Legal Counsel, EdAid

• You have at least 5 years experience as an In House Legal Counsel Roles and Global Organisations
• You must have the right to live and work in the UK

Desirable

• At EdAid we are transforming the way students fund their studies
• EdAid partners with universities and professional schools to defer tuition payment, interest-free and offer instalment based payments whilst studying to spread the cost of tuition for students
• Reporting to: Chief of Staff
• EdAid is looking for a Legal Counsel to join our London office to play a hands-on role, working cross-functionally in a multi-faceted position. This is a strategic and influential role assigned to ensure that the company operates within the law and abides by financial and jurisdictional regulations. In this capacity you uphold the highest standards of corporate governance, ensuring effective operations, compliance with the law and efficient administration. In this role, you will be responsible for supporting the CEO, Chief of Staff and the senior management team in all areas of the business
• Functioning as the Legal Counsel , you will act as a mediator between the company, its director, stakeholders, governments and regulatory authorities. You are a professional with expertise in international corporate laws, capital markets, security laws and corporate governance as well as an understanding, or the willingness to learn, consumer credit and lending licensing and best practices. You will advise the CEO & Management Team on the practices to be adopted in corporate governance
• You will act as internal counsel who ensures that best management and working practices are followed to ensure compliance in all areas of the business and make recommendations based on your knowledge, expertise and research to improve. You will represent the company with both internal and external stakeholders, create, manage, and update company policies and provide guidance on strategic decisions for the betterment and growth of the company such as mergers, acquisitions and joint collaborations
• You will own the creation, review and continuous improvement of all supplier, vendor and customer contracts and make recommendations based on changes within the business as well as regulatory landscape
• Strategy - Work closely with the CEO and COS to underpin and drive the strategic development of EdAid, covering all aspects from specific regional matters, critical negotiations through to global company structures and reporting
• Corporate Organisation Design and Restructuring
• Partnerships - Own the creation, maintenance and revision of all partner facing contracts, taking responsibility for the regular review and consultation with regional external partners and experts to ensure EdAid maintains the highest level of regulatory compliance whilst driving the boundaries of education financing to benefit meaningful access to education. Manage key partner relationships, working with the CEO, COS and Account Managers to represent EdAid in critical negotiations
• Suppliers / 3rd Parties - Own the maintenance, revision and creation of all supplier / 3rd party facing contracts. Acting in the interests of EdAid to protect the interests of the business and its customers
• Employment Legal- Own the maintenance, revision and creation of all employee facing contracts alongside EdAid’s Head of People. Taking responsibility for the regular review and consultation with the mgmt team and appropriate experts to ensure EdAid maintains appropriate HR regulation in all employment jurisdictions and any future territories
• Licences - Be accountable and responsible for regularly assessing EdAid’s licence requirements across all functional territories and overseeing and managing end to end licensing from submissions to annual renewals
• Policies and Compliance - Partner up with different members of the EdAid team to design and implement all relevant policies in line with up to date Codes of Practice and local legislation. Be a control owner for compliance and information security protocols where necessary
• Own the Customer Complaint function across the business providing structure, escalation pathway (internally and externally) and regulatory reporting if applicable
• Guiding the CEO & Management Team on the best way to conduct their business affairs from a governance perspective - their responsibilities under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how those responsibilities should be discharged (Cadbury 1992)
• Developing and overseeing the systems required to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, including filing annual reports, maintaining corporate records with Companies House and other regulatory bodies, and ensuring that corporate policies and procedures are up-to-date and adhered to
• Monitoring changes in relevant legislation and the regulatory environment, briefing the CEO & Management Team as required and taking action accordingly
• Ensure day-to-day administration and filings for the company, e.g. maintaining statutory books, including registers of members, directors and secretaries are completed and submitted to relevant deadline
• Ensuring that any one who is entitled by law to see the company records is able to do so
• Liaise with external regulators and advisers, such as lawyers and auditors
• You should apply if you display:
• Dynamic leadership, acting with the highest levels of integrity, inspiring the most ethical course of action
• Critical thinking, good judgement and solution driven mindset
• A proactive and strategic mindset - preemptively anticipate issues before they arise, articulate potential risks to the business and allow the business to make an informed judgement / decision; the ability to identify looming issues but design proactive solutions to help remove or mitigate risks are critical skills
• Effective drafting/ writing skills with effective command of the English language
• Promptness, accuracy; good research ability & solution focused approach
• Persuasion, persistence, influencing and resilience
• Good business judgement - the ability to frame your decisions within the context of what is good business for the company you represent. Smart business decisions may involve a degree of calculated and acceptable risk whilst equally counsel must also be able to
• The ability to think in your feet and to handle a diverse number of highly complex, mission critical and sensitive matters quickly and provide leadership on the direction to take
• An appetite for learning - acutely interested in learning about the inner workings of the company; having a firm understanding of the business and how it operates ; You keep up to date with changing legislation and best practice
• Empathy, interpersonal and communication skills
• A diplomatic, tactful and discreet approach
• The ability to prioritise your workload, work to tight deadlines and manage several projects at any one time
• Team spirit of collaboration, whilst functioning autonomously
• An authentic, genuine approach to relationship building
• Impeccable attention to detail