Key Responsibilities

Risk, Regulatory, Prudential & Compliance

• Assist the Company Secretary in ensuring adherence to and taking responsibility for compliance with the Companies Act and the Memorandum and Articles of Association of all companies in the Group.
• Analyse new laws and regulations and assess their impact on the Group’s Governance.
• Check the individual compliance of the Group Companies with the Companies Act, the Banking Act, Capital Markets Act, the Nairobi Securities Exchange Continued Listing Obligations; Insurance Act and all other relevant legislation, regulations and guidelines
• Raise awareness of any legal developments that may affect the Group and evaluating the legal ramifications of such developments in the governance environment.
• Recommend whenever necessary in order to ensure that laws and regulations or supervisory requirements are being complied with by the Boards of the companies in the Group; and Draft, review, and negotiate contracts to be entered into by Stanbic Holdings Ltd.
• Assist the Company Secretary in ensuring that Governance Audits and Board Evaluations are conducted in line with Regulation.
• Assist the Company Secretary in ensuring Board training and development is conducted in line with Regulation

Data

• Research and compile reports on applicable laws and current corporate governance principles and policies, including Basil II & III and King III on Corporate Governance
• Research various Corporate Governance best practices

People

• Supervise training and check self-development by ensuring continuous basis in order to maintain the technical knowledge required to understand and provide advice in relation to the regulatory framework that applies to the various companies in the Group as well as the risks to which those companies are exposed.
• Supervise developing of training programs and materials to ensure widespread awareness of legal and governance issues.

Product

• Assist the Company Secretary in providing Company Secretarial services to all companies in the Group.
• Assist the Company Secretary, as required, in relation to Board of Directors meetings and the various Board Committee meetings for the companies in the Group.
• Assist in the preparation of Board and Committee packs for the various companies in the Group and ensure the distribution of the same to all board members within the stipulated time frame of 7 days.
• Seek legal opinions and advise on complex matters and new legal developments which impact or have the potential to impact the governance environment in which the Group is currently operating;
• Maintain that the reputation/ image of the Group is adequately addressed, safe-guarded and maintained with regard to the business principles and policies and business risk adopted by the companies in the Group;
• Check that no conflict of interest exists with the Group's principles/ values or best practice in any area of operation

Minimum Qualifications

Education Level

• Legal Degree from a recognized University
• Bachelor of Law, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and Certified Public Secretary qualification Post Graduate Diploma Kenya School of Law
• Experience and Professional Qualifications
• A Minimum of 2 years in legal services
• A minimum of 8-10 years experience Company Secretarial services
• 8-10 years in Governance

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and Partner support

• Assist the department in attending various appropriate committee meetings, meetings with customers (where required by stakeholders), disciplinary hearings and any other committees whenever required in order to build good working relationships as well as assist in better delivery of their legal support function.
• Support Corporate Functions in ensuring that the Group's reputation/image is adequately safe-guarded and maintained with regard to the business principles and policies and business risk adopted within the Group operations.
• Ensuring Group legal risk governance standards are effectively embedded resulting in nil audit findings.
• Build, develop and maintain relationships across the Bank and within Standard Bank Group for better delivery of the Bank’s strategy, and collaboration with Standard Bank Group with respect to seamless delivery of services.
• Support Corporate Functions to develop new policies, following existing policies and identifying and reporting any policy exceptions.
• Management of service level agreements involving service providers such as external legal counsel and ensure that external counsel complies with agreed timelines in respect of various tasks more specifically described in the service level agreements.
• Organize and manage all physical and online records and documents in an orderly manner in a safe and secure place with a locking system or selective access (as appropriate) while maintaining accurate and up-to-date databases of various records, reports and documents required in the fulfilment of their role.

Product

Contract management

• Assist, interpret and advise on complex queries with respect to the operation and content of the relevant agreements, including bank contracts, providing legal notes and briefing external counsel to provide legal opinions on legislation which impacts or has the potential to impact existing contracts and/ or the environment in which the Bank operates.
• Review, draft, negotiate (where required) robust legal agreements, being mindful of the legal implications, all relevant laws, regulations, Bank policies and procedures.
• Ensure that all documentation is legal and binding on all parties involved, thereby reducing the risk of loss through unenforceable documents and unnecessary expenses incurred in trying to enforce invalid documentation.
• Manage legal aspects and be involved in project work e.g. relating to new product developments/product amendments and related documentation, process improvement and enhancement.
• Maintain a database of standard legal contracts and regularly review, update and amend the templates.

Litigation management

• Proactively pursue alternative dispute resolution with a view to avoid litigation and associated losses.
• Develop a clear strategy from the onset on all litigation matters involving the Bank, seeking legal opinions and advice on complex matters and keeping stakeholders abreast of the status of the litigation matters.
• Proactively manage and monitor litigation by or against the Bank, and associated legal costs, to minimise the Bank’s loss arising from threatened legal claims and ongoing court matters.
• Ensure that timely and accurate instructions and information is provided to the Bank’s counsel handling the litigation matters involving the Bank to enable them to represent the Bank adequately.

Advisory and query management

• Interpret legal issues to all levels of managerial and non-managerial staff
• Action inward communication from customers, agents, government agencies and lawyers within the required Bank standards and SLA
• Act on the quality of legal advice and speed of delivery while ensuring continuous improvement relating to design and continuously improving existing and new business processes.

Knowledge sharing

• Keep abreast of regulatory, local, international and market developments generally and also with regard to the relevant agreements and ensure that this knowledge is filtered through to the rest of the team
• Create awareness of legal developments that may affect the Bank, evaluating legal implications thereof and suggesting / implementing risk mitigate.
• Proactively manage and participate in knowledge sharing, by way of in-house training programs and materials, within the Litigation and Corporate Function unit, the Legal & Governance team and with the wider Bank (with strong emphasis on Corporate Functions teams) keeping them apprised of developments in one’s area of specialization or expertise thereby enhancing effective delivery of the Litigation and Corporate Function strategy by all legal counsel.

People

• Assist stakeholders by giving opinions and recommendations on various legal matters.
• Continue self enhancement of knowledge and expertise; attend relevant training and ensure self-development occurs on a continuous basis in order to properly address legal risks arising in transactional work and obtain adequate technical knowledge to understand the regulatory framework that applies to the Bank as well as the risks to which the Bank is exposed to.

Risk, Regulatory, Prudential and Compliance

• Advise on adherence to all relevant laws, regulations and bank policies and procedures.
• Review of relevant internal and external communications, such as circulars, legal reviews/judgements relevant to ensure that any development, new requirements or external risks are properly taken cognizance of.
• Monitor and advise on the adherence to the regulatory environment in which the Bank operates.
• Advise on legal considerations for the outlined credit strategy for recovery of non-performing loans and provide legal input on proposed litigation strategy and legal aspects of enforcement with a view of recovering unsettled exposures.
• Provide legal input into the Bank’s risk management strategies, the practical application and operations thereof.
• Proactive identification, investigation and escalation of legal risks and/ or inefficiencies presented from time to time.
• Conduct risk assurance prior to scheduled audits in line with the proposed audit approach and scope with a view to providing the auditors with a list of known issues and action plans to address them. Assist in resolving identified audit issues following completion of audits, within the advised period and where required, prescribe / implement appropriate measures to avoid recurrence of the identified audit issues.
• Proactively develop and manage relationships with key external stakeholders including local regulators and external legal counsel relevant to the business and external regulatory bodies to ensure that the Bank receives appropriate co-operation when required in transaction management and that the Bank meets and is seen to meet regulatory compliance.

Minimum Qualifications

Education Level

• Legal Degree from a recognized University
• Post Graduate Diploma Kenya School of Law
• Admitted advocate of the High Court in Kenya.

Experience and Professional Qualifications

• At least 5 years minimum experience either in a financial institution or in a top-tier law firm with a thriving commercial, corporate, M&A, and/or financial services practice