Senior Legal Counsel in London

Fnality is building the future of financial market infrastructure – creating regulated, blockchain-based payment systems to power tomorrow's wholesale banking ecosystem. Backed by leading global banks and operating at the intersection of technology, finance, and regulation, we are powering the future of finance, together. There are no precedents for what we're doing. With you on our side, we'll be setting new ones every day.

Working at Fnality

• Be your best: We have a supportive culture that helps to bring the best out of each and every single one of our employees.
• Feel free to explore: Bring your new ideas and help us to solve problems together by joining a community of experts.
• Be part of something bigger: We will support you by fostering an open, honest culture, that enables flexibility and wellbeing. Feel part of something bigger while being yourself.
• Feel empowered: We want you to feel empowered. The nature of our business can help make this a reality. We have the agility, speed and innovation of a start‐up, and a flexible working environment that enables this.

Please note: We operate as a hybrid business with offices in London and Connecticut. You will be expected to work onsite 2–4 times per month in either location.

The Role

This Senior Legal Counsel role sits within our Group Legal department and will be fundamental to the success of the Fnality Group and its business as the operator of a global network of regulated DLT‐enabled payment systems and supplier of related technology products and services to market participants. We are looking for someone who is organised, collaborative, and confident in driving strategic execution while balancing multiple priorities and bringing people along.

Reporting to our Group General Counsel, the role is to be the in‐house lead for the provision of corporate and governance legal services across Fnality Group (that includes regulated and unregulated entities) to a wide range of internal stakeholders, including: group leadership team and board members, business lines, other corporate functions such as Finance, HR and Commercial. The role will also support the Group General Counsel and other members of our group leadership team (including our Group CEO and CFO) in managing Fnality Group's relationships with key external stakeholders (customers, investors, and regulators).

The main outcomes of the role are:

• In‐house lead for the provision of corporate and governance legal services across Fnality Group (that includes regulated and unregulated entities), including on: (i) Fnality Group's constitutional arrangements (e.g., Fnality International Shareholders Agreement, Articles of Association, Fnality Local entity by‐laws); (ii) corporate governance (including directors' duties and managing conflicts of interest); (iii) ad‐hoc strategic Group initiatives; (iv) related regulatory and compliance issues; (v) delivering corporate and governance internal training, where required.
• Lead the ongoing evolution of Fnality Group's corporate structure and governance arrangements across our legal entities, driving maximum day‐to‐day operational alignment among our legal entity boards of directors and sub‐committees, and overall efficiency and effectiveness.
• Leading our cross‐functional Governance Working Group (comprising colleagues from Legal, Strategy and Change, and Administration) in the seamless organisation of, preparation for and running of each periodic cycle of governance meetings (boards of directors and sub‐committees), upholding high standards of professionalism and stakeholder management.
• Lead the corporate law and governance aspects of establishing new Fnality Group entities as we expand our business to new target markets (including the US, Eurozone, Japan, Canada and beyond), collaborating with internal regulatory law specialists and other SMEs, and managing outside counsel where required.
• Advise on the legal aspects of Fnality Group's corporate fundraising activities, collaborating with Finance to manage our investors and other stakeholders, and managing outside counsel where required.
• Co‐lead the management of Fnality Group's portfolio of commercial contracts (with customers, vendors, business partners, and among intra‐group entities).
• Advise on a broad range of corporate and commercial contracts drafting, negotiation, interpretation, and dispute resolution (where required).
• Advise on a broad range of general legal queries from colleagues across Fnality Group, including on HR related matters.
• Advise on the ongoing evolution of Fnality Group's internal business policies, risk controls and compliance measures, conducting training where required.

Your main responsibilities will include (but not limited to):

• Analysing and presenting solutions on a wide range of general legal queries, with a focus on corporate and commercial law (and closely related areas such as HR);
• Leading our cross‐functional Governance Working Group and managing our company secretarial function;
• Bringing people together to optimise alignment of Fnality Group governance arrangements (Boards, sub‐committees), identifying areas for improvement and driving execution of improvements;
• Preparing internal governance documents, Board/sub‐committee papers/resolutions, memoranda of advice, and explanatory/guidance documents;
• Preparing for and attending meetings with internal colleagues/stakeholders and third parties (customers, vendors, business partners, investors, regulators);
• Drafting, reviewing, negotiating and interpreting a broad range of corporate and commercial contracts, and handling disputes when they arise;
• Collaborating closely with other members of our in‐house legal team to deliver first‐rate legal services across Fnality Group, including with the involvement of our specialist external counsels across major global financial centres (e.g. London, New York, Frankfurt) where required;
• Advising on the ongoing evolution of Fnality Group's internal business policies, risk controls and compliance measures, conducting training where required;
• Managing prudently our external legal budget on matters requiring external counsel input.

What we need from you:

• A minimum of 4–5 years professional work experience at a law firm or corporate in‐house legal team, with a focus on corporate governance, commercial law and related regulatory/compliance matters – ideally gained in the financial and/or technology sectors (or other highly regulated sectors).
• Admission to legal practice in the UK (England), US (Connecticut, New York) or another common law jurisdiction.
• Excellent communication (oral, written) skills, and strong interpersonal skills to work effectively and collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders.
• Proactive, with strong ability to influence others and bring people together in delivering collaboratively to achieve our business targets.
• Strong ability to apply first principles in developing solutions in response to new or difficult problems and in navigating ambiguity, where there is no clear precedent to follow.
• Highly organised, with fastidious attention to detail and strong time management skills.
• A genuine curiosity in how law, regulation and public policy intersect with emerging technologies, business strategy, and new business models in global financial markets.
• Experience of working in or strong desire to work in an innovative, disruptive, rapidly evolving business, where in‐house lawyers contribute to the solving of novel and challenging business problems, rather than addressing discrete legal issues.
• Ideally, experience of managing external law firms to support an in‐house legal team in achieving the best overall outcomes for the business.
• Ideally, evidence knowledge of one or more 'other' interconnecting SME legal topics: IP, data privacy, employment, dispute resolution, competition/antitrust law, tax, real estate.

Eligibility: This is a UK or US based role and you must be eligible to work in the UK or the US. Please note we cannot sponsor visas for this role.

How will we use the information about you: We will use your personal information to process your application, to enable us to assess your suitability for a role and for other legitimate business purposes such as improving our sites and talent management practices. We may share your data with third parties to achieve these purposes. We will not use or share your information for marketing purposes. We will take appropriate security measures to safeguard your information in accordance with data protection legislation.