Legal Advisor at FNB South Africa

Job Description

• Provision of specialist legal advice and review of legal documentation ensuring that the business remains legally compliant.
• Manage costs / expenses within approved budget to achieve cost efficiencies.
• Cultivate and manage objective working relationships with a variety of stakeholders, including external attorneys, FirstRand Group Legal Services, and Legal Services to ensure business is in the position to obtain expert opinion on specialist areas of law.
• Initiation of pro-active and effective communication with clients.
• Maintenance of expert knowledge on relevant legislative amendments, industry best practices and provision of proactive advice and solutions to relevant stakeholders.
• Research and provide legal opinion on a variety of issues and new business projects within the business to proactively identify, assess and manage legal risk.
• Achievement of Service Delivery Standards to internal and external stakeholders.
• Maintain governance as the custodian of the governance function around the management of legal requirements within business, ensuring that appropriate, effective and efficient business performance and risk management processes, controls and compliance are in place and integrated into the day-to-day activities within business in so far as these relate to the identification and evaluation, control, measurement, reporting, monitoring and independent oversight. Corrective action to be taken in respect of legal risk.
• Provide, timeous, professional advice and services in respect of legal matters to persons within the business division, on request, and initiate such advice and service as required. Undertake research into legal matters either on request or as required and provide conclusions and effective solutions in respect of such matters thereby ensuring correct decisions are taken and are adopted by business divisions which are within the boundaries of the law.
• Maintain a constantly updated 'library' of advice that has been requested and given in Legal, including updates relating to legislation, specifically the National Credit Act, Companies Act, Close Corporations Act and Pension Funds Act.
• Draft sound legal agreements whilst ensuring that such agreements are marketable and acceptable to the business group and the contracting party, so as to maintain and improve the image of the division in the marketplace whilst providing commercially sound protection.
• Monitor relevance of legal documentation to ensure consistency across business. All legal documentation to be up to date, at all times.
• Monitor, analyse and evaluate the impact and legal implications of banking developments in the financial services industry and related areas, including the activities of competitors, both bank and non-bank, and to recommend effective courses of action so that either a pro-active stance may be adopted, or potential threats may be adopted, or potential threats may be averted by the division
• Deal with litigation matters involving the business to manage legal risk.
• Follow procedures that have already been identified in relation to mandates and Golden Rules.
• Manage own development to increase own competencies.