Head of Legal at Discovery Limited

Key Purpose 

To manage all operational aspects in the Legal team. To ensure maximum income received from the recoveries team and to ensure correctly paid claims in the liabilities space in order to maximize the company’s loss ratio. 

 Areas of responsibility may include but are not limited to 

• Strategize, drive and support business strategies to maximize Recoveries and Liabilities contribution to the Discovery Vision.
• Drive, monitor and ensure that all employees act in accordance with the Discovery values.
• Regular review, update procedures and processes in accordance with changing needs and risk management.
• Maintain, update and monitor measurements to ensure adherence to procedure and risk management
• Maintain, update and monitor measurements to all parties the department interact with, internally and externally.
• Maintain and manage the department’s overall team moral and engagement.
• Prioritisation of system enhancements and identifying processes or system enhancements efficiencies 
• Manage headcount, Manex budget and forecasts
• Manage all people related matters within the department
• Recruit, developed and retain employees in accordance with business needs, strategies and vision.
• Ensure and maintain processes, procedures and systems to support the collection, reporting and use of the correct data to enhance and support monitoring, maintenance and improvement of the department’s goals and deliverables. 

Personal Attributes and Skills

• Strong customer service focused
• Excellent relationship building skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with an ability to influence, convince and negotiate effectively
• Conflict handling skills
• Analytical and attentive to details
• Resourceful problem solver
• Systematic and organised with an ability to plan and prioritise effectively
• Resilient, with an ability to work under pressure and adapt to change
• Strategic mindset

Education and Experience 

• Short term Insurance- Commercial and Personal lines (Advanced)
• Loss ratio / Risk management (Advanced)
• People Management (Advanced)
• Staff remuneration structure management (Advanced)
• Customer and Broker Servicing Management (Advanced) 
• Understand the Insurance industry and with a specific focus on the Recoveries and Liabilities environment.

 Required: 

• Matric  (Essential)
• Legal tertiary qualification (Advantageous)
• Minimum 3 years’ experience within a legal environment within the short-term insurance industry (Essential)
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in senior leadership and management (Essential)