Risk Lawyer

The department

The Risk & Compliance team is made up of a Risk & Compliance Partner, a Head of Legal Risk (supported by five Risk Lawyers and two Senior Risk & Compliance Officers), a Head of Business Acceptance (supported by a Compliance Manager, 12 Risk & Compliance Officers and a Risk & Compliance Assistant), a Head of Conflicts (supported by two Conflicts Researchers), a Compliance Systems Manager, and a Data Privacy Manager. The team is represented in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Dubai.

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. We are looking for a general risk lawyer to support 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, Head of Legal Risk and COLP with the numerous daily queries which arise regarding the SRA Code, professional standards and best practice, ethics, data protection, supplier contracts, firm and third party terms and conditions and conflicts
• Identifying new or changed regulatory requirements and legal obligations that have an impact on the operations of the firm
• Developing and maintaining the firm’s policies, systems 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
• Any other ad hoc duties as may be required

Key skills and experience required

• Qualified lawyer (England & Wales)
• A minimum of two years’ legal compliance experience in an international firm, including dealing with confidentiality and ethics
• Familiarity with 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
• General knowledge of data protection, anti-money laundering, sanctions, anti-bribery and corruption, corporate tax evasion and anti-modern slavery rules and application
• Strong analytical, organisational and IT skills
• Pragmatic
• 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
• Experience of providing training 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, in the section “What we collect and how we use it”.