Legal Counsel

Yara International ASA; Singapore; On-site; SGD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading multinational agricultural company in Singapore is seeking an experienced Legal Counsel to support all legal needs across Africa and Asia. The role requires 8 years of PQE and expertise in various legal practice areas. Candidates should possess strong business acumen and excellent negotiation skills, along with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment. This position offers a unique opportunity to provide comprehensive legal support within a lean legal function.

Benefits

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Equal opportunity employer

Possibility of remote work arrangements

Qualifications

• 8 years PQE with experience in private practice and in-house legal.
• Ability to operate autonomously in a lean legal team.
• Strong acumen to balance legal risk and commercial objectives.

Responsibilities

• Act as legal advisor for Yara’s activities in Africa and Asia.
• Provide legal support from regional management to sales level teams.
• Handle various legal practice areas including corporate, finance, and intellectual property.

Skills

Legal advisory expertise

Communication skills

Negotiation skills

Business acumen

Ability to draft in Chinese or Mandarin

Education

Law degree from an accredited university

Job description

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We at Yara are part of a global network, collaborating to profitably and responsibly solve some of the world's key challenges - resource scarcity, food insecurity and environmental change.

About the Unit

Founded in 1905 and headquartered in Oslo, Yara International is a Norwegian multinational company (MNC) and the leading sustainable agricultural, digital farming solutions, and farmer livelihood-enhancement company. Our dedicated team of 18,000 professionals in 160 countries are committed to helping the world achieve a nature-positive food future through regenerative farming, climate neutrality, and farmer prosperity.

With its headquarters in Singapore, Yara Africa & Africa & Asia (YAA) is one of Yara’s three regional geographic operating units. YAA and its team of 2,000 employees support an extensive and diverse region of 22 market economies. YAA works closely with in-country, regional, and global stakeholders – including policymakers, commercial and smallholder farmers, retailers and channel partners, and NGOs to identify how the company can best support priorities around food security, farmer livelihoods, sustainability and circular economy across the food value chain. With global production capacity and product innovation, digital technology across five digital farming hubs – three of which are in Africa and Asia (Singapore, Shanghai, and Bangalore) – Yara Africa & Asia is supporting millions of farmers to grow our food sustainably.

Responsibilities

Business Unit & Regional Support

• Act as legal advisor for all of Yara’s business activities in Africa and Asia (ex-India and -Australia).
• Provide legal support across all user levels, from regional management to plant / sales level teams in an efficient, cost-effective and commercial-minded manner.
• Handle the full spectrum of legal practice areas, including but not limited to general corporate matters, finance, technology, intellectual property, real property, competition law, international trade, mergers & acquisitions, and employment law.
• Ideally also experienced in (i) technology- and (ii) innovation-related workstreams, with experience negotiating collaboration agreements with business and research partners.
• Monitor local regulatory developments and provide proactive guidance to business stakeholders.
• Ability to provide legal advice in most cases without need to involve external legal counsel, in order to optimize external spend and turnaround times. That said, where it makes sense to consult external legal counsel on specific issues / projects, there is usually no issue budget-wise in doing so.
• Ability to speak, read and draft in Chinese or Mandarin will be a significant advantage.

Global Functions Support – able to provide effective legal advice in following areas:

• Data Privacy
• Trademarks
• Sanctions

Profile

Experienced Legal Counsel supporting all of Yara’s legal needs in Africa and Asia (ex-India and -Australia) across all business functions and legal practice areas.

The position holder will be able to offer expertise based on experience and technical knowledge, and be the point of contact for certain internal user teams. The legal function for Africa and Asia is lean (6 lawyers, 1 corporate secretarial executive), so the position holder must be able to operate autonomously, efficiently, with client focus and be highly commercially minded.

Additional Information

• Law degree from an accredited university; admission to practice in at least one common law jurisdiction (e.g. UK, Hong Kong, Singapore).
• 8 years PQE with work experience in both (i) private practice and (ii) within an in-house legal department in a MNC.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance legal risk and commercial objectives.
• Excellent communication, drafting, and negotiation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

Apply no later than

Knowledge grows through differences
Yara is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We believe that creating a diverse and inclusive work environment is not only the right thing, but also the smart thing to do. To deliver on this, Yara has firmly anchoredDiversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) in our business strategy and has more than 400 employees worldwide involved in D&I ambassadors networks.

As part of our recruitment process, where permitted by local law, we may conduct reference and background checks. These checks will only be performed when deemed necessary for the nature of the job. Candidates will be informed by HR before any background checks are initiated.