Senior Legal Counsel Delivery

Egis Group; Dubai; On-site; AED 200,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to oversee backend delivery and claims for operations across the Middle East and South Asia. This role demands a seasoned professional with extensive experience in legal matters, particularly within the engineering and construction sectors. The successful candidate will lead a team in managing disputes, providing strategic legal advice, and ensuring compliance with relevant legal frameworks. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to high-stakes projects and drive successful outcomes in a dynamic environment. If you are a problem-solver with strong leadership skills and a passion for legal excellence, this position is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of experience in legal counsel, particularly in construction.
• Ability to lead and manage legal teams and complex issues.

Responsibilities

• Lead management of disputes and claims with clients and subcontractors.
• Provide legal advice to resolve commercial and contractual disputes.

Skills

Technical legal skills

Project management

Problem-solving

Communication skills

Leadership

Experience in engineering and construction

Arabic language proficiency

Education

Law degree

Tools

Legal research tools

Job description

This position is for a Senior Legal Counsel with principal responsibility for all backend delivery and claims issues for Egis operations across the Middle East and South Asia.

Although dispute experience is essential, the priority for this position is supporting project and commercial teams in identifying and pursuing claims, defending variations, and improving/protecting project margins. As part of a full-service in-house team, the candidate must be experienced and confident to review, draft, and negotiate a broad variety of legal contracts.

Responsibilities and Duties

Primary Role:

• Lead the team in the management of all formal and informal disputes, claims, and formal litigation with clients, subcontractors, and other parties including:
• Working with the project and commercial teams to identify and develop large variation claims and strategies to prevent scope creep, including drafting correspondence to establish entitlement and/or to prepare for future disputes;
• Provide legal, commercial, and strategic advice to resolve commercial and contractual disputes with clients, including technical engineering advice, gathering relevant evidence, and managing the matter through to a successful resolution.
• Undertake legal research, obtain relevant external legal advice, and draft a wide range of legal documents including variation and EOT claims, dispute notices, settlement agreements, and documentation to initiate formal legal proceedings.
• Prepare for and manage formal legal disputes, including developing legal briefs, collating evidence, and strategies to avoid formal legal disputes.

Secondary Roles:

• Review RFP and contract documentation; provide market-consistent qualifications; negotiate clauses and contracts with clients; advise the business on different delivery strategies, procurement of bonds, parent company guarantees, insurance, and the identification and recommendations for management of key project risks.
• Corporate legal support and advice relating to opening, closing, and managing legal entities throughout the Middle East and South Asia, and licensing and regulatory requirements in both regions.
• Ethics and Compliance: detailed working knowledge of relevant legal frameworks relating to bribery, money laundering, sanctions, and relevant tools and processes to properly manage ethics and compliance risks.

Qualifications:

• Excellent technical legal skills.
• Ability to project manage multiple complex issues concurrently, develop options for each situation, and identify commercially practical solutions to difficult problems.
• An ability to lead and manage other lawyers and work with other relevant internal stakeholders in a way that enables the business to achieve its objectives.
• Ability to communicate complex issues in an uncomplicated way and to adapt their communication style to suit the specific audience and situation.
• The successful applicant will need to demonstrate an ability to triage issues methodically, problem-solve, and ensure resources are used efficiently depending on the circumstances.
• Experience with the engineering and construction industries is essential.
• Arabic language (written and spoken) strongly preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of experience.

Remote Work: No

Employment Type: Full-time