ESG Legal Counsel

Barclays UK; City Of London; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading financial institution in London is seeking an ESG Legal Counsel to provide senior advisory support within Barclays Europe, focusing on financial and regulatory changes. You will develop legal strategies and ensure compliance with applicable laws, manage risks associated with bank operations, and lead technical discussions. The ideal candidate is a qualified lawyer with significant experience in financial services and ESG regulations.

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer in the UK or other European jurisdiction.
• Strong understanding of European legal frameworks.
• Experience in financial services or Private Practice specializing in ESG.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement legal strategies for risk management.
• Provide legal advice on regulatory compliance.
• Represent the bank in legal proceedings.
• Create and review legal documents for compliance.
• Conduct legal research and training on regulations.

Skills

Qualified lawyer

Strong regulatory background

Financial services experience

Technical skills in ESG

Leadership in technical discussions

Job description

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to join Barclays as an ESG Legal Counsel within Barclays Europe. You will be close to current ESG developments within Europe and provide senior advisory support to the Barclays Bank Ireland PLC (Barclays Europe) businesses focusing on financial, banking and ESG regulatory changes. You will also be responsible for leading technical conversations with senior leaders within Barclays Europe and ESG regulatory changes.

The Required skills for this role are:

• Qualified lawyer in the UK or other European jurisdiction.
• Lawyer with a very solid regulatory backgroundverse in European legal frameworks
• Financial services experience or from Private Practice specialising in ESG within financial services.
• Technical skills and experience within ESG including taxonomy regulations, CSRD, Pillar 3 disclosure requirements, CRDVI and corresponding EBA guidelines.
• Act autonomously and lead technical conversations with senior leaders within Barclays

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This is a fulltime permanent position based in London.

Purpose of the role

To ensure that the operations in the country or region are conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and to help the bank manage legal and reputational risks associated with these activities.

Accountabilities

• Development and implementation of best practice legal strategies for risk management and compliance.
• Legal advice and support to the bank's country coverage teams on a wide range of legal issues, including regulatory compliance, risk management, project management and transactional matters.
• Representation of the bank in legal proceedings related to its operations in the country or region, such as litigation, arbitration, and regulatory investigations.
• Creation and review of legal documents such as loan agreements, security documents, and other financing documents to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Legal research and analysis to stay up to date on changes in laws and regulations that may impact the bank's operations in the country or region.
• Developing and delivering training programmes to educate employees on legal and regulatory requirements related to the bank's operations in the country or region.
• Pro-active identification, communication, and provision of legal advice on applicable laws, rules and regulations (LRRs). Keeping up to date with regards to changes to LRRs in the relevant coverage area. Ensuring that LRRs are effectively allocated to, and adequately reflected within, the relevant policies, standards and controls.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.