Legal Counsel

Principal Responsibilities

Provide legal support and guidance to key stakeholders including:

• Provide legal advice to business, operations and key stakeholders on all Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB) matters, including customer onboarding, account lifecycle issues, standard terms and conditions, counterparty matters, and legal risk assessments related to changes in policies, processes and products.
• Coordinate the organisation’s responses to official requests, including law enforcement and court-related matters, ensuring appropriate governance and confidentiality.
• Identify and escalate risks with respect to on-going and any new business initiatives, and ensuring that the business exposure to legal and regulatory risk is managed in a commercially sensitive and practical matter;
• Collaborate closely with the team in the region and globally, including advising on matters that are complex or have potential for significant governance, legal, financial, and/or reputational impact; 
• Provide governance and policy guidance to business and support functions in line with internal legal standards.
• Partner with Compliance and Risk teams to identify and manage legal and regulatory risks arising from business activities.
• Collaborate with the wider Legal team and cross-functional stakeholders on matters relevant to the business in Brazil and, where applicable, to global initiatives.
• Escalate material legal issues appropriately and provide clear reporting on key legal risks, including ownership and tracking of remediation action plans within the organisation’s risk management framework.
• Provide regular reporting on material legal and regulatory risks arising from CIB activities to senior Legal leadership, and take ownership of defining, tracking and evidencing remediation actions in partnership with business and control functions (e.g., Compliance and Risk)

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in law and enrolled in the Brazilian Bar Association;
• Recently graduated or early-career professional with 0–5 years’ relevant experience in the Brazilian banking industry working in Legal Department.

• Fluent Portuguese and English is mandatory, Spanish is not essential but is helpful for the role;
• General banking experience is required with a solid understanding of banking business, cross border loan documentation and principles of lending and taking security in Brazil;
• Able to provide clear, commercial, risk-mitigated advice to the business and functions;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Up-to-date knowledge of developments affecting the industry;
• Able to handle a diverse range of issues;
• Self-learner, Self-starter, independent with good organisational skills and ability to prioritise, sequencing and triage;
• Stamina and ability to work under pressure and to compressed timescales, and ability to adapt working styles to meet complex and varied workloads;
• Lateral thinking/problem solving in an open and connected manner;
• Ability to prioritise workloads in terms of legal risk and commercial consideration;
• Solution-oriented individual who is mentally agile and open-minded to multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural issues;