The Legal Services Team (LST) is part of American Express’ General Counsel’s Organisation (GCO). We deliver legal support to colleagues and to clients, globally, across all business lines. We are looking to add a team member in Argentina who will report to the LST Director & Counsel based in London.
Role Purpose:
The LST’s mission is to provide efficient, consistent, innovative and high-quality, legal support across business units, staff groups and jurisdictions. We are looking for a motivated, proactive, senior lawyer, experienced in commercial contracts, who will be part of this lively team.
Interested candidates will have commercial awareness and experience of working in a commercial contracts space. Candidates must be able to use their legal skills to work closely with key business clients around the globe, the LST leadership team and colleagues within the LST/GCO team on a day-to-day basis. In addition, candidates should possess a strong ability to lead partners and be able to demonstrate a track record of client care.
Primary responsibilities:
Contribute as an independent, trusted legal advisor within GCO and the wider Amex business by:
- identifying and effectively managing legal risk;
- taking instructions and supporting other lawyers or legal teams in the GCO globally;
- providing sound, commercial legal advice and support across all business units, including drafting, reviewing, analysing and negotiating a wide range of agreements and legal documents;
- supporting internal governance and approval processes, including coordinating with compliance, risk, finance and other internal stakeholders, as appropriate;
- instructing and liaising with outside counsel to obtain, challenge and finalise legal advice/opinions on various projects, legal advice and agreements;
- carrying out legal research on behalf of our GCO colleagues;
- supporting company secretarial matters, as required; and
- providing training workshops, as required.
Lead and supervise the work of other team members, including:
- coaching, mentoring and supervising direct reports in the LST;
- promoting the success of direct reports by acknowledging and rewarding achievements;
- identifying areas that need increased leadership focus;
- implementing and improving methods for legal knowledge sharing and management;
- contributing to the LST’s training and development programme;
- ensuring LST’s adherence to any company-wide and GCO-specific processes and procedures;
- preparing and delivering internal training, as required;
- supporting budgeting and expenses control tasks; and
- performing other duties as assigned by the LST VP & Senior Counsel and leadership team from time to time.
Qualifications
- Qualified to practice in Argentina or any other similar jurisdictions.
- Minimum of 8 years PQE although strong candidates with less experience will also be considered.
- In-house experience in financial services is preferred, but not mandatory.
- Experience of drafting and advising on commercial contracts in a practical and commercial manner with strong research and analytical skills in English and Spanish
- Intellectually strong with ability to rapidly grasp key issues.
- Proven track record in leading, supervising and developing other professionals.
- Fluency in an additional language such as French/Italian is preferred, but not mandatory.
Required personal attributes
- Ability to effectively multi-task, prioritize and work as part of a team or autonomously under time pressure to meet deadlines and manage clients’ expectations
- Ability to interpret and apply legal issues in a practical, hands-on, common-sense manner.
- Skilled management and prioritization with respect to the handling of own caseload, clients and direct reports.
- Ability to communicate clearly, concisely, effectively and persuasively with clients, senior business, legal management and external regulators, both orally and in writing in English and Spanish.
- Able and willing to work both as part of a team and independently with minimal supervision.
- Strategic thinker with good business understanding and analytical skills.
- Strong ability to build solid working relationships.
- Energized team player with a genuine desire to coach, nurture and develop talent.
Proven ability to help identify and implement improvements in work process to enhance efficiency and productivity