Compliance Manager (Business Acceptance)

Conekt Legal Ltd; Belfast City District; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Conek t Legal Ltd is seeking a Business Acceptance Manager in a national UK law firm with a hybrid work pattern. You will lead the central compliance team, handle conflicts of interest, and manage anti-financial crime escalations, enabling lawyers to focus on client work.

The role requires strong leadership, AML and SRA knowledge, and a collaborative approach to develop and mature the risk function across the firm.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a risk and compliance environment within a commercial law firm.
• Previous people management experience across a team with varied levels.
• Detailed knowledge of AML legislation and Money Laundering Regulations and applying it commercially.
• Detailed knowledge of SRA rules and legislation affecting solicitors including conflicts of interest.
• Strong stakeholder management, able to influence and deliver results with senior leadership.

Responsibilities

• Take day-to-day ownership of the central compliance team spanning trainees, analysts and specialists.
• Oversee workload allocation, performance, succession planning and people development.
• Escalation point for complex queries and high-risk matters, including conflicts and financial crime.
• Support the firm's MLRO/MLCO on escalations for AML, anti-bribery, sanctions and reputational issues.
• Embed processes, own training framework, onboarding, and risk and compliance plans across the firm.

Skills

Leadership

People management

AML compliance knowledge

SRA rules knowledge

Stakeholder management

Communication skills

Influencing others

Risk and compliance expertise

Job description

Business Acceptance Manager - Risk and Compliance, UK national law firm, Hybrid

We are working with a national law firm to appoint a Business Acceptance Manager into its central compliance team.

The central compliance team works across all of the firm’s offices and is central to how the business operates. It is responsible for ensuring the firm meets its regulatory and legal obligations on conflicts of interest and the prevention of financial crime. The Business Acceptance Manager will embed the firm’s onboarding processes across the business while keeping its commercial needs in view.

As well as acting as an escalation point for complex queries, the Business Acceptance Manager will take day-to-day responsibility for managing and developing the team, which includes trainees, analysts, specialists and senior specialists. The focus will be on running the function efficiently, so that the firm’s lawyers can concentrate on client work, while maintaining a high standard of compliance across the business.

Why this role?

• A leadership role with scope to lead and develop a team
• Visibility with senior leadership, you would work alongside the Head of Risk and report into senior regulatory compliance leadership
• Scope to shape how the function runs, not just keep it running
• Competitive salary with a flexible benefits package
• Hybrid working across a national office network

What the role involves

You would take day-to-day ownership of the central compliance team, which spans trainees, analysts, specialists and senior specialists.

That means workload allocation, performance, succession planning and genuine development of the people in it not just supervision. Reporting line is to the Senior Manager, Regulatory Compliance, working closely with the firm’s Head of Risk.

Alongside running the team, you would be the escalation point when things get difficult. Complex legal and commercial conflicts. Confidentiality and information barrier issues. Higher-risk financial crime matters such as politically exposed persons, sanctions exposure and high-risk jurisdictions.

You would support the firm’s MLRO and MLCO on complex anti-financial crime escalations covering AML, anti-bribery and corruption and sanctions, and on reputational questions affecting the firm. You would be the gatekeeper on new clients and new matters, weighing them against the firm’s risk appetite, its sector focus and its ethics position.

This role also involves building the function and the short and medium term development plans for the team. This will include embedding processes across the firm, owning the training and development framework, onboarding, technical & regulatory training, contributing to firmwide policies and procedures, risk registers and compliance plans and to wider risk projects across the business.

What they are looking for

Required:

• Proven experience of working at a mid level within a risk and compliance environment in a commercial law firm
• Previous people management experience, including leading, coaching and developing high-performance teams
• Detailed knowledge of AML legislation and the Money Laundering Regulations and being able to apply the knowledge in a commercial context
• Detailed knowledge of SRA rules and legislation affecting solicitors including resolving conflicts of interest
• Strong stakeholder management skills and ability to influence and deliver excellent results in conjunction with senior management

Personal attributes:

• Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate, develop and inspire teams
• A collaborative leadership style, fostering an inclusive and supportive team culture
• Ability to identify talent, support career development and build succession capability within the team
• Demonstrates resilience and sound judgement when managing competing priorities and team pressures
• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written, able to communicate at all levels
• Proven ability to think independently and engage with and influence colleagues at all levels
• Able to work in a fast-paced and demanding environment
• Able to assimilate large amounts of information, extracting key information for high level reports
• Excellent attention to detail
• Strong analytical skills
• Demonstrates commercial acumen and a pragmatic attitude
• Good organisational skills
• Able to adapt and cope well under pressure