Legal Counsel, Structured Finance Lending

Join to apply for the Legal Counsel, Structured Finance Lending role at Standard Chartered. We are currently looking for an experienced lawyer to join our team as Senior Legal Counsel supporting our UK and Europe Global Banking (GB) businesses, with a focus on our Leveraged and Acquisition Finance (LAF) lending business and Private Credit / Structured Finance (SF) products. The role will be based in London and report to the Head of Legal, CIB Lending for UK and Europe.

Global Banking includes the following business teams: LAF, Private Credit, Commercial Real Estate, Fund Finance and Financing Solutions. They offer a range of syndicated and bilateral lending solutions as well as structured financing solutions including Loan on Loan / Back Leverage and securitisation structures.

• Provide legal and structuring advice to the UK and Europe GB Lending businesses as well as our Capital Markets business (where capacity permits) with a focus on their Structured Finance and Securitisation transactions and products.
• Support the GB lending business on more traditional lending transactions where capacity permits.
• Advising on, drafting and negotiating legal documents for GB transactions ranging from term sheets and commitment letters to facility agreements, note issuance facilities and related regulatory opinions and memos.
• Advising relevant internal stakeholders including Risk, Compliance and Portfolio Management on transaction structures and legal risk.
• Managing external counsel on transactions including costs, quality and responsiveness of advice.
• Providing legal advice and training with respect to new GB products and initiatives for the UK / Europe.
• Keeping up to date with relevant changes in law and regulation and assisting on the implementation of regulatory reform.
• Identifying, assessing, managing, monitoring, mitigating and reporting legal risks across GB in the UK / Europe.
• Supporting the GB business teams with immaterial disputes that may arise from time to time.
• Supporting the Legal teams in other regions of the SCB network where needed.
• Supporting and implementing the vision, strategy and direction for the wider SCB Legal team.
• Supporting the priorities and agenda for GB businesses in the UK / Europe as well as their wider Group priorities and agenda.

• English law qualified. We will also consider candidates qualified in commonwealth jurisdictions with strong UK law firm experience.
• Good PQE experience, working in a top tier law firm.
• Experience working in a financial institution also desirable.
• Proven experience advising, negotiating and/or drafting: Structured finance and securitisation documentation and structures (for example Loan on Loan / Back Leverage, CMBS, Note issuance facilities and related documentation) is essential.
• Cross border bilateral and syndicated (LMA, APLMA) loans.
• Experience of loan participations, secondary loan trading and fronting structures preferred but not essential.
• Significant knowledge of regulations directly impacting the above products (for example UK / EU Securities Regulations, Capital Requirement Regulations) is essential.
• Familiarity with US LSTA loan documentation preferred but not essential.
• Commercial acumen and the ability to understand and evaluate business requirements in managing legal risk.
• Willingness to work in a team environment whilst also working autonomously and managing your workload efficiently.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits.
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values-driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies – everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.

We’re an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we’ve worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before.

Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do. Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well. Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term.