Legal Adviser - Compliance

Legal Adviser - Compliance

Atkins Limited - Job Description

An excellent in-house opportunity has arisen in a design and engineering FTSE 250 company based in Epsom for a motivated mid to senior level qualified solicitor to join a close knit legal and compliance team. You will take responsibility for “best practice” approach to compliance:anti-bribery and corruption, economic and trade sanctions and competition throughout the business.

This is a Group-wide global role working with an operational business with projects across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and other high risk territories but which sits in Epsom.

Requirements

• Qualified solicitor with exposure to at least three of the following legal areas: bribery and corruption,financial and trade sanctions, export and import control, competition and/or money laundering.
• Training with a leading private practice law firm. However, previous in-house compliance experience within a regulated sector would make your application stand out.
• At least 4 years’ PQE: all candidates demonstrating the right qualities overall will be considered.
• Line management experience and people skills.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills along with excellent client facing skills.
• Self-drive and lots of enthusiasm.
• Ability to work independently but demonstrate a collaborativestyle when dealing with others coordinating effort across the Group.
• Ability to assert independent views and be prepared to challenge those of others even those more senior than you.
• Excellent attention to detail, sound drafting and problem solving skills.
• Good organisational skills to deliver special projects alongside day to day workload.
• Ability and desire to travel internationally.

Responsibilities

• Reporting into the Group Legal Director via the UK Legal Director, you will be part of a small team helping to formthe strategic development of the compliance function across the Group.
• You will develop strong relationships with other Group functions with compliance responsibilities such as Company Secretariat, Group Tax and Treasury and Group Insurance.
• You will understand the processes and risk and controls within the scope of the compliance team’s role.
• You will be able to run gap analyses between the policies and procedures the Company has in place to come up with new ideas and areas for constant improvement.
• As part of this role, you will draft and update guidance notes and policies for the global business; presenting them to business boards and the commercial forums where appropriate.
• You will apply and update the company’s global risk assessment to carry out due diligence on the entities that work for or on behalf of the company providing “go/ no go” advice to the relevant business and/or escalating appropriately key issues to the senior compliance team.
• You will have an active role in M&A work working alongside the legal project manager to assist them in project managing external lawyers providing advice on competition and compliance issues. As part of the M&A team, you will take responsibility for these legal aspects of the transaction.
• Should the need arise, you will be required to advise upon and/or run compliance investigations either working with, or independent of, the relevant crisis management team(s) reporting your findings to the Group Legal Director and, if appropriate, the Group Risk Committee.
• You will represent the Group and the relevant business unit at clients’ ethical forums, understanding the Group’s compliance programme and the relevant operating business.