Senior Legal Advisor: Corporate Transactions

The Senior Legal Advisor leads allocated legal workstreams across the DBSA’s Corporate Transactions portfolio, providing legal advice and managing legal risk throughout the transaction lifecycle, from structuring, due diligence and approval through negotiation, execution, financial close, implementation and monitoring to exit or recovery. The role is accountable for delivering commercially sound, legally enforceable and governance-compliant outcomes across debt and equity investments, project preparation and programme finance, new products, treasury and trade finance, and distressed or non-performing transactions. Working as a trusted partner to multidisciplinary teams and senior stakeholders, the incumbent safeguards the DBSA’s legal, financial and reputational interests while enabling transactions that advance its mandate and strategic objectives.

Job Profile (Downloadable)

Expertise & Technical Competencies

a) Written communication

• Understands that different writing styles are required for different documents or audiences.
• Writes effective correspondence and prepares questions, reports, statements of circumstance and briefing notes.
• Reviews others’ documents for clarity and impact.
• Has a solid mastery of writing principles such as grammar, sentence construction, etc.

b) Presentation skills

• Can reinforce key presentation points with examples.
• Can translate technical terminology into language understandable to the audience.
• Has insight into the audience’s behaviour and motivation and responds appropriately and professionally, adapting communication style as appropriate.

c) Reporting

• Designs / customises reports to meet user needs.
• Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses and includes in a report.
• Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs.

d) Legal Knowledge

• Extensive knowledge and understanding of the principles of DBSA.
• Wide-ranging knowledge of industry best practice, and keeps abreast of, interprets and informs on developments in the area of new laws and regulations relevant to DBSA.

e) Legal Policy Knowledge

• Ability to represent DBSA in the court of law when required.
• Ability to draft non-standard legal documents per procedures.
• Ability to draft more sensitive policy and legal procedures to be followed by stakeholders of DBSA, and review and refine in response to inputs from relevant stakeholders, for approval.
• Ability to understand legal rights and responsibilities and the possession of authority to make legal decisions.
• Protects the organisation’s legal rights, utilising a broad knowledge base of all major legal disciplines.

f) Presentation Skills

• Knows how to deliver arguments persuasively by employing a range of advanced presentation techniques (e.g., the appropriate use of body language, how to close a presentation so that the audience continues to think about the subject
  matter, etc.).
• Has knowledge of various feedback mechanisms to check levels of audience understanding.

g) Business Acumen

• Takes actions to fit business strategy.
• Assesses and links short-term tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or perspectives.
• Reviews own actions against the organisation's strategic plan; includes the big picture when considering possible opportunities or projects, or thinks about long-term applications of current activities.
• Anticipates possible responses to different initiatives.
• Understands the projected direction of the industry and how changes might impact the organisation.

h) Negotiations

• Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.
• Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.
• Is able to take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.
• Is able to place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.

Minimum Qualification

• A Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) or equivalent recognised law degree.
• Admitted Attorney/Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

Minimum Experience

• A minimum of 8 years’ post-qualification experience in a commercial, finance, banking, investment or corporate law environment gained at a commercial bank, development finance institution, investment institution, specialist law firm, corporate or similar institution.
• Strong experience in structuring, drafting, reviewing and negotiating complex legal and financial transaction documentation.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting or leading legal due diligence and advising on transaction risks, mitigants and structuring solutions.
• Experience supporting transactions through approval, documentation, financial close and implementation.
• Experience working on complex, multidisciplinary or multi-stakeholder transactions and engaging with sponsors, borrowers, investee companies, lenders, co-investors, DFIs, regulators, external counsel or other relevant stakeholders.

*The KPAs, competencies and relationships listed in this document are not exhaustive, and the incumbent will be expected to undertake additional duties within their capacity to meet the needs of the business and/or business unit.

Required Personal Attributes

a) Customer Service Orientation

• Tries to understand the underlying needs of customers and matches these needs to available or customised products and services.
• Adapts processes and procedures to meet ongoing customer needs.
• Uses customer feedback to develop new services and products or improve existing ones in response to ongoing needs.
• Thinks of new ways to align DBSA’s offerings with future customer needs.

b) Self-awareness and Self Control

• Withholds effects of strong emotions in difficult situations.
• Keeps functioning or responds constructively despite stress.
• May apply special techniques or plan ahead of time to manage emotions or stress.

c) Strategic and Innovative Thinking

• Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions and challenges conventional thinking.
• Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others, leveraging internal and external sources of information, to build incremental revenue and growth opportunities.

d) Driving delivery of results

• Sets challenging goals that will have a significant impact on the business or support the organisational strategy.
• Commits significant resources and/or time to ensure that challenging goals are achieved, while also taking action to mitigate risk.

e) Teamwork & Cooperation

• Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts.
• Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.
• Encourages others to network outside their own team or department and learn from others’ experience.

1. Legal Transaction Structuring, Execution and Advisory

• Lead allocated legal workstreams across the transaction lifecycle, from structuring, due diligence and approval through documentation, financial close and implementation, in line with the DBSA’s mandate, governance frameworks and risk appetite.
• Advise investment and multidisciplinary teams on commercially sound and legally enforceable structures for debt, equity, project finance, structured and blended finance, project preparation, programme finance, public-private partnerships, treasury, trade finance and new products.
• Conduct legal due diligence and risk assessments, identify material legal, regulatory, governance, structuring and reputational risks, and recommend appropriate mitigants.
• Draft, review and negotiate complex transaction documentation, including term sheets, mandates, facility agreements, shareholder and subscription agreements, fund documentation, security packages, guarantees, intercreditor and co-funding arrangements, programme agreements and related legal instruments.
• Lead or support negotiations with sponsors, borrowers, investee companies, fund managers, lenders, coinvestors, co-funders and other counterparties to achieve commercially acceptable and legally robust outcomes.
• Provide legal input into appraisal reports, credit and investment papers and committee submissions, and advise relevant committees during deliberations where required.
• Confirm satisfaction of legal and documentary conditions precedent before investment or disbursement and support post-signing implementation and payment processes.

2. Portfolio Management, Non-Performing Transactions and Dispute Resolution

• Advise on post-close transaction matters, including amendments, waivers, consents, portfolio governance, monitoring and exits.
• Provide legal support on distressed and non-performing transactions, including restructurings, enforcement of security, recoveries, insolvency processes, business rescue, liquidations and settlement arrangements.
• Support investment, loan management, business support and recovery, credit and governance teams in developing legally sound workout, recovery and enforcement strategies.

3. Compliance, Governance and Regulatory Support

• Promote compliance with applicable legislation, regulatory requirements, internal policies, delegations of authority, credit and investment policies and governance frameworks across all allocated matters.
• Monitor and interpret legal and regulatory developments relevant to the Corporate Transactions portfolio and provide proactive, practical guidance to internal stakeholders.

4. Stakeholder and External Counsel Management

• Engage effectively with external stakeholders, including clients, counterparties, co-funders, DFIs, commercial banks, regulators and legal advisors.
• Identify matters requiring specialist legal input and manage the appointment, briefing, performance, quality, scope and cost of external counsel.

5. Team Collaboration and Capability Development

• Act as transaction lead or supporting legal advisor on matters as required, ensuring continuity, quality assurance and knowledge transfer.
• Share knowledge, precedents, lessons learned and technical expertise to strengthen collective capability, support cross-training and reduce key-person dependency.
• Provide guidance, mentoring and training to legal advisors and junior professionals and contribute to consistent
  legal advice across the team.
• Provide legal training and awareness to internal stakeholders on material legal, regulatory and transactional developments.
• Perform other legal services to the business as required.

Key Measurements of Outputs

• Achievement of favourable or commercially acceptable transaction outcomes aligned with the DBSA’s mandate, approvals and risk appetite.
• Quality, accuracy and timeliness of legal advice, transaction documentation, due diligence and execution support.
• Turnaround times against agreed service levels for legal support across the full transaction lifecycle, including approval, financial close, implementation, monitoring, exit and recovery.
• Proactive identification and mitigation of legal, regulatory, governance, contractual and reputational risks.
• Effective management of distressed and non-performing transactions, and recovery processes.
• Effective management of external counsel, including quality, timeliness, scope and cost control.
• Contribution to knowledge sharing, mentoring, cross-training, precedent development and collective technical capability.
• Strong compliance outcomes, including positive audit results and minimal avoidable disputes, losses or escalations arising from legal documentation or advisory shortcomings.