Senior Solicitor

Are you ready tochart your own career path? At SJP we need talented individuals like yourselfto support our evolving culture. If you’re seeking an employer that ispassionate about excellence, innovation and autonomy, SJP could be the placefor you.

At a glance:

Location: Cirencester preferred, open to considering London

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Mid-Senior Level

Who We Are

People have always been at the heart of St. James’s Place, we value long-term relationships and we are a home for people who care about the future – financially, environmentally and socially. These core values have enabled us to become a leading FTSE 100 Wealth Management company.

The role:

Working with the Head of Legal – Corporate, you’ll ensure that the St. James’s Place Group complies with all legal requirements and maintains good relationships with its regulators.

The overarching purpose of this role and team is in helping the business to achieve its corporate objectives by effectively managing and mitigating legal risk and by providing legal advice which is accessible, timely and cost effective and which adds real value to the business. This role has specific responsibility for providing legal support to the Company Secretariat function.

What you'll be doing:

• You’ll provide legal support to the Company Secretariat function, assisting with all aspects of company law (for example the Market Abuse Regulations), competition law and listed company requirements. To assist the SJP Disclosure Committee in its operation.
• Provide legal support the Data Protection Officer and Data Subject Access teams, engaging external specialist advice, where necessary.
• Ensure that key contact areas are aware of legal developments which will affect them, and of the steps needed to respond to those developments, in a timely manner.
• Assist the Head of Legal – Corporate with the day-to-day supervision of and mentoring and support to Solicitors and Trainee Solicitors.
• Provide training, support and guidance to the Company Secretariat function on relevant legal principles and internal governance processes as necessary.
• Ensure that the Department’s standard forms, precedents and know how are up to date.
• Source specialist external legal advice to support the Company Secretariat function where necessary.
• Assist the Head of Legal – Corporate with the day-to-day supervision of and mentoring and support to Solicitors and Trainee Solicitors.
• Proactively manage external teams of legal advisers providing specialist advice to a project including scoping work, setting and managing budgets for legal spend and facilitating the delivery of specialist advice to the business.
• Acting as the lead legal adviser on company law and listed company matters, working autonomously and in large multidiscipline client teams.
• Degree qualified with appropriate legal qualification (eg SQE).
• Significant post-qualification legal experience, both in private practice and in-house including:
• Significant experience of providing company law advice, working across a variety of teams.
• Effective upward communication of advice to senior business leaders and boards on key legal risks/liabilities.
• Ability to develop strong and trusted relationships with colleagues across the business.
• Ability to provide legal advice in a commercial context and in a manner that is easy for the teams to digest, understand and apply to facilitate key/strategic decision making.
• Able to utilise strong negotiation and influencing skills to help lead to better outcomes for SJP.
• Ability to employ a “can do” attitude, especially in light of numerous, complex, and high-profile SJP matters, often at short notice
• Ability to manage external legal advisers and spend so that the advice is delivered within budget and is of value to the business.

Special requirements:

• Willingness to travel to London offices when required.

Flexible Working

We know that everyone works best in different ways, at different times and in different environments. We value all of our employees and appreciate that everyone is different, and at different stages within their career. Recognising this, we have introduced a hybrid working policy to provide greater flexibility for part-time work, job-sharing, remote working, and flexibility on hours. Our people are encouraged to work in a flexible way that suits their lifestyle, so please ask the question and start a conversation!

Research tells us that applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put off from applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been on an extended career-break. If you think you would be a good match for this role and can demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless of whether you tick every box.

Why work for us?

Our Rewards

In addition to an attractive salary and eligibility to participate in the discretionary annual bonus opportunities, you will also receive an excellent benefit package including:

• Non-Contributory Pension – 10% (increasing with length of service) with further pension matching
• Meaningful protection benefits with real value, such as 10X life cover, PHI, and critical illness.
• Best in class terms and conditions including 6 months paid maternity and paternity leave.
• Private Medical and Dental Insurance
• 28 days holiday entitlement plus bank holidays (based on full-time equivalent) with the option to buy an additional up to 5 days
• Discretionary bonus scheme dependent on company and personal performance, varied by level
• Not applicable to fixed term contracts (standard uplift applies in lieu of the protection benefits)

Our Culture

Our culture is the glue that binds us together – It’s one of our biggest assets and one of the biggest reasons for our success. It’s underpinned by core values of doing the right thing, being the best version of ourselves and investing in long term relationships.

We want to embrace diverse backgrounds and experiences to connect with clients, solve problems and innovate. We raise our voice on the things that matter to us and drive change from the front. Contributing to our inclusive culture is vital, ensuring a space for everyone to be their authentic self, no compromises.

In all we do, we consider how our work affects the communities in which we belong. Over 96% of our group employees are involved in supporting our communities through financial education, charitable giving and volunteering. Over 80% of all our employees and Partners donate each month to our Charitable Foundation, which is now the 3rd largest corporate charity in UK.

SJP are delighted to have signed The Armed Forces Covenant, and we are active members of LGBT Great, 30% club, The Diversity Project, Disability Confident and more! Find out more: https://www.sjp.co.uk/careers/life-at-sjp

Our Awards:

We understand it’s important to be proud of the company you work for, that’s why we’re proud to share with you some of our recent awards:

• Wealth Manager of the Year – Growth Investor Awards 2021
• Championing LGBTQ Inclusion – Financial Adviser Diversity in Finance Awards 2020
• Top 75 Employer – Social Mobility Foundation Employer Index 2021

To apply for this role please click on the Apply button below.

We occasionally close vacancies early due to high volumes of applications. We would therefore recommend you complete your application prior to the closing date which is for guidance only.

We reward youfor the work you do, whether that’s through our discretionary annual bonus scheme that reflects bothpersonal and company performance, competitive annual leave allowance (28 daysplus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days), oronline rewards platform with a variety of discounts.
We also havebenefits to support whatever stage of life you are in, including:

• Competitive parental leave (26 weeks full pay)
• Private medical insurance (optional taxable benefit)
• 10% non-contributory pension (increasing with length of service)

Reasonable Adjustments
We're an equalopportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessibleand inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stageplease let us know by emailing us at careers@sjp.co.uk
Research tells usthat applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put offfrom applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been onan extended career-break. If you think you would be a good match for this role andcan demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless ofwhether you tick every box.

What's next?

If you're excitedabout this role and believe you have the skills and experience we're lookingfor, we'd love to hear from you! Please submit an application by clicking‘apply’ below and our team will be in touch.
As a businessregulated by the FCA we would advise you to familiarise yourself with theconduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to aninterview with SJP.

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