Legal Counsel

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Job Summary

The Legal Counsel is to provide assistance to the Head of Legal - Southern Africa, on legal matters relating to the company and its affiliated companies within Southern Africa, including but not limited to:

Pre-litigation and litigious claims
Commercial, contractual or civil disputes
Interpretation and/or negotiation of a commercial, operational and supply chain contracts
Provision of legal support to the various functions of the organisation in the areas of business development, sales and marketing, finance, procurement, human resources, engineering, operations and maintenance
Statutory secretarial duties

• Provide general day-to-day support to the Head of Legal - Southern Africa in managing the legal and corporate affairs of the organisation and its subsidiaries, including providing legal support to the various functions of the organisation;
• Support with preparing a compliance management system and updating the compliance risk management plan;
• Support with interpreting, drafting and negotiating a wide range of commercial contracts entered into by the organisation and its subsidiaries and ensuring that all contracts concluded by the organisation and its subsidiaries are appropriately filed and maintained;
• Support with commercial and/or contractual (non-litigious) disputes related to price.
• Adjustments, breach of terms and conditions, defaulting customers, and the like;
• Support in drafting and/or reviewing supply chain (Procurement department) contractual notices such as terminations, renewals, extensions or awarded bids;
• Legal research, interpretation and preparation of legal memorandums;
• Maintain and update the internal records and activities undertaken by the organisation and its subsidiaries and be able to provide feedback / reports;
• Liaise with external advisors, service providers, consultants, and agents appointed to assist in implementing the objectives of the organisation;
• Facilitation of statutory committee, board of directors and general assembly meetings and drafting of related documentation including agendas, minutes, reports, etc of the Southern Africa subsidiaries;
• Maintenance/update of company records such as ordinary and special resolutions, minutes, share registers and/or security registers, composition of board of directors, public officer appointments, annual duty returns, etc;
• Preparation and submission of amended company records to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission e.g. the change in director composition;
• Support in internal and external statutory legal and regulatory company compliance audits;
• Support in corporate governance refresher trainings related to prescribed officers, directors, statutory committee members, or information officers and their deputies;
• Support in the implementation and monitoring of regulatory compliance projects;
• Support the Legal Assistant in managing debt collection firms, negotiating settlement agreements with debtors, reviewing issued legal correspondence with debtors, attorneys, Business Rescue Practitioners, liquidators such as Letters of Demand, confirmation of ownership of assets, removal of assets, etc;
• Support the Head of Legal in handling Ethical alerts;
• Maintain and update departmental records;
• Stay up to date with applicable industry matters and assist in conducting legal research.

Educational Requirements

• LLB, or Bachelor of Laws / Bcom of Laws with LLB degree

Experience

• Admitted Attorney (or < 3 years post serving Articles of Clerkship at a reputable law firm)
• 2 to 3 years experience in the field of corporate/company law, commercial, corporate governance, legal and regulatory compliance.

Knowledge and Know-how specific to the job

• Solid understanding and knowledge of South African laws, regulations, codes and soft laws, including but not limited to Contract law, Damages/Delict law, the Companies Act, Protection of Personal Information Act, Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act, King Reports on Corporate Governance, and the like.
• Solid understanding of legal procedures, notably relating to commercial disputes, alternative dispute resolution or litigious civil matters.
• Solid drafting, reviewing, negotiating and/or settling of legal documents such as contracts, letters, opinions.
• Solid legal research skills including appropriate citation or referencing.
• Knowledge of regulators mandated to monitor the organization's corporate affairs i.e.
• B-BBEE Commission, Competition Commission, Information Regulator, CIPC etc.
• Computer literacy.