Legal Asia Equities

Join Barclays as VP, Legal Asia Equities. This role provides legal risk management and advisory support for APAC equities and equity derivatives businesses, covering key areas such as prime services, equity financing, equity derivatives, equity corporate derivatives, and cash equities. The successful candidate will advise on legal and regulatory matters impacting these products and business activities across the region.

To be successful as VP Legal Asia Equities, you should have experience with:

• Providing day-to-day, often real-time, legal advice to support the prime services, equity financing, equity derivatives, equity corporate derivatives, and cash equities businesses across APAC, excluding Japan.
• Structuring and advising on the regulatory treatment of, and drafting documentation for, a wide range of bespoke products and transactions across multiple jurisdictions and counterparty types, with a particular focus on equities and equity-linked derivatives.
• Developing and maintaining essential legal documentation, including key business templates.
• Managing external counsel across APAC, excluding Japan.
• Reviewing and conducting legal risk analysis of new products and business proposals.
• Keeping abreast of regulatory developments and market practices relevant to the Equities business.
• Contributing to the development and maintenance of legal and compliance policies and procedures.

Essential Skills/Basic Qualifications:

• Qualified English lawyer (or equivalent common law jurisdiction) with experience in Equities’ products and equity derivatives in a top tier international financial institution or law firm.

• Experience with ISDA documentation and various ISDA product definitions, in particular ISDA equity derivative definitions and equity related master confirmation agreements and/or standalone confirmations, as well as other industry standard master documentation (e.g. GMSLA and GMRA).

• Demonstrable legal risk management and communication skills including experience with managing multiple stakeholders in the context of complex transactions and be a pro-active team player.

• Chinese language skills.

Desirable skills/Preferred Qualifications:

• Some experience with US, EU and/or Asia derivatives regulation.

• Genuine interest in this area of the law and has exposure to topical developments in regulatory changes and derivatives throughout Asia.

Purpose of the role

To ensure that the activities of the business units in the Markets division are conducted in compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, and to help the bank manage legal risk associated with these activities. 

Accountabilities

• Development and implementation of best practice legal strategies to manage compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations.
• Legal advice and support to the business units in the Markets division on matters arising from the relevant products/services provided by the Markets division  .
• Subject matter support in the Legal department’s representation of the bank in legal proceedings related to the Markets business units such as litigation, arbitration, and regulatory investigations.
• Creation and review of legal documents for the business units in the Markets division to ensure the bank’s compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations. Maintaining and updating template legal documentation for the Markets division.
• Legal research and analysis to stay up to date on changes in applicable laws, rules and regulations that may impact the activities of the bank's Markets business units   .
• Developing and delivering training programmes to educate employees on legal and regulatory requirements related to the activities of the Markets business units   .
• 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

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• 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.