Commercial Contracts Associate | Project-based Role

Cognia Law; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 420,000 - 720,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognia Law in Cape Town seeks a commercially minded legal professional with 1–3 years of post-admission experience to support contract review, negotiation, remediation, and document management for global corporates and financial institutions.

You’ll leverage legal technology and AI-enabled tools to deliver work efficiently at scale, focusing on commercial agreements and risk identification across multiple stakeholders.

Qualifications

• BA Law, LLB, LLM, or BCom Law degree from a South African tertiary institution.
• 1–3 years’ post-admission experience reviewing, drafting, and negotiating commercial agreements.
• Practical experience supporting commercial contracting, contract management, or legal operations activities.
• Exposure to financial services, financial documentation, or regulated commercial environments is advantageous.
• Strong understanding of legal and commercial risk and how contractual provisions operate in practice.
• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) processes and legal workflows.
• Genuine interest in legal technology, AI-enabled legal tools, and process improvement.
• Strong analytical skills, commercial awareness, and attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work with multiple stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams.
• Someone who is proactive, adaptable, solutions-focused, and excited by the future of legal services.

Responsibilities

• Reviewing, drafting, and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements, including NDAs, services agreements, supplier agreements, statements of work, licensing agreements, and other commercial contracts.
• Identifying legal and commercial risks and working with stakeholders to develop practical solutions.
• Supporting contract lifecycle management activities, including abstraction, remediation, data capture and contract administration.
• Supporting financial documentation-adjacent work or broader financial services-focused contracting, where applicable.
• Using legal technology and AI-enabled tools to improve the speed, quality, and consistency of legal work.
• Collaborating with legal delivery teams, project managers, legal technologists, and client stakeholders to ensure successful project outcomes.
• Working across high-volume projects while maintaining excellent accuracy and attention to detail.

Skills

Commercial contracting

Legal operations

Legal tech interest

Risk assessment

Stakeholder management

CLM familiarity

Communication skills

Attention to detail

Education

Law degree (BA/LLB/LLM/BCom Law)

Tools

CLM systems

AI-enabled tools

Financial documentation review

Job description

Job Description

We're looking for a commercially minded legal professional with 1–3 years of experience (post-admission experience) who has hands-on experience in commercial law, legal operations, technology-enabled legal delivery and/or financial documentation.

You’ll support global corporates and financial institutions on a range of contract review, negotiation, remediation, abstraction, and document management matters while leveraging legal technology and AI-enabled tools to deliver work efficiently and at scale.

Whether you’re coming from a law firm, in-house legal team, or ALSP environment, this role is ideal for someone who enjoys contract review, identifying risk, working with stakeholders, and finding better ways of delivering legal services.

Job Requirements

• BA Law, LLB, LLM, or BCom Law degree from a South African tertiary institution.


• 1–3 years’ post-admission experience reviewing, drafting, and negotiating commercial agreements.


• Practical experience supporting commercial contracting, contract management, or legal operations activities.


• Exposure to financial services, financial documentation, or regulated commercial environments is advantageous.


• Strong understanding of legal and commercial risk and how contractual provisions operate in practice.


• Familiarity with contract lifecycle management (CLM) processes and legal workflows.


• Genuine interest in legal technology, AI-enabled legal tools, and process improvement.


• Strong analytical skills, commercial awareness, and attention to detail.


• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work with multiple stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams.


• Someone who is proactive, adaptable, solutions-focused, and excited by the future of legal services.

Advantageous Experience

• Exposure to financial documentation such as loan agreements, security documentation, derivatives documentation, or other banking and finance documentation.


• Experience working with financial institutions, banks, or highly regulated industries.


• Experience on contract remediation, repapering, due diligence, abstraction, or large-scale contract review projects.


• Experience using legal technology platforms, CLM systems, or AI-enabled contract review tools.

Job Responsibilities

• Reviewing, drafting, and negotiating a variety of commercial agreements, including NDAs, services agreements, supplier agreements, statements of work, licensing agreements, and other commercial contracts.


• Identifying legal and commercial risks and working with stakeholders to develop practical solutions.


• Supporting contract lifecycle management activities, including abstraction, remediation, data capture and contract administration.


• Supporting financial documentation-adjacent work or broader financial services-focused contracting, where applicable.


• Using legal technology and AI-enabled tools to improve the speed, quality, and consistency of legal work.
  
• Collaborating with legal delivery teams, project managers, legal technologists, and client stakeholders to ensure successful project outcomes.


• Working across high-volume projects while maintaining excellent accuracy and attention to detail.