Head of Legal - Corporate Governance
AZA, United Kingdom
Job Description
Job Summary
The Head of Legal will join the Legal amp; Compliance team to support the company as it prepares to initiate a number of business expansion projects and a Group restructuring initiative. This individual will have the opportunity to lead and apply legal rigor amp; creativity to helping the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer (CLCO) and broader executive teams by offering legal advice, legal direction and to creating policies and legal documents required for the proposed/ongoing projects and day to day legal tasks.
Aza is looking for someone who has substantial prior experience in the Payments and/or Financial Sector as an In-House General Counsel. Such an individual must have a proven track record and competence in corporate governance matters as well as leading business expansion projects in new territories. The post holder must have held the requisite managerial roles.
This is a great opportunity to build on skills and experience, while working within a supportive environment. If you're looking to develop your experience in corporate governance, this is an unmissable opportunity. The combination of governance and team management makes for an interesting and diverse role. This is also a great opportunity for someone who enjoys problem-solving, working with a variety of stakeholders across a diverse group of companies, and who appreciates seeing their work put into action.
This is a remote working role open to candidates in the UK who have both local and international authority experience. The post holder should be available to start as soon as possible.
Key Responsibilities
- Ensuring compliance with governance rules applicable to the company and other subsidiaries, including director independence rules and committee charter requirements.
- Overseeing corporate secretarial records management processes and legal entity management database.
- Drafting proxy statement disclosure, charters, bylaws, Corporate Governance Guidelines, committee charters, resolutions, and meeting materials, as well as communications to the Board of Directors and senior management.
- Leveraging your legal experience within an entrepreneurial customer development environment to impact many companies.
- Providing legal counsel and support for the Corporate Secretary and corporate governance functions, including for meetings of the Boards of Directors and Committees thereof; the annual meeting of stockholders; and the annual proxy statement.
- Working collaboratively to build trust-based relationships with internal and external stakeholders through cross-functional partnerships.
- Be commercially savvy with an ability to discern business needs while exercising discretion with respect to highly confidential/sensitive information.
Requirements
We are looking for someone with:
- A Law degree
- 8+ years of legal experience in a large law firm or large financial services company.
- Substantial practical legal expertise driven by execution experience with corporate governance, shareholder proposals, and capital markets transactions.
- Experience drafting company disclosures and policies while working in-house, directly with a General Counsel.
- Flexibility to work with customers across different stages and experience levels, including General Counsels and senior executive teams.
- Entrepreneurial spirit, incurable optimism, and a startup mindset. This is an opportunity to build new processes and to uncover new ways to support our customers.
- A strong foundational knowledge of corporate governance and securities law.
Desirable
- IPO and/or equity capital markets experience.
- Experience of mergers and acquisition in the EU/US
- Knowledge of company restructuring and reorganisation
- Strong written and verbal communication skills supported by any publicly available collateral (blog posts, white papers, interviews, etc.).
Benefits
A competitive salary and benefits package.
AZA is an equal opportunity employer and will consider every qualified applicant for employment. AZA does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.