Legal Services Lead: Corporate

The incumbent is a Business Unit Leader (BUL). He will be responsible for strategically leading the Corporate Legal Services (CLS) business unit, ensuring its effective functioning and accountability. The role involves managing people and coordinating the delivery of timely, high-quality legal services that reduce organisational risk. Key responsibilities include legislative drafting and review, handling corporate and commercial litigation (including debt collection), managing contracts through drafting, vetting, and negotiation, overseeing risk management and mitigation, and leading the unit’s people management functions.

Key Responsibilities

• Conceptualises and drafts the Organisation’s enabling legislation and regulations.
• Leads regular strategic reviews of the organisation’s enabling legislation and regulations to ensure their continued relevance within the operating environment.
• Initiates the amendment of the Organisation’s enabling legislation and regulations.
• Designs the Organisation litigation strategy, policy and procedures and lead the implementation thereof.
• Leads the design of case-specific strategies for all litigation cases instituted by and against the Organisation.
• Accounts for the development of case management plans and manage the team’s case management performance in accordance with the plans.
• Involves impacted stakeholders and specialists in preparing litigation attacks and defences.
• Provides timely case-related instructions to the Deputy Business Unit Leader and keeps the Leadership abreast of developments for the duration of each case.
• Ensures that lessons learnt after each case are factored into methodologies, processes and deliverables of the Organisation.
• Accounts for the performance of attorneys and advocates acting on behalf of the Organisation and takes corrective action in cases where attorneys and advocates do not render their services in accordance with the memorandum and/or service level agreement.
• Oversees the preparation of organisational reports on all litigation matters.
• Leads the execution of the CLS strategy on collection of long outstanding debt.
• Removes any obstacles in the design, implement, review and update of an effective system for the collection of debt by means of litigation.
• Leads the drive for automation of legal processes for debt collection.
• Obtains and sustain top leadership buy-in and continued support for CLS’s debt collection efforts via legal processes.
• Oversees the performance of law firms who collect outstanding debt on behalf of the Organisation and take corrective steps where necessary.
• Tracks the collection of outstanding fees and submit monthly collection reports.
• Owns the execution of default judgements business process.
• Sets the strategic parameters for the Organisation’s system of contract management.
• Strategically leads all efforts to develop, implement, monitor and adjust a system for contract drafting and negotiation.
• Owns and accounts for the standard terms and conditions of Organisation contracts, including specialised terms and conditions for sourcing digital and technology goods and services.
• Ensures that appropriate systems and methods are in place to process to resolve disputes arising from contracts, including the enforcement of penalties and termination of contracts.
• Lead organisation legal risk management
• Designs and implements a system of quality assurance for legal products delivered by the Business Unit.
• Designs and implements a risk management framework for the Business Unit.
• Implements remedial action to mitigate Business Unit and organisational legal risk.

Requirements

• LLM degree or a post-graduate LLB
• Experience in corporate governance and/or business sciences will be an advantage
• Minimum 15 years’ relevant experience (post qualification), of which at least 5 years should have been at a senior management/higher level in a corporate legal environment.
• Must have in-depth knowledge and appropriate application of public law, contract law, supply chain management, the PAA and PAA regulations.
• Must have knowledge, skills and experience in commercial, public and constitutional litigation.
• Must have vast experience in aspects of commercial law, especially in contract drafting and debt collection
• Ability to create purposeful, precise, succinct and unique reports and documents.