and manage legal and regulatory requirements.
• **Risk Management:** Driving the implementation and consistency of legal risk management practices across all relevant jurisdictions where the Group operates its markets businesses.
• **Strategic Partnerships:** Collaborating closely with senior leadership in business and risk management to advise on critical areas such as product governance, market reforms, benchmark transitions, capital markets transactions, funding initiatives, and evolving regulatory landscapes that impact the Group's markets activities.
• **Thought Leadership:** Positioning yourself as a recognised expert within both the legal and financial markets communities. This involves actively monitoring emerging legal, regulatory, and market trends, influencing policy and strategic decision-making, and contributing valuable insights to industry forums and working groups.
• **Team Development:** Cultivating and maintaining deep specialised legal expertise within the legal function. This will be achieved through active coaching, mentoring, and professional development of junior lawyers and legal professionals, fostering knowledge sharing, promoting technical excellence, and ensuring effective succession planning to guarantee continuity and sustainable support for the Group's markets businesses.

What They're Looking For

To excel in this role, candidates should possess a strong legal background coupled with extensive experience in the financial services sector. Essential qualifications and attributes include:

• **Qualifications:** An LLB degree and admission as an Attorney are mandatory.
• **Experience:** A minimum of 8-10 years of experience providing guidance and insight into the drafting, vetting, review, dissemination, and negotiation of complex legal documentation and processes is required.
• **Risk Mitigation:** Proven experience in identifying and mitigating legal risks within a financial context.
• **Industry Knowledge:** At least 8 years of experience specifically within the legal or financial sector.
• **Management Skills:** A minimum of 6 years of people management experience, where applicable, demonstrating leadership capabilities.
• **Technical Competencies:** Proficiency in understanding the financial industry's regulatory framework, legal compliance, general legal knowledge, legal research methodologies, policy development, risk awareness, and strategy definition.
• **Behavioural Competencies:** The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong skills in articulating information, developing strategies, directing people, documenting facts, empowering individuals, establishing rapport, interacting effectively with diverse groups, managing tasks efficiently, providing insightful analysis, maintaining composure under pressure, working collaboratively as part of a team, and upholding high professional standards.

In South Africa, a role like this typically commands a competitive salary, reflecting the seniority and specialised expertise required. Given Liberty's position as a major player, this opportunity could offer significant career progression within the financial services sector, with pathways into broader legal leadership roles or specialised financial markets functions.

Type of Qualification: LLB

Field of Study: Law

Other Minimum Qualifications, Certifications or Professional Membership: Admitted Attorney

Experience Required

8-10 years experience in the provision of guidance and insight pertaining to the drafting, vetting, review, dissemination and/or negotiation of legal documentation and processes of a complex nature. Identification and mitigation of legal risks.

At least 8 years' experience within the legal/financial sector.

At least 6 years' people management experience where appropriate.