Legal Counsel

Fnality International; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering financial technology company in the UK seeks a Legal Counsel to support its global regulated payment systems. This role focuses on commercial law and regulatory compliance, requiring collaboration across departments. The successful candidate will need 1-3 years of experience in a law firm or corporate legal team and strong communication skills. Flexibility in working is promoted through a hybrid model, with required onsite attendance a few times monthly.

Qualifications

• 1-3 years experience in a law firm or corporate in-house legal team.
• Experience in commercial law and compliance matters.
• Desire to work in innovative, rapidly evolving businesses.

Responsibilities

• Advise on legal and regulatory issues across technology commercialisation.
• Draft and negotiate commercial contracts.
• Manage external legal budget effectively.

Skills

Excellent communication skills

Organisational skills

Attention to detail

Collaboration skills

Education

Admitted to legal practice in the UK or other common law jurisdiction

Tools

Legal document management systems

Job description

Fnality is building the future of financial market infrastructure – creating regulated, blockchain-based payment systems to power tomorrow’s wholesale banking ecosystem. Backed by leading global banks and operating at the intersection of technology, finance, and regulation, we are powering the future of finance, together. There are no precedents for what we're doing. With you on our side, we'll be setting new ones every day.

Working at Fnality

Be your best: We have a supportive culture that helps to bring the best out of each and every single one of our employees.

Feel free to explore: Bring your new ideas and help us to solve problems together by joining a community of experts.

Be part of something bigger: We will support you by fostering an open, honest culture, that enables flexibility and wellbeing. Feel part of something bigger while being yourself.

Feel empowered: We want you to feel empowered. The nature of our business can help make this a reality. We have the agility, speed and innovation of a start-up, and a flexible working environment that enables this.

Please note: We operate as a hybrid business with offices in London. You will be expected to work onsite 2–4 times per month, with mandatory attendance at our quarterly company-wide onsite events.

The Role:

This Legal Counsel role sits within our Group Legal department and will be fundamental to the success of the Fnality Group and its business as the operator of a global network of regulated DLT-enabled payment systems and supplier of related technology products and services to market participants. We are looking for someone who is organised, collaborative, and confident in driving strategic execution while balancing multiple priorities.

Reporting to our Group General Counsel, the role will provide legal services across our business focusing on supporting the end-to-end commercialisation of our products and services, and our Group’s expansion into new markets around the world. The successful candidate will collaborate with Group Legal team members and colleagues across the Group (in particular, Technology, Commercial and Product) on a wide and varied range of commercial contracting and related regulatory and compliance matters.

The main outcomes of the role are:

• Advise on legal and regulatory issues arising from the full lifecycle of technology commercialisation (from Fnality’s arrangements with suppliers and intra-group services arrangements to products sales and marketing and strategic third-party business partnerships), to enable Fnality to obtain the best possible business outcomes.
• Advise on a wide range of commercial contracts (with customers, vendors, business partners, and among intra-group entities): drafting, negotiation, interpretation, and dispute resolution (where required).
• Advise on queries relating to intellectual property protection, data protection, and other relevant regulations that apply to Fnality given our business model or our institutional customers (e.g., outsourcing/third party risk management, operational resilience, cyber security).
• Co-lead the management of Fnality Group’s commercial contracting documentation on an evolving basis and the upholding of applicable standards across our business.
• Collaborate with Group Legal colleagues in navigating and advising on the full range of interconnecting corporate, commercial and regulatory law issues as part of our expansion program into other jurisdictions.
• Collaborate with Group Legal colleagues leading corporate governance on ongoing company-run matters and ad hoc strategic initiatives.
• Collaborate with Group Risk and Compliance on the ongoing evolution of Fnality Group’s internal business policies, risk controls and compliance measures, conducting training where required.

Your main responsibilities will include (but not limited to):

• Analysing and presenting solutions on a wide range of general legal queries, with a focus on commercial law and closely related areas such as intellectual property protection, data protection, and other relevant regulations that apply to Fnality given our business model or our institutional customers (e.g., outsourcing/third party risk management, operational resilience, cyber security). This will involve advising internal stakeholders across our business lines and in Technology, Commercial, Product, Risk, HR and Finance functions;
• Drafting, reviewing, negotiating and interpreting a broad range of commercial contracts, and handling disputes when they arise;
• Preparing memoranda of advice, explanatory/guidance documents, meeting papers and other internal documents;
• Collaborating with regulatory specialists in Group Legal in preparing materials for submission to our regulators;
• Preparing for and attending meetings with internal colleagues/stakeholders and third parties (customers, vendors, business partners, investors, regulators);
• Collaborating closely with other members of our inhouse legal team to deliver first-rate legal services across Fnality Group, including with the involvement of our specialist external counsels across major global financial centres (e.g. London, New York, Frankfurt) where required;
• Advising on the ongoing evolution of Fnality Group’s internal business policies, risk controls and compliance measures, conducting training where required;
• Managing prudently our external legal budget on matters requiring external counsel input.

What we need from you:

• A minimum of 1-3 years professional work experience at a law firm or corporate in-house legal team, with a focus on commercial law and related regulatory/compliance matters – ideally gained in the financial and/or technology sectors (or other highly regulated sectors).
• Ideally, you are already admitted to legal practice in the UK (England), US (Connecticut, New York) or another common law jurisdiction.
• Excellent communication (oral, written) skills, and strong interpersonal skills to work effectively and collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders.
• Proactive, with strong ability to apply first principles in analysing problems with attention to detail, and in navigating ambiguity where there is no clear precedent to follow.
• Highly organised, with strong time management skills.
• A genuine curiosity in how law, regulation and public policy intersect with emerging technologies, business strategy, and new business models in global financial markets.
• Experience of working in or strong desire to work in an innovative, disruptive, rapidly evolving business, where in-house lawyers contribute to the solving of novel and challenging business problems, rather than addressing discrete legal issues.
• Ideally, experience of managing external law firms to support an in-house legal team in achieving the best overall outcomes for the business.
• Ideally, evidence knowledge of one or more 'other' interconnecting SME legal topics: IP, data privacy, employment, dispute resolution, competition/antitrust law, tax, real estate.
• Ideally, working level proficiency in one or more of the following languages in addition to English: German, Japanese, Spanish.

A bit more about us

Digital transformation is changing our lives, work and businesses. While other sectors evolve, however, financial markets remain slow, fragmented and siloed. What the world needs now is a future-facing financial system for the digital age.

At Fnality, we have been speaking – and listening – to the real users of today’s financial systems. From businesses to banks, there is a clear, collective ambition for a simpler, faster, safer and more resilient payment system; one that can move and settle money quickly and efficiently, with minimized risk and much more transparency.

Fnality Global Payments

We are building a network of new payment systems that will enable tokenised, peer-to-peer markets.

Fnality Global Payments (FnGP) will comprise a series of national systems, each regulated in its home jurisdiction. We call each of these a Fnality Payment System (FnPS).

In each payment system, a Fnality settlement asset will act as the settlement/payment asset for any Payment (P), Delivery v, Payment (DvP) or payment vs. payment (PvP) need.

FnGP are underpinned by Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). The nature of DLT is such that it enables FnGP to:

• Operate a true peer-to-peer market
• Allow for immediate settlement
• Interoperate across business platforms and jurisdictions

The key benefits of the above are:

• Reduced counter-party and credit risk
• Reduced operational risk
• Efficient liquidity management
• An ability to move resources from risk mitigation to business growth

Eligibility

This role is a UK based role and you must be eligible to work in the UK. Please note we cannot sponsor visas for this role.

How will we use the information about you?

We will use your personal information to process your application, to enable us to assess your suitability for a role and for other legitimate business purposes such as improving our sites and talent management practices. We may share your data with third parties to achieve these purposes. We will not use or share your information for marketing purposes.

We will take appropriate security measures to safeguard your information in accordance with data protection legislation.

If you would like further information about how your information may be processed by us, please contact us at [e-mail].