Legal Counsel

• This is an excellent opportunity to join us as a Legal Counsel in the Unsecured Lending & Financial Health & Support (FH&S) Legal team within Retail and Wealth Legal
• You’ll provide accurate and cost-effective legal advice as part of our dynamic team
• This role offers the advantage of a varied and extensive breadth of work, where you’ll find solutions to varied challenges on a wide range of matters

What you'll do

We’re looking for a Legal Counsel to support in all aspects of unsecured lending advice to our key stakeholder business areas, such as Unsecured Lending within Retail Banking, Wealth, and FH&S. You’ll work closely with stakeholders and legal colleagues to ensure the timely, effective and efficient delivery of dynamic and commercial support against a range of issues, projects, programmes and initiatives.

Additionally, you’ll be:

• Providing pragmatic legal advice which is readily understandable to non-lawyers, delivered within relevant timescales, and manages and minimises legal risks
• Delivering continuous improvement in operating practices and processes, including identifying efficiencies, improvements and opportunities to reduce costs
• Communicating internal and external legal advice and delivering transactions and projects to stakeholders in a commercial, user friendly and efficient manner
• Managing legal costs through the use of e-billing, auctions and other cost tools and driving a culture of disciplined cost management and controls

The skills you'll need

To be successful in this role, you’ll need experience of providing regulated consumer lending advice within an in-house banking function or a leading UK law firm. We’ll expect you to have in depth knowledge of general banking law and practice, and the financial services industry, coupled with the ability to establish and maintain strong relationships across the bank.

You’ll also need:

• To be qualified to practise as a solicitor in the United Kingdom
• Knowledge of retail banking business activities, the commercial environment within which it operates and associated legal issues
• Experience of working with leading law firms and other professional advisers and consultants
• The ability to keep up to date with and share relevant legal and market developments