Senior Risk Lawyer

The Department

The Risk & Compliance Partner is based in the London office, together with a Head of Legal Risk, four Risk Lawyers, an AML & Sanctions Lawyer, a Compliance Systems Manager, eight Risk & Compliance Officers, a Risk & Compliance Assistant and two Conflicts Researchers. There is also a Risk Lawyer in Singapore as well as two Risk & Compliance Officers in the Hong Kong office, one in Singapore and one in Australia.

The Department works closely with the firm’s General Counsel who is also the COLP and MLRO, as well as the Firm’s PI Partner and others specialising in areas such as sanctions and data protection.

The Role

This is a legal role, supporting the Risk & Compliance Partner, Head of Legal Risk, and the Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP) in relation to all aspects of their roles, worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

• Assisting the Partner and COLP with the numerous daily queries which arise regarding the SRA Code, professional standards and best practice, ethics, conflicts, financial crime, supplier contracts and firm and third party terms and conditions;
• Identifying new or changed regulatory requirements and legal obligations that have an impact on the operations of the firm.
• Regularly updating the Professional Standards Manual and Partners’ Guide;
• Developing and maintaining a good knowledge and understanding of the firm’s policies, systems and processes.
• Drafting policies and procedures to take account of changes in the regulatory law in any of the jurisdictions in which the firm operates;
• Analysing conflict reports and advising on complex conflict-related issues;
• Reviewing data protection policies and procedures on at least an annual basis and updating as necessary and assisting with data protection queries and processes;
• Writing and amending terms of engagement with clients in all the jurisdictions in which the firm operates;
• Writing and amending terms of engagement with counsel, foreign lawyers and experts;
• Keeping registers and monitoring compliance;
• Resolving escalated conflicts queries, including US conflicts rules;
• Any other ad hoc duties as may be required.

Key Skills & Experience Required

• Qualified lawyer (England & Wales), with 6 – 10 years’ PQE;
• A minimum of three years’ legal compliance experience in an international firm, including dealing with confidentiality and ethics;
• Financial crime experience essential;
• A detailed knowledge of the SRA Handbook, especially the Code of Conduct;
• Excellent written legal skills, including the ability to draft and review policies, procedures, terms of engagement and contracts with third parties;
• Up-to-date knowledge of relevant areas of law and procedure, especially contract and tort;
• Knowledge of data protection, anti-money laundering, sanctions, anti-bribery and corruption, corporate tax evasion and anti-modern slavery rules and application; 
• Strong organisational and IT skills;
• Outstanding communication skills, with the ability to communicate and deal with queries in a confident and assertive manner, whether with partners, other lawyers or business services staff;
• High levels of discretion, confidentiality and diplomacy;
• Flexibility to travel to offices within the firm’s global network to undertake audits and training;
• Experience of providing training, and of dealing with claims and complaints is desirable.

Additional Information

Kindly note that this job description is not contractual. It will be reviewed periodically and may be amended or altered to meet the needs of the firm.

HFW aims to ensure equality of opportunity and we are actively working towards improving the diversity of our staff. All applications will be considered only on merit and the applicant’s suitability to meet the requirements of the role.

HFW collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants to manage its recruitment process. The firm is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations. For information on how the firm will process your data, please see our Privacy Notice on our website (www.hfw.com/Privacy-Notice), in the section “What we collect and how we use it”.