Legal Advisor

Sanlam Limited; Gauteng; On-site; ZAR 400,000 - 800,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a skilled attorney to join their legal team. In this role, you will provide essential legal advice and risk management services, ensuring compliance and effective stakeholder relationships. Your expertise will help navigate complex legal challenges and support the organization's commitment to transformation and inclusion. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to impactful projects in the financial services sector while fostering a diverse and equitable workplace. If you are a proactive legal professional with a passion for excellence, this role is perfect for you.

Qualifications

• 5 years of related experience as a Registered Attorney.
• Expertise in legal advice, negotiation, and compliance management.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal advice and risk management to internal clients.
• Manage stakeholder relationships and ensure effective legal processes.
• Draft and review legal documentation across various sectors.

Skills

Legal advice

Negotiation skills

Compliance management

Documentation reviews

Stakeholder management

Education

Registered Attorney

Tools

Legal templates

Job description

Sanlam Investment Group

The Sanlam Investment Group is uniquely equipped and positioned to deliver on its purpose of empowering generations to be financially confident, secure and prosperous.

Through our vast in-house expertise and strategic partner networks, we can access all asset classes across the globe, private and public, actively and passively managed, to develop investment solutions that are in our clients' best interests and have a positive impact on society.

Backed by the Sanlam Group's balance sheet, the Sanlam Investment Group has a true competitive advantage in its ability to invest alongside clients, particularly in private markets where impact investing drives the agenda. The Sanlam Investment Group is one of the largest, most diversified financial services and investment firms in Southern Africa with assets under management and administration of more than R2 trillion.

It is a B-BBEE level 1 contributor and one of the largest black-empowered asset managers on the African continent.

Sanlam Alternative Investments (SAI)

The purpose of the Sanlam Alternative Investments (SAI) business is to help build the African continent and make a real sustainable difference in the emerging economies in which we operate, aligning to the Sanlam Group's mission of financial inclusion. The SAI business has a broad range of capabilities that include Private Equity, Specialised Finance, Property, Infrastructure, and Partnerships.

To perform the role of a banking and finance / general corporate / private equity and fund attorney in a legal team, providing professional legal advice and risk management services to internal clients to mitigate Sanlam Alternative Investments' ("SAI") legal risks.

What will make you successful in this role?

Providing legal advice:

• Participating in the relevant committees and reporting on legal or reputational risks.
• Structuring, negotiation, documentation, and ongoing management of legal aspects of transactions within a risk framework acceptable to SAI and Committee's conditions.
• Provide commercially viable solutions to technical issues.
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating corporate, banking, security, and finance documentation across the debt, properties, empowerment, and equities sectors such as committed bilateral and syndicated loans, risk / funded participation agreements, guarantees and indemnities, letters of credit secondary debt trading documentation.
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating on transactions related to project finance, equity-based investments, private equity, fund finance, empowerment funding, and venture capital.
• Reviewing and negotiating cross-border and international transactions.
• Advising on distressed debt and restructurings.
• Advising on insolvency and litigation issues.
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating non-core business documentation.
• Preparation and updating precedent and know-how systems.
• Providing training to the business on topical areas of law.

Manage stakeholder relationships:

• Build and maintain effective relationships with relevant stakeholders and users.
• Develop trusting professional internal relationships by keeping relevant stakeholders and users informed of any new changes to the law which may impact their business.
• Develop and manage professional relationships with external clients, external legal counsel, and external legal advisors representing client interests.

Manage internal processes:

• Maintaining and updating legal templates.
• Ensuring sound and efficient legal processes.
• Drafting of high-quality legal agreements.
• Ensuring company's risk is adequately identified, mitigated, and / or managed.
• Providing guidance to SAI lender / financing representatives and operations on financial close processes.
• Regular reporting to the SAI Head of Legal on workload, turnaround times, and skills development.
• Proactively identifying areas for business and legal improvement.
• Project managing plans identified for improving legal efficiencies.
• Management of appointing, briefing, and monitoring of outside legal counsel whilst containing costs.

Managed Transformation and Change:

• Contribute to a culture conducive to the achievement of transformation goals.
• Participate in the development and implement action plans to address issues raised in culture surveys to improve results.
• Participate in and support corporate responsibility initiatives.
• Achieve operational excellence by supporting the implementation of business optimisation improvement through team engagement.
• Encourage team to generate innovative ideas and share knowledge.

Qualification and Experience

Registered Attorney with 5 years related experience.

Knowledge and Skills

• Compliance and legal projects management
• Legal advice and documentation reviews
• Coordinates legal action that may require external legal assistance
• Utilises negotiation and communication skills and related, risk, financial, and legal expertise in the management of the client relationships.

Personal Attributes

• Business insight - Contributing through others
• Builds networks - Contributing through others
• Manages complexity - Contributing through others
• Persuades - Contributing through others

Core Competencies

• Being resilient - Contributing through others
• Collaborates - Contributing through others
• Cultivates innovation - Contributing through others
• Customer focus - Contributing through others
• Drives results - Contributing through others

Turnaround time: The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers.

Our commitment to transformation: The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensure a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.