Legal Services

Fundi Con Pty; Pretoria; On-site; ZAR 50 000 - 200 000; Full time

Job summary

A leading engineering firm is seeking a Head of Legal and Governance. This pivotal role involves providing legal advice, developing governance strategies, and leading a team to ensure regulatory compliance. The candidate should have an LLB degree, extensive legal experience, and strong leadership skills. The position offers a negotiable package and the opportunity to shape legal practices within the organization.

Qualifications

• Admitted attorney or advocate with experience at a reputable legal practice.
• 7-10 years' experience as a practising attorney, advocate or in-house legal counsel.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Legal Team to ensure compliance with legislation and governance.
• Develop and implement legal, governance, and business support strategies.
• Provide high quality legal advice across a broad range of disciplines.

Skills

Strategic thinker

Stakeholder management

Negotiation skills

People leadership

Legal expertise

Education

LLB degree or equivalent legal qualification

Job description

Introduction

As a key leader in the organisation, the Head of Legal and Governance will offer clear and pragmatic legal advice while leading and implementing strategies to strengthen the overall governance, compliance, and probity practices of the organisation.

The postholder will develop the legal, governance, and business support strategy, to support engineering firm in its mission and objectives, as well as providing professional leadership and advice on strategic issues affecting legal and governance across the organisation.

Duties & Responsibilities

Areas of Responsibilities

• Support the formulation of the Company's future direction and business strategy, to optimise the value created for customers and stakeholders, and secure a sustainable future for engineering firm.
• Contribute to the setting of corporate standards, and ensure alignment between the Corporate Strategy and the service unit delivery plan
• Promote and progress a collaborative culture in the business unit and across engineering firm, leading and driving the overall approach to legal, corporate governance, and business support
• Identify opportunities to reduce cost, and contribute to the efficiency pipeline, ensuring a commercial mindset is developed and embedded across the team
• Role model the engineering firm values, creating and encouraging a culture of learning, where employees are able to flourish, perform, and achieve
• This role will set the direction for engineering firm legal, governance, and business support servicesLegal
• Leading the Legal Team to ensure compliance with new and current legislation.
• Ensuring secure compliance with all statutory, legal, and policy requirements arising from the Company's activities.
• Providing high quality legal advice in a broad range of disciplines, and applying appropriate judgement to decide which matters require legal input, and whether this should be provided internally or externally.
• Drafting, revising, and supporting the negotiation of contracts, ensuring that contractual terms provide compliance with relevant regulations and legislation, but also considering commercial factors.
• Ensuring senior management are appraised of legal issues, including new legislation which may have an impact on engineering firm activities and objectives.
• Advising on the mitigation of risk, and on regulatory, compliance, data protection, and all relevant legislation.
• Handling potential and actual disputes, in coordination with internal and external resources.

Information governance

• Leading the POPIA Compliance Team (Information Governance) to ensure compliance with data protection laws.
• Developing and managing the data protection strategy, including but not limited to POPIA.
• Ensuring that monitoring and reporting provisions are in place to capture changes to relevant information governance best practice.
• Maintaining an effective relationship with the Senior Information Risk Owner.

Corporate governance

• Leading the Corporate Governance function to ensure that engineering firm is compliant with applicable legislative and administrative requirements, in order to safeguard the Company, its shareholders, and employees.
• Delivering strategic corporate governance and company secretarial advice, and guidance to all levels across engineerinf firm.
• Establishing and ensuring the effective delivery of Company secretariat services for the Board, Committees and shareholders of engineering firm.Business support

Business support

• Leading the Legal Team as a business support function to achieve a consistently high standard of service delivery for engineering firm.
• Developing and implementing communication mechanisms to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and engaged in the delivery of the business support strategy.
• Working flexibly and effectively with the Team, to promote and facilitate joined-up thinking and action.

Desired Experience & Qualification

Education, Language & Qualifications

• Have an LLB degree or an equivalent appropriate legal qualification;
• Be an admitted attorney or advocate, or be a corporate lawyer at a reputable legal practice or at a reputable technology or other corporate
• Have at least 7–10 years' experience as a practising attorney, advocate or in‑house legal counsel / corporate lawyer.

Essential Knowledge, skills and Experience

To deliver on this challenge, you will be a strategic and critical thinker, with significant experience in a complex and varied organisation.

You will have the capacity to assess complex legal matters and exercise sound judgement.

You will be a trusted, authoritative adviser, who is dynamic and decisive, and visible as a leader.

You will have experience in engineering and construction contracts as envisaged in guidelines to the Construction Industry Development Board Act 38 of (CIDB Act) such as the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) and the Joint Building Contracts Committee (JBCC) contracts; also Professional Client / Consultant Services Agreements Committee (PROSCA) contracts.

Excellent stakeholder management skills are required, as is the ability to negotiate, persuade, and influence, based on trust.

You will also be a proven people leader who has a track record of team development.

An admitted Attorney / Advocate with significant experience and expertise at management level.

Package & Remuneration

Negotiable