17 Oct
Allen & Overy
Belfast
Job description
A&O; Shearman is a new global industry-leading law firm, with 48 offices in 29 countries worldwide. Our fluency in English law, US law, and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets, enables us to provide unmatched insight and seamless delivery to clients.
We work on challenging and important deals and disputes that have the potential to shape the future.
We offer exceptional opportunities for our people; opportunities to work for the world’s leading businesses; to transform the status quo, and to deliver your best work, helping you and your career to thrive, while delivering unparalleled outcomes for our clients.
Whether you're helping clients solve complex challenges, transforming the ways we manage our business,
or ensuring the smooth-running of our operations, this is an environment where you can belong and excel.
We provide first-rate training and development, we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and we provide support and ways of working that help you optimise your wellbeing.
What truly defines a career with us? We recruit the best and ask for the best of you. And together, we will redefine success.
Department Purpose
The Engagement Terms Team (ETT) is a global function that provides a first-class service to the firm’s partners and fee earners offering strategic legal support on a wide range of client engagement terms and risk related issues.
Engagement Terms are the contracts which we need to have in place with each of our clients. They are one of our most fundamental tools of risk of management and cover most our key regulatory and commercial areas of risk as well as the relationships we have with our clients,
so the breadth of responsibility and expertise required in this area is very great.
The team’s responsibilities include :
- Implementing strategies, policies, procedures, and standards for engagement terms across the firm
- Maintaining a suite of engagement term standard form templates to be used across the firm
- Reviewing and negotiating engagement terms with internal and external parties (including clients) to ensure that they are aligned with the firm’s policies and professional conduct obligations
- Identifying and analysing potential risks and opportunities associated with engagement terms including operational, legal, regulatory, reputational and strategic risks, and developing and executing risk mitigation and contingency plans
- Reporting and communicating on the status, progress,
and outcomes of engagement terms and our strategy in relation to them, and providing insights and recommendations for improvement, optimisation and innovation (including to the firm’s governance bodies such as the Risk Committee)
- Collaborating and coordinating with partners and support teams within the firm to ensure that engagement terms and associated risk management activities are appropriately managed
- Conducting research and benchmarking on engagement terms and risk management trends, developments, and best practices, and staying updated on relevant laws, regulations, and standards
- Advising on secondment processes, secondment agreements and any risk or legal issues arising from secondments
- Managing ad hoc enquiries from across the global firm relating to engagement terms and client related risk queries
- Providing legal support and risk management advice on the application and interpretation of the firm’s engagement terms in respect of client audits
- Managing the engagement terms aspects of matter inception
- Dealing with information barriers
- Identifying and advising on key terms in client engagement terms, including the best way to record and maintain the information from both a business process and technical point of view
- Maintaining records of executed engagement terms
Role and Responsibilities
The firm’s varied and broad client base is taking an increasingly more sophisticated approach to their engagement of external counsel.
A&O; Shearman has recognised these client expectations and has created a specialised dedicated team of contract law experts who are working cross-jurisdictionally.
This is an exciting opportunity to take on a new and unique cross-departmental role, based in the growing ETT but working closely with the Data Privacy team.
The successful candidate will :
- take the lead on identifying and advising on key contractual terms in often complex client engagement terms, with a particular focus on data privacy, information security and artificial intelligence
- identify and provide pragmatic and directive support and advice on complying with relevant terms in the context of the firm’s global business operations, including incident response
- Maintain a detailed record of relevant key terms,
leveraging technology solutions to analyse, advise and report on the terms and their implications for the business
This role will involve working closely with other global teams, in addition to Data Privacy, including Marketing and Business Development, IT and Information Security.
Other key aspects of the role are :
- supporting the work of the ETT and Data Privacy teams in this area
- establishing and maintaining good relations with key stakeholders and contributors
- coordinating internal review teams, where relevant, including designing briefing documents and playbooks for review processes
- developing and delivering training and communication plans
- creating and delivering presentations and reports
- helping to create and maintain relevant policies,
guidance and pro-forma documentation
- promotion of efficient and competent service delivery, championing the use of systems to foster an environment of continuous improvement within the ETT
- acting as a point of escalation within the ETT in respect of key terms
Key Requirements
- Qualified Lawyer with strong contract negotiation and review skills
- The ability to provide pragmatic, directive and business-orientated advice on compliance with contractual obligations
- Excellent track record of systemising processes, ideally within a risk management environment
- Experience of dealing with and advising a wide range of business stakeholders in determining requirements and priorities, as well as resolving issues
- Excellent IT skills using technologies in addition to, but including, the Microsoft Office suite of applications
- An enthusiasm for technology and the ability to understand, explain and advise on technical processes using
- business-friendly language
- Strong organisational skills with the ability to plan ahead
- Strong commercial / business acumen with the ability to influence strategic thinking / direction through creative and pragmatic issue resolution with a focus on use of systems and processes
- A proven ability to work independently and proactively and to manage and prioritise a busy workload
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to interface at all levels and particularly to win the respect of the partner community, building and developing strong relationships
- Collaborative team player with the ability to nurture and work in a fast paced environment