Job Purpose
Provides expert legal advice and guidance to EGA group (including subsidiaries in the UAE, Europe, USA, China, Korea, Guinea, and Singapore), within the applicable legislation, in line with the corporate strategy to optimally resolve legal issues, contain legal risks and support Management's decision making.
Supports the Chief Legal & Ethics Officer in the day-to-day operations to achieve the defined quality standards and operational excellence across the function.
Strategic Contribution
- Supports the implementation of the department strategy ensuring alignment to functional strategy, EGA's vision, mission, and corporate objectives.
- Contributes to the development and implementation of departmental strategy and related strategic plans, which are aligned with the vision and mission of the organization.
- Ensures the provision of subject matter expertise for the assigned domain and provide counsel to EGA leadership on all related areas to facilitate the achievement of EGA's strategy and functional strategies.
Legal Advisory
- Responsible for providing cross-functional team leaders in all jurisdictions with practical, commercial, timely and strategic legal advice in respect of all corporate and commercial transactions, day-to-day operations and disputes offering business partners optimum solutions as well as assisting the business to respond appropriately to any applicable legislative or regulatory changes.
- Proactively assists with complex transactions identifying legal (and where appropriate commercial) issues in relation to that transaction and provides pragmatic legal analysis and possible legal and practical solutions to mitigate risk and achieve the best possible commercial outcome for EGA.
- Provides advice across the business and in different jurisdictions on applicable laws and the interpretation of legal documents in a manner that avails a practical legal approach while properly managing the risks to the business.
- Provides recommendations for addressing critical legal and policy issues to ensure that the EGA Group's legal and overall objectives are met in a manner consistent with its values, strategies, policies, and procedures.
- Collaborates and coordinates with EGA Management to ensure the Function evolves to continue to provide effective advice and support alongside the changing needs of EGA's global business.
- In the event of an incident (i.e., a death on-site or material property damage), provides incident response support (including 24 hours / 365-day emergency response) handling the situation with practical legal input to minimise criminal and civil liability.
- Provides expertise advice and support with incident investigations, associated claims and reports where required. Contributes to internal lessons learned where appropriate in the post incident analysis.
Contractual
- Leads/ drafts, reviews, and negotiates complex contractual and other documents with a view to minimising legal exposure and risk for the EGA Group across all jurisdictions.
- Identifies, assesses, manages, and mitigates key legal and commercial risks in contractual and other arrangements.
- Develops standard terms of business and Standard Form Precedents for applicable business area(s), and updates the same to reflect changes in legislation, regulation or market practice and offers the relevant departments training on the same.
- Provides business with practical advice on the risk of departing from the EGA's template wording and empowers decision makers to select the correct strategy to achieve EGA's aims.
Post-Contractual Support
- Provides appropriate ongoing expertise counsel and support for operations and the contract managers of active contracts, including supporting international subsidiaries (where relevant).
- Provides training to Areas to heighten awareness of rights, liabilities, and obligations in ongoing contracts. Assesses systems that the Area has in place to monitor ongoing contractual obligations and conducts periodic reviews of the relevant Areas to ensure they are aware of, and adhering to, their contractual obligations and reporting requirements.
Disputes Management
- Avoids formal dispute resolution proceedings to the appropriate extent or where possible achieves mutual settlement.
- Proactively manages the conduct of any litigation, arbitration or dispute that may arise worldwide in close consultation with the Chief Legal & Ethics Officer, external counsel, and all relevant internal stakeholders.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Law from an internationally reputable university together with a legal qualification from any of the UK, US, or certain Commonwealth countries as majority of our contracts are governed by the UK law.
Minimum Experience:
- Minimum 10 years post qualification experience (PQE) in a combination of top-tier international law firm (preferably UK or US) and as an in-house legal counsel within a corporate setting.
- Subject matter expert/ specialist in a particular legal field (i.e., a shipping law specialist, a construction law specialist, finance law specialist, etc).
- Must have experience M&A and trade transactions.
