Legal Counsel - Customer & Digital Team

Join us as a Legal Counsel - Customer Team, Vice President at Barclays.  A key purpose of this legal role is to lead legal and strategic support for our Customer strategies to ensure our Customers get the best experience of Barclays and the support they need. This will involve advising on servicing customers with more complex needs, applying the Principle of Consumer Duty, leading on the most complex complaints (including setting the strategic direction where these are contentious), spotting and proactively managing emerging risks, facilitating DISP compliance and supporting remediation activity.

In addition, the role will provide broader support to Barclays UK, as required and where opportunity allows, because we operate a fungible working model, which can enable personal growth opportunities.

The successful candidate will need be a qualified solicitor, barrister or legal executive with the ability to work independently and flexibly, across a range of products and services, in order to identify and manage risk, provide solutions and to plan for change brought by developing regulation. This role can be based in either our Manchester or Birmingham offices.

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

Purpose of the role

To ensure that the consumer banking activities are conducted in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and to help the bank manage legal and regulatory risks associated with these activities. 

Accountabilities

• Development and implementation of best practice legal strategies for risk management and compliance.
• Proactive consumer banking Legal advice and support to the consumer banking division of the bank on a wide range of legal issues, including regulatory compliance, regulatory change management, consumer protection, and risk management.
• Representation of the bank in legal proceedings related to consumer banking, such as litigation, arbitration, and regulatory enquiry and investigations.
• Creation and periodic review of Legal documents in accordance with contractual arrangements policy to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Legal research and analysis to stay up to date on changes in laws and regulations that may impact the bank's consumer banking operations.
• Developing and delivering training programmes to educate employees on legal and regulatory requirements related to consumer banking.
• Pro-active identification, communication, and provision of legal advice on applicable laws, rules and regulations (LRRs). Keeping up to date with regards to changes to LRRs in the relevant coverage area. Ensuring that LRRs are effectively allocated to, and adequately reflected within, the relevant policies, standards and controls.

Vice President Expectations

• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.