HSBC Group

Business: Global CIB Legal

Open positions: 1

Role Title: Assistant Legal Counsel GSC’s

Global Career Band: GCB 6

Location (Country / City ): Bangalore

Recruiter Name :  Geetika Gupta

The Opportunity:

• To assist with the provision of legal support to HSBC’s Global Corporate & Institutional Banking (‘CIB’) business and specifically the area of Global Trade Solutions (‘GTS’) to ensure that its legal risk is fully identified and managed, transactions are supported and escalations occur in a timely manner.
• This is an opportunity for a minimum of 7 years’ qualified banking and finance lawyer to be trained on the job, alongside a team, and develop into a trade finance lawyer at a world leading and award-winning provider for trade and supply chain finance solutions.
• International travel expected occasionally.

What you’ll do:

Principal Accountabilities

Impact on the Business

• Under supervision of Senior Legal Counsel- GLS GTS, provide legal support to the GTS business on transactions. This includes drafting and advising on guarantee / standby letter of credit issuances, loan and receivables finance facility agreements and related documentation.
• Review transaction documentation, on which the jobholder is supporting, for adherence to internal GTS policies and procedures, to manage legal risk.
• Use agreed channels to escalate matters where necessary to ensure the business receives timely and appropriate legal support.

How they are achieved/measured

• GTS transactions are supported and managed to facilitate successful and timely execution as required by GTS senior management.
• Where necessary, matters are escalated to the Senior Legal Counsel for local GTS Legal engagement and/or GTS senior management.

Customers / Stakeholders

• Be proactive in the provision of legal support.
• Ensure timely escalation to line management on any issues.

How they are achieved/measured

• Supporting the provision of legal advice that is succinct, easy to understand, and adds value by identifying the root cause of the problem and solutions.
• Evidence that the jobholder has taken the initiative, identified where added involvement from line management and/or expertise from central GTS Legal team is required.
• Evidence that the jobholder has sought to understand the client’s needs and achieved a satisfactory conclusion.

Leadership & Teamwork

• Maintain and develop positive and professional working relationships with team members within GLS GTS, Global CIB Legal, Wholesale lawyers globally and business departments for which the jobholder is providing legal support.
• Participate effectively as part of the Global CIB Legal function and the Global GTS Legal team as well as GLS Bangalore.
• Collaborate with and support GLS GTS colleagues and the broader GLS team as appropriate.

How they are achieved/measured

• Regular reports to and meetings held with line management.
• Provide clear communications to GTS business, with support of Senior Legal Counsel – GLS GTS as required, on transactions.
• Maintain successful and mutually supportive working relationships with all members of GTS, Global CIB and GLS Legal teams as applicable.
• Under the direction of Senior Legal Counsel – GLS GTS, support and work with other internal lawyers, to apply best practice.
• Understand, contribute and make use of knowledge sharing and document management systems.
• Proactively identify process and way of working improvements to drive efficiency and high-quality delivery of legal support.

Operational Effectiveness & Control

• Comply with legal risk management requirements set out in the Group Standards Manual and Legal FIM.
• Comply with regulatory and compliance matters and the management of operational risk.

How they are achieved/measured

• Demonstrable understanding of Group Standards and FIM requirements on transactions.
• Follow appropriate procedures and controls to monitor, control and mitigate legal risk in relation to the jobholder’s area of expertise.

Major Challenges (The challenges inherent in the job that require a continual test of the job holder’s abilities)

• The jobholder will be responsible for assisting line management / the wider GLS GTS team on GTS transactions (supervised as required by Senior Legal Counsel – GLS GTS) and must have the ability to support a range of contractual legal issues.
• Ability to adapt work style to meet varied workloads.
• Ability to prioritise workloads in terms of legal risk and commercial consideration.
• Maintain knowledge of HSBC Group operations and policies.
• Increasing ability to handle more complex tasks with less supervision.
• Ability to identify the need for further analysis and the need for a timely decision given commercial pressures

Context of the Job (The environment and operating conditions of the job including the extent of guidance and authority)

• The role holder is responsible for the drafting and negotiating of various types of trade documentation.

Role Holder is accountable to assist with the completion of a range of tasks which includes but not limited to:

• Review of template facility and security documentation from all CIB customer segments for products which include receivables finance, lending, documentary credits, trade collections, bonds/guarantees, supply chain finance, leasing and hire purchase.
• Gap analysis of standard terms against bespoke documentation, including sharing output with Senior Legal Counsel – GLS GTS.
• Amendments to standard templates.
• Review of transactional documentation, including customer board resolutions and capacity opinions.
• In specific cases, negotiation of template finance and security documentation in adherence with guidelines.
• As required by local GTS counsel and under supervision of senior colleagues / Senior Legal Counsel, support bespoke transactions.

Management of Risk (Operational Risk / FIM requirements)

• The jobholder is responsible for (i) providing legal advice against the backdrop of both the external legal framework and the internal Group Standards Manual and Legal FIM; and (ii) assisting Global Commercial Banking and specifically the GTS business to identify and manage legal risks associated with its transactions.

Observance of Internal Controls (Compliance Policy / FIM requirements)

• The jobholder is an “insider” for dealing purposes and subject to strict controls and confidentiality.
• Maintain HSBC internal control standards, including timely compliance with internal and external audit points together with any issues raised by external regulators.

Job Dimensions (e.g. balance sheet size, lending or expenditure limits, size/volume of transactions, budget, etc)

• Supporting a global business with considerable scope for regulatory intervention and/or legal challenge and dispute. Business has a wide range of product and customer types.
• GTS is a strategically significant line of business for HSBC.