Financial Regulatory Associate

Associate

Ashurst's REGULATORY team

May 2017

About Ashurst

Ashurst is a leading global law firm with a history spanning almost 200 years, and clear strategy for our future growth. Our in-depth understanding of our clients and commitment to providing exceptional standards of service have seen us become a trusted adviser to local and global corporates, financial institutions and governments in all areas of commercial law. To find out more please visit here.

In order to comply with regulatory and client requirements, Ashurst will undertake appropriate vetting of staff. When applicants accept a job offer, Ashurst, alongside a specialist provider, will undertake professional verification and background checks.  These checks are only undertaken with consent, and in accordance with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Team overview:

The Financial Regulatory Team is seen as a pivotal and rapidly growing part of the firm. The Team is highly cohesive and collaborative, and a supportive and helpful environment in which to work

There is a current requirement for a mid-level Associate within the Team.

Job overview:

Ashurst is committed to strengthening its regulatory offering in London as part of its global strategy to attain a leadership position in the financial institutions and funds sector.

Ashurst has a strong and deep financial regulation practice globally. Although London and Sydney are the firm’s most prominent offices in terms of their strength and numbers in this area, the firm also has dedicated partners in Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Beijing, Washington, Frankfurt, Paris and Madrid. They also have contentious partners in these jurisdictions which the regulatory team work with closely.

The Financial Regulation Team acts for a variety of banks, investment banks, fund managers, clearing houses, insurers and other FCA and PRA regulated firms.

Typical work includes:

• obtaining new authorisations/registrations;
• MIFID II advice
• Brexit advice
• Regulatory enforcement work
• drafting compliance and risk management policies and procedures;
• the regulatory aspects of product structuring and distribution;
• cross-jurisdictional regulatory issues;
• the regulatory aspects of multilateral trading platforms;
• the management of regulatory capital;
• conflicts of interest in full service financial institutions;
• enforcement work; and
• market abuse and insider dealing issues.

Essential skills and experience:

Main Responsibility

• fee earning work supervised by the partners and senior associates;
• Some working knowledge of MiFID II
• business development work (the Team runs an active programme of presentations, article writing, tweeting etc.);
• assisting other Ashurst departments with their work (typically: funds; corporate; finance; litigation.
• experience of financial services regulatory work ( work in private practice; work at a regulator; work overseas in a similar environment).
• an understanding of European financial regulatory framework including key directives is required
• an understanding of sophisticated bank products
• a keen interest in learning about, and keeping on top of developments in, this challenging practice area.
• an interest in the way that lawyers communicate with their clients (for example, we are currently tweeting regulatory news).
• an ability to take responsibility for work from a junior stage. The practice carries out both large and bite-size pieces of work and the successful candidate will be expected

Recent Work:

The following represents a selection of our recent work:

• Advising several investment banks on implementing
• MiFID II and MAR.
• Advising the administrators of Alpari UK Limited on its
• special administration.
• Advising several international investment banks on the
• Senior Managers Regime.
• Advising numerous UK and US based fund managers on the
• AIFMD regime.
• A major broker facing FSA disciplinary action.
• Several major financial institutions in relation to investigations into the setting of LIBOR by the FSA, the European Commission, the SEC and the CFTC.
• A UK bank on the implications of Bank Levy tax.
• Individuals in relation to insider dealing and market manipulation accusations
• Santander on its Payment Services Directive business.
• State Street Bank and Trust Corporation on the marketing of and entry into OTC derivatives with counterparties in a number of jurisdictions globally.
• The Financial Services Authority on the administration of MF Global in the UK.
• The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc on the transfer of outsourced functions within the EU.
• The UK non-executive directors of The Royal Bank of Scotland in relation to the FSA's report on RBS

Representative Skills:

A selection of our clients are listed below:

Bain Capital, Bank of America Merryl Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Capital Management, Citigroup, Credit Agricole; Deutsche Bank, ICAP, JP Morgan, Lexington Partners, Markit, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, Oaktree, Santander, Skandia, UBS

Career advancement:

An established Associate Career Path Framework is in place clearly defining expectations and outlining opportunities for promotion.

Secondment opportunities:

Opportunities often arise for associates to spend time on secondment in house with a key client of the firm. From time to time, secondment opportunities also come up within other Ashurst offices in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

Partner Profiles:

James Perry

Partner, London

• James is a partner in Ashurst's Financial Regulation team and has advised on financial regulatory matters since the inception of the UK system in 1988.
• He works with institutions across the financial sector, including banks, insurers, asset managers, brokers and others, specialising in a broad range of conduct and prudential matters, including market abuse, conflicts, marketing and distribution, transparency and reporting, corporate governance, outsourcing and regulatory capital and liquidity. He authored the leading reference book on the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and regularly contributes to trade journals and periodicals.
• Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (1986) MA (Hons) in Classics and Law; Distinction, Law Society Finals Examination, 1987.
• Relevant experience includes advising:
• Santander UK plc on its acquisition of the retail savings and branch business of Bradford & Bingley, including deposits of over £20bn.
• Skandia Life, Credit Agricole, Royal & Sun Alliance, Investec, JP Morgan Securities and others on UK regulatory matters.
• An investment bank on the FCA’s approach to product governance and the responsibilities of the manufacturers of financial products.
• Global banks, UK investment banks and global fund managers on implementing MiFID II and MAR.

Jake Green

Partner, London

Jake Green is a partner in the financial regulation practice. Jake has spent time on secondment at a leading hedge fund and a brokerage house. He regularly advises financial institutions in relation to a wide range of regulatory and compliance issues. He has particular expertise in matters relating to corporate governance, the FCA's Conduct of Business Rules and perimeter guidance, regulatory capital matters, online FX and CFD trading and spread betting, FCA investigations and s166 projects.

Jake is currently working with clients in relation to regulatory planning in respect of MiFID II, AIFMD and EMIR.

• Advising an investment bank on the FCA’s approach to product governance and the responsibilities of the manufacturers of financial products.
• Advising several international investment banks on the Senior Managers Regime.
• Advising global banks, UK investment banks and global fund managers on implementing MiFID II and MAR.
• Advising a Global investment bank on the implementation of PRIIPs.
• Advising a Global investment bank on managing their internal report process and regulatory reports from law firms in 90 jurisdictions, and on managing biannual netting opinions from 30 jurisdictions in relation to commodities trading.

Opening date Friday 5 May 2017

Closing date Friday 2 June 2017