Compliance & Regulatory Affairs; Legal ) Director

Business Unit:
Legal And Compliance Industry: No Industry Overview Houlihan Lokey, Inc. (NYSE:HLI) is a leading global investment bank recognized for delivering independent strategic and financial advice to corporations, financial sponsors, and governments. With uniquely deep industry expertise, broad international reach, and a partnership approach rooted in trust, the firm provides innovative, integrated solutions across mergers and acquisitions, capital solutions, financial restructuring, and financial and valuation advisory.

Our unmatched transaction volumes provide differentiated, data-driven perspectives that help our clients achieve their most critical goals. To learn more about Houlihan Lokey, please visit

Job Purpose Houlihan Lokey ("HL") is seeking a Compliance & Regulatory Affairs (with Legal Support) professional to strengthen its team in Frankfurt, Germany. Working as part of the wider international (non-US) Legal & Compliance team, alongside the local German Compliance Officer / MLRO, and local advisors, the primary focus of the role will be to lead, oversee, and execute the regulatory compliance programme and financial crime prevention framework (AML/CFT, sanctions, market conduct, and governance) of HL’s entities in Germany (which includes a BaFin regulated entity with branches in Paris, London and Madrid) and Switzerland, while providing dedicated legal support on core commercial transactions and corporate matters.

It is anticipated that the role will have a primary focus on compliance and regulatory matters with the remainder dedicated to supporting legal work. The role will have a principal reporting line into the German Compliance Officer and an additional co-ordination line into the General Counsel Europe.

• Engaging with the Financial Restructuring (FR), Corporate Finance (CF) and Financial and Valuation Advisory (FVA) business units to evaluate, monitor, and provide proactive compliance advisory on potential regulatory, compliance, and other risks presented by those activities, including conduct of business, market abuse rules, and transaction clearance.
• Preparing and delivering periodic Compliance, Board, and other regulatory risk reporting for senior management, local Management/Supervisory Boards, and international governance committees.
• Supporting HL’s Legal department in relation to specific German matters, notably:
  Drafting and negotiation of engagement letters, Review of confidentiality agreements and other legal documentation, Providing other commercial legal advice and corporate governance support.
• Working with corporate departments and senior management to develop and implement best practices regarding handling of confidential and material non-public information, information barriers and Wall-Crossing protocols.
• Implementing, monitoring, and maintaining robust compliance procedures and controls for the Firm’s business activities and regulatory programmes, including maintaining Compliance Manuals, Codes of Ethics, AML/CFT Manuals, MaComp/WpIG policies, Risk Manuals and other policies as required, as well as recommending and drafting updates/revisions as necessary to ensure ongoing alignment with evolving BaFin, Deutsche Bundesbank, and EU regulatory standards.
• Oversight and execution of client due diligence / onboarding (KYC, AML risk rating, and sanctions screening), the Restricted List and related issues, including coordination with deal teams on conflict clearing.
• Assuming the Deputy MLRO (Stellvertretender Geldwäschebeauftragter) roles for the German Houlihan Lokey entities and other formal 'officer' roles as relevant and appropriate (e.g. Deputy Compliance Officer, outsourcing officer, ESG).
• Serving as a key liaison for German…