Legal Counsel Manager

Legal Counsel Manager

Location:  Johannesburg

Other locations:  Primary Location Only

Salary: Competitive

Date:  Jan 31, 2025

Job description

Requisition ID:  1578657

Job purpose

Responsible for driving legal projects and activities relating to the General Counsel’s Office function, servicing South Africa and assisting the General Counsel with servicing Africa - with special emphasis on drafting,reviewing and negotiatingvarious contracts and providing internal legal advice to other teams across service lines while adhering to EY’s internal policies (both locally and internationally). Negotiating of software license agreements part of scope. This role will also be responsible to maintenance and updating of al templates across Africa.

The candidate will report to the General Counsel, Africa Region.

Duties and responsibilities will include the following:

General Counsel Office (GCO):

The Commercial Lawyer (Manager) will assist the GCO with the following tasks across the Africa Region of EY, and across all service lines in the EY Africa Region with an initial focus on the Tax Service Line -

• General - Drafting and negotiating various agreements across audit and advisory service lines, including global framework agreements, local implementation agreements, service level agreements, technology agreements, intellectual property agreements, procurement agreements, confidentiality agreements and data usage agreements.
• Ability to advise leadership team and engagement teams on all current commercial contracts (eg. Structuring, development of templates);
• Reviewing and contributing to drafting firm policies including authority and delegation’s framework
• Supporting the Assurance service line on all legal matters
• Acquisitions – current legal work on local acquisitions including working with external counsel on deal structure and acquisition agreements, coordination with other members of Legal for cross-border acquisitions
• Corporate law – Advise regional cluster leader and manage co-sec legal compliance work on all legal entities
• Litigation – Coordination of litigation matters in close relationship with Africa Regional General Counsel and relevant Quality Service Line Leader (including risks and prospects analysis and briefing external legal counsel);
• Providing advice to business units on potential claims as well as forming part of special ad hoc panels to manage the risk of potential claims
• Providing input/reporting to legal risk committee

• Assist the GCO in the rendering services of the following to the service lines:

1. Reviewing and negotiating Engagement letters suggested clients changes to of amendments to EY’s standard terms and conditions,
2. Terms of Business, Reviewing, negotiating and drafting various agreements across various service lines (including Advisory, Tax, Transactions, and Assurance) including but not limited to – Hold harmless letters,
3. Confidentiality and Request for Tenders, Bid submissions or Request for Proposal,
4. Reviewing various agreements inclusive of the following type of agreements:

• Sponsorship Agreements
• Non-disclosure agreements
• Service level agreements
• Global framework agreements
• Responses to requests for proposals/bids
• Teaming agreements
• Consortium agreements
• Subcontractor agreements
• Service provider Agreement
• Secondment Agreements
• Memorandum of Understanding
• Any other bespoke agreement required by the service lines

• Consider the legal risks in the agreements inclusive of Limitation of Liability – request to exceed normal limit
• Provision of internal legal opinions to as requested by the service lines or the General Counsel
• negotiation, drafting/reviewing of agreements and other legal documentation
• Assistance dealing with managing disputes and litigation matters(commercial), and compliance,
• legislative and regulatory requirements as requested by the General Counsel
• Consultations and drafting of all types of contracts and agreements but specifically those in respect of business relationships, consortia, subcontracting arrangements, alliances and secondments
• Dealing with subpoenas and claims brought against the firm
• Manage the Master Template Database of contract and other legal precedents
• Assist in the maintenance of a register of legal work done
• Assist in the maintenance of register of deviations from standard contract terms
• Drafting and research for legal opinions. Research on matters as required by the General Counsel
• Assistance with Projects as undertaken by the GCO
• Assistance with the notification of claims and circumstances project (which happens twice a year)
• Liaison with external legal practitioners, and Ernst & Young (EMIA) and Global (EYG), were
• appropriate
• Attending to data privacy review of EY applications
• Assistance with selected areas of compliance issues
• Assist with legal support to the Africa EY practices on various legal matters

Qualifications

• Minimum Bachelor of Laws degree
• Solid commercial drafting, reviewing and negotiating skills
• Extensive experience in negotiating software agreements
• Business acumen
• Experience within a similar industry sector and/or financial service
• Exposure across the African continent would be beneficial
• Top administration skills with a high proficiency in the use of Microsoft office programmes
• Excellent relationship skills which sometimes may be tested when dealing with pressure
• Assertive, proactive and energetic
• Willingness to work overtime when necessary
• Strong team player
• Strong organizational and project management skills
• Well-rounded corporate and commercial experience
• Experience in an auditing firm and with compliance and company secretarial matters will be an
• advantage
• Adaptive and ability to think on your feet
• Decision making capabilities
• Ability to manage with matters with little or no assistance
• Flexibility to travel if required

Key Requirements

• Qualified to practice law in South Africa.
• At least 7 years of post-qualification legal experience, preferably with an international law firm and/or multi-national corporation with at least a significant portion of such experience occurring in South Africa.
• Significant contract drafting experience.
• Ideally, in-depth experience of the professional services industry.
• Developed commercial awareness with an outcome orientated approach and the ability to apply legal principles pragmatically.

Other Personal Characteristics

• Unquestioned ethics and integrity.
• High level of self-confidence and energy.
• High level of intellectual agility, initiative, self-motivation, resourcefulness, and patience.
• Pragmatic with strong business acumen.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail.

Who we are

At EY we support you in achieving your unique potential both personally and professionally. We give you stretching and rewarding experiences that keep you motivated, working in an atmosphere of integrity and teaming with some of the world's most successful companies. And while we encourage you to take personal responsibility for your career, we support you in your professional development in every way we can. You enjoy the flexibility to devote time to what matters to you, in your business and personal lives. At EY you can be who you are and express your point of view, energy and enthusiasm, wherever you are in the world. It's how you make a difference