Conflicts Lawyer / Analyst

The Opportunity:

• Managing conflict checks on every new matter globally to identify and resolve legal and commercial conflicts of interest.
• Reviewing every new client and matter opportunity through analysis of internal and external information sources and advising Partners globally in relation to conflict and information barrier issues.
• Understanding and identifying wider risk and reputational, sanctions, financial crime and conflict issues through matter risk assessment.
• Communicating with partners and staff regarding conflict check results, processes and policies.
• Ensuring the London team have a close working relationship with the Sydney team and liaising with them to ensure a smooth handover.
• Actively contributing to the building of an effective and mutually supportive conflicts team globally.
• Influencing the design and optimisation of conflicts and information barrier management technology.
• Potentially providing assistance and cover for other NBI team members as required and handling ad hoc queries.

Key Internal Relationships:

• Conflicts Partners including General Counsel, Director of NBI and Head of Conflicts UK, US & EMEA.
• Regional Practice Group Heads, Sector Leads and Client Relationship Partners.
• Partners, lawyers and PAs.
• Australian Conflicts team in Sydney.
• Client Approval and Matter Management teams in NBI Business Development.

Skills, experience and qualifications:

• Law degree.
• Work experience in a professional services environment in this field for a year (we will however consider candidates with more or less experience providing they can demonstrate the required competencies).
• Understanding of the legal and professional regime applying to conflicts of interest and confidential information.
• Excellent research and analytical skills.
• Good commercial awareness.
• Ability to prioritise workloads.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to work autonomously, escalate and prioritise multiple tasks.
• Clear verbal, written and face to face communication skills with staff at every level.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel and research resources.
• Ability to work well under pressure and to deadlines.

Group/Team Description:

General counsel and risk is a multi-disciplinary legal and analytical team. It consists of an internal legal services team, risk and compliance lawyers, internal audit, information security, enterprise risk and new business intake. These disciplines work together globally to ensure that we fulfil all our governance, contractual regulatory and compliance obligations. The general counsel and risk team also advises on the firm’s risk profile and risk-based decisions. The team also supports the executive and governance boards, manages the firm’s insurance matters and has responsibility for implementing the firm’s client and matter selection strategy. The New Business Intake (NBI) Team has overall responsibility for ensuring all of the processes involved in taking on a new client/matter are adhered to and in accordance with the firms risk management procedures. These include carrying out conflict checks for the Herbert Smith Freehills offices, client approval, matter inception, anti-money laundering checks, tracking of client terms and retainers, monitoring information barriers and recording of referrals. The Conflicts Team within NBI consists of 9 team members in London and a similar team in Sydney, Australia. The team provides services globally every day of the year. It advises our partners and lawyers to ensure that Herbert Smith Freehills remains a highly trusted advisor in a constantly changing world, and works with our Business Services professionals in managing risk on behalf of the firm and enabling high quality strategic and risk-based decisions to be made.