Assistant Vice President, Legal Counsel

Do you want your voice heard and your actions to count?

Discover your opportunity with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups. Across the globe, we’re 120,000 colleagues, striving to make a difference for every client, organization, and community we serve. We stand for our values, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

With a vision to be the world’s most trusted financial group, it’s part of our culture to put people first, listen to new and diverse ideas and collaborate toward greater innovation, speed and agility. This means investing in talent, technologies, and tools that empower you to own your career.

Join MUFG, where being inspired is expected and making a meaningful impact is rewarded.

The Legal department provides legal services to and manages the legal risk for MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities (EMEA) and the MUSHD international business (collectively the “Firm”).

Members of Legal are dual-hatted across MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities. Dual-hat employees will be expected to be entity neutral across all responsibilities to ensure that services are provided to both entities effective and without favour or detriment to the other entity.

The Legal department’s principal functions are to:

• Provide legal services and legal advice to each international securities business and banking businesses

• Draft, review and negotiate contractual documentation, whether transactional or non-transactional

• Draft notes and other product documentation and arrange for issuance of such notes and products

• Draft, review and negotiate ISDA documentation and related trading agreements and lending (syndicated or bilateral, ECA financings, LMA based or bespoke contractual arrangements)

• Draft, review and negotiate trade finance credit lines and products, as well as trade finance instruments

• Provide legal and execution advice in relation to transactions and new business

• Provide transaction management support for securities issues and financing transactions arranged or underwritten by an international securities business

• Provide support for internal projects (internal restructurings and/or regulatory driven)

• Evaluate legal risk to ensure business is conducted in a lawful and professional manner

• Identify and advise on the implementation of new laws and regulations

• Provide legal oversight of regulatory matters and government affairs

• Manage all disputes, litigation, regulatory proceedings and other contentious matters

• Manage and approve all use of law firms

NUMBER OF DIRECT REPORTS

0

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

We have an exciting opportunity for a legal counsel to join MUFG EMEA Legal Department as a permanent member, based in Dubai. This role will be primarily covering a broad range of transactional work across lending, trade finance, cash management and structured financing transactions.

From time to time, MUFG may ask individuals to develop new areas of practice either where this is required to meet business needs and/or as part of an individual’s career progression.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• In this role, the successful candidate will be providing services which cover MUFG’s banking arm and securities business under a dual-hat arrangement. Under this arrangement, the employee will act and make decisions on behalf of both the bank and the securities business, subject to the same remit and level of authority, and irrespective of the entity which employs them.

• Advise on, participate in and implement Firm and International Business transactions, proceedings, actions, projects and initiatives. This includes activity / projects to improve the delivery of legal services to the business and MUFG’s clients (which may include process improvement, onboarding of technology etc).

• Advise on, review and negotiate legal documentation and provide all related transactional support to the Business on broad range of transactions and non-transactional work

• Review, negotiate and advise on a broad range of transaction documents including bilateral and syndicated loan agreements, intercreditors, security documents, ancillary documents, hedging agreements and legal opinions.

• Review and advise on client documentation including NDAs, marketing material, term sheets.

• Act as a strategic advisor to the Business and support the set-up of new & complex products and new business initiatives.

• Advise on the legal, regulatory and reputational issues and work closely with the wider EMEA and International legal teams to serve Business seamlessly as One MUFG.

• Participate in working groups, projects and committee meetings at MUFG.

• Manage the engagement of law firms and legal spend efficiently.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Functional / Technical Competencies:

• University graduate

• 2-5 years’ post-qualification legal experience working in private practice with a major law firm or in-house with another significant financial institution.

• Good technical understanding of loan documentation and knowledge of MENA markets and legal landscape particularly in KSA, Qatar and UAE (including DIFC)

• Demonstrate commercial awareness of the latest market issues and regulatory changes.

• Ability to build effective and positive client relationships quickly and fully embrace the importance of client service.

• Ability to explain complex legal concepts to a non-technical audience.

• Ability to speak, read and write Arabic is essential

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

• Positive, with a can-do attitude

• Collaborative and ability to work with colleagues at all levels of seniority and various office locations.

• Proactive and enthusiastic

• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability

• Pragmatic, curious and commercially minded

PERFORMANCE AND DUTIES

The role holder will be assessed in accordance with their employing entity’s performance framework and process with relevant input obtained from the dual hatting entity as relevant.

As duties and responsibilities change, the job description will be reviewed and emended in consultation with the role holder. The role holder will carry out other duties as are within the scope, spirit and purpose of the role as requested by their line manager or Department Head.

MANAGING CONFLICTS OF INTEREST (ONLY FOR DUAL HATTED ROLES)

• The role holder will have responsibilities for both MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc.

• The role holder will be required to perform their duties and responsibilities on an entity neutral basis, without favour.

• The role holder is required to follow regulatory requirements applicable to ensure each business is appropriately supported and to maintain the legal entity integrity of each of MUFG Bank and MUS.

• Working terms are dictated by functional mandates, the terms of the Dual-Hat Arrangement Agreement in place between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc and any other relevant agreements entered into between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc.

• The role holder will have responsibility for identifying and resolving where there may be a difference or conflict in needs between MUFG Bank and MUFG Securities EMEA plc, escalating to their manager where required.

We are open to considering flexible working requests in line with organisational requirements.

MUFG is committed to embracing diversity and building an inclusive culture where all employees are valued, respected and their opinions count. We support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and employment, and oppose all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage or civil partnership.

We make our recruitment decisions in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our commitment to identifying the right skills for the right role and our obligations under the law.