Legal Counsel - NatWest Group

eFinancialCareers; Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

eFinancialCareers is seeking a Legal Counsel in Belfast to deliver the bank's legal strategy and provide expert, accurate, and cost-effective legal advice across products and services.

You will sit in the Customer Finance Legal Centre of Expertise, collaborating with stakeholders across the bank and externally, and a minimum two days per week in the office in a hybrid arrangement.

Qualifications

• You will be a solicitor with experience providing legal, regulatory and commercial advice in banking.
• Experience in-house or at a top UK law firm; strong knowledge of banking law and UK regulatory environment.
• Ability to work with stakeholders and manage legal costs with e-billing and other tools.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate delivery of legal advice across Retail, Private Banking & Wealth Management and Commercial & Institutional.
• Work with stakeholders and regulatory colleagues to ensure timely, efficient outcomes.
• Communicate legal advice clearly to non-lawyers and drive cost management.
• Support projects and transactions with legal technology, e-billing and matter management.

Skills

Legal strategy

Regulatory compliance

Banking law

Stakeholder management

Legal tech

Education

Solicitor qualification

Tools

E-billing platforms

Matter management software

Document automation

Collaboration platforms

Job description

Join us as a Legal Counsel

This is an excellent opportunity to join us as a Legal Counsel, where you'll deliver the legal strategy and provide expert, accurate and cost-effective legal advice

Your role will sit within our Customer Finance Legal Centre of Expertise so we'll need you to have an understanding of associated legal and regulatory issues

You'll be recognised as a strategic thinker and an expert in your field, gaining exposure to stakeholders across the bank and externally

In this hybrid role, you'll spend a minimum of two days every week working from your office location

What you'll do

We're looking for an experienced Legal Counsel to manage and coordinate the delivery of legal advice, supporting business areas across the bank including Retail, Private Banking & Wealth Management and Commercial & Institutional. You'll work closely with stakeholders and legal and regulatory colleagues to ensure the timely, effective and efficient delivery of all issues, projects and initiatives related to products, services, customer journeys, digital and transactional matters either directly or through a team.

Additionally, you'll be:

• Making sure that legal advice is readily understandable to non-lawyers, delivered within relevant timescales, and manages and minimises legal and regulatory risks
• Delivering continuous improvement in operating practices and processes, including adopting new ways of working and using legal technology to identify efficiencies, improvements and opportunities to reduce costs
• Providing the communication of internal and external legal advice and helping to deliver transactions and projects to stakeholders in a commercial, user friendly and efficient manner
• Managing legal costs through the use of e-billing, auctions and other cost tools and driving a culture of disciplined cost management and controls

The skills you'll need

To be successful in this role, you'll need experience as a solicitor, providing legal, regulatory and commercial advice in relation to transactions and projects either in-house, or in a leading UK law firm. We'll expect you to have in depth knowledge of general banking law and practice, the UK regulatory environment and the financial services industry, coupled with the ability to establish and maintain strong relationships across the bank.

You’ll also need:

• Knowledge of our Retail, Private Banking & Wealth Management and Commercial & Institutional business activities along with the commercial environment within which the bank operates and associated legal and regulatory issues
• Experience of working with leading law firms and other professional advisers and consultants
• The ability to keep up to date with and share relevant legal, regulatory, market and legal technology developments, applying relevant insights to day-to-day practice and delivering legal and regulatory change
• Confidence in using legal technology tools, including AI-assisted research and drafting, document automation, e-billing, matter management and collaboration platforms, and openness to learning and adopting AI-assisted workflows and digital-first service delivery
• The ability to set and achieve high-performance targets and use management information, dashboards and operational data to inform priorities, measure outcomes and drive efficiency