HSBC Group

About Legal

Global Legal plays an important role in protecting HSBC’s reputation, helping to safeguard the organisation by providing robust and comprehensive advice on legal issues and risks. Our lawyers advise senior management and the Global Businesses and Functions. They offer a range of legal skills, jurisdictional experience and practice specialisms across all the countries and territories in which HSBC operates

About The Role

The Deputy General Counsel provides expert and professional legal advice, guidance and support to ensure that the legal and reputational risks faced by the european (excluding UK) IWPB business are identified, reported and mitigated.

This role will report to the Global General Counsel for the IWPB business

Responsibilities

• Leading and managing (not necessarily through direct reporting lines) the European IWPB Legal team and working closely with the General Counsel, IWPB, as well as global product leads for WPS, AMG and Insurance to deliver on IWPB strategy and manage legal and reputational risks arising for IWPB in Europe markets. 
• To act as a member of the Global Legal wider leadership team, contributing as required on global issues and leadership actions
• To be the accountable lawyer to the Europe GC & Global IWPB GC on all material legal issues that the business faces
• Advising relevant Senior Management including the Europe CEO for IWPB on non-standard legal and reputational risks 
• Evaluating and responding to changes in legal and regulatory requirements as they arise
• Setting relevant policies and procedures for the relevant area of coverage to ensure that Legal's role in the second line of defence can be executed
• To be the principal legal adviser and relationship manager for Legal at senior management and governance forums for the Europe IWPB business, ensuring there is integrated legal support with other global business and function legal teams
• To be the principle legal adviser on M&A strategic projects focused on Europe.
• To be the principle legal adviser on the facilitation of cross border work and the enablement of key market corridors involving Europe e.g. Asia and MENAT.
• Provide and manage counsel for assigned areas of responsibility, including matters that are complex or have potential for legal, financial and / or reputational impact
• Managing external and internal legal costs within Resource and Financial Planning limits
• Be a trusted legal advisor and strategic partner to support business objectives, strategy and initiatives e.g. the rollout of digital platforms supporting premier and wealth solutions in Europe.
• Share skills, experience, best practice and know-how with the Legal team and to proactively identify legal risks trends and increase legal risk awareness within the business

Requirements/Qualifications

• Qualified Lawyer, expected to have significant hands-on experience in the wealth and international affluent banking product space.
• Significant experience regarding the Cross Border requirements for running wealth and private banking platforms and good understanding of the European markets in which IWPB operates.
• Significant experience managing a specialized team of lawyers and paraprofessionals
• Strong leadership skills 
• Lateral thinking/problem solving ability
• Ability to prioritize workloads in terms of legal risk and commercial consideration.
• Maintain knowledge of HSBC Group operations and policies.
• Up-to-date knowledge of developments in the financial services sector
• Ability to think independently being mindful of maintaining an appropriate balance between management and mitigation of legal risk and business efficacy.
• Deepening knowledge of areas of specialty with ability to take a view as to how law is developing in order to advise client and reach a solution.
• Enhanced relationship with higher levels of management inspiring confidence of customers/stakeholders
• Ability to navigate multiple stakeholders with competing priorities and under time pressure
• Strong oral and written communication and inter-personal skills
• Up-to-date knowledge of developments in the financial services sector
• Self starter, independent with good organizational skills

Core Expectations

LEADERSHIP

• Leads others in formulating and articulating an engaging shared vision and strategy for the team and wider function
• Holds self and others accountable for delivery of excellent performance from the team, sharing and learning from mistakes
• Strong culture carrier and role model for HSBC values, behaviours and conduct who leads by example
• Decisive, assertive and willing to take a stand when the stakes are high and counted on to exercise good judgement 
• Ability to attract talent, build teams and develop leaders of the future, with strong levels of expertise, who are motivated and inspired to perform at their best 
• Drives a learning culture, demonstrates a growth mindset and is committed to giving and acting on feedback to develop self and others
• Anticipates and leads change and able to operate effectively in a changing environment

COLLABORATION & TEAMWORK

• Leads collaboration across teams and geographies and creates an environment of openness across global HSBC enterprise 
• Forges strong partnerships within the function and collaborates across business areas and networks (internally & externally) to drive commercial and strategic value
• Culture carrier who sets the tone for a healthy and inclusive culture in support of Legal’s strategic priorities
• Communicates, influences and negotiates with impact and highly skilled at adapting style with stakeholders at all levels to achieve desired outcomes
• Champions and drives a feedback culture, recognises and celebrates the success of others
• High level of self-awareness and thinks creatively and entrepreneurially to adapt to changing circumstances

COMMERCIAL

• Understands the products, propositions, services, culture, operation and strategic priorities of the partnered business area in context of the broader external environment
• Role models client centricity and leads business partnering
• Works with senior business leaders to analyse complex decisions, and provide commercial advice to guide strategy and commercial direction
• Consistently evaluates commercial drivers and leads other to deliver efficiency and innovation
• Plays a critical role in helping HSBC deliver its strategic ambitions by enabling the bank to take smart risks that deliver a ROI

RISK & CONTROL

• Drives a strong understanding of risk, governance and control in the function and identifies, challenges and leads strategic and/or Group-wide improvements 
• Partners across the HSBC enterprise to provide direction, clarity and coherence around complex risk issues
• Role model for risk and control best practice, exercising good judgement, sharing knowledge and experience to drive enterprise-wide risk culture 
• Provides thought leadership regarding broader risk implications, including external industry trends, social, cultural, economic and political factors and collaborates with senior stakeholders to manage risks across HSBC
• Identifies and articulates issues early, ensuring appropriate challenge and escalation in a timely manner to ensure the right outcome
• Understands and strives to mitigate against conduct risks and reputational risks

TECHNICAL

• Able to combine thought leadership with global, enterprise-wide perspective to influence the direction of Group or Function 
• Credible in operating and contributing as a trusted advisor at most senior levels 
• Ability to communicate, influence and negotiate, applying knowledge and experience in area of expertise and beyond
• Maintains constant individual and team focus on technical best practice and changes in the legal, regulatory and external environment to inform subject matter expertise, anticipate events and be recognised externally as a leader in their field
• Takes responsibility for leading knowledge sharing and demonstrates technical curiosity and ability to horizon scan 
• Sponsors and champions innovation, leading on applying and adopting change that drives a future focused Legal function

" For further queries on the role, please contact Zoe HEAD-RAPSON <zoe.head-rapson@hsbc.com> , Executive Search Partner"