Junior Legal Advisor

Job Purpose:
Provide legal advisory services and support to the business, by providing effective and efficient 1st line of defense and business assurance support, with accurate and strategically smart commercial/legal advice. In doing so, the function will support and enable the business to ensure that regulatory, commercial and other legal risks are effectively managed, ensuring business sustainability and growth.

Minimum education (essential):
Bachelor of Law Degree (LLB / BCom)

Minimum education (desirable):
Admitted Attorney of the High Court

Minimum applicable experience (years):
Completed articles
4 years

Required nature of experience:

• Drafting of contracts and agreements
• Drafting of legal letters
• Research and drafting of opinions on company matters
• Setup and review of legal templates for agreements like NDA, Contractors and Licensing agreements 
• Representation, under supervision of Senior Legal Advisor or Legal & Regulatory Lead with external roleplayers

Skills and Knowledge (essential):

• Commercial law application in a PTY Ltd company
• Compliance to Companies Act (and fiduciary requirements in terms of applicable legislation)
• Industrial Relations
• Contracts and agreements (contract law)
• Excellent English writing skills

Skills and Knowledge (beneficial):

• Exposure to international law (especially the United States and the UK) 
• Trademark knowledge 
• Patent registration knowledge
• POPIA (and other privacy) compliance

Team Collaboration 10%

• Contribute innovative ideas to projects. 
• Communicate effectively with team members and internal stakeholders, using communications channels appropriately.
• Provide proactive and timeous feedback on status reviews to the issuing party, line manager and top management.
• Disseminate information to relevant employees, training them as necessary on regulatory and legal requirements.

Contracts, Policies and Agreements 30%

• Support and enable the Company, under supervision of seniors and management to draft policies and procedures.
• Review and update policy wordings and other related documents as requested. 
• Draft, review and/or make suggestions on contracts to ensure that the contracts entered into by the Company are accurate and advantageous to the Company.
• Maintain and improve the Company’s internal contract template database.
• Maintain, improve review and/or make suggestions for  NDAs  in line with Company policy, as requested.
• Draft, review and/or make suggestions for  contracts  in line with Company policy, as requested.
• Assist with revision and initial  drafting of supplier agreements or terms, as requested. 
• Review customer-facing documents such as sales scripts, marketing assets, external marketing email communication, etc as requested by the Company.
• Review agreements for internal stakeholders as and when requested and provide relevant suggestions. 
• Provide appropriate legal advice, interpretation and opinions on contracts, policies and agreements as requested.

Legal Document Database Management 30%

• Ensure all legal documents are filed and labeled correctly. 
• Maintain the registry of all active agreements.
• Maintain an inventory of all actionable items from active agreements and ensure these are actioned appropriately and on time.
• Monitor agreements and timeously inform relevant parties of action required for renewals, amendments or terminations of agreements.
• Assist with keeping an accurate bank of all expired agreements, NDAs and Confidentiality agreements.

Compliance & Legal Advisory 15%

• Monitor changes and conduct research in the commercial and legal spheres within active markets, advising the Company on changes, risks and opportunities and implementing necessary changes.
• Assist and provide support with the legal due diligence process by identifying legal risks and enabling the Company to implement the appropriate controls to mitigate these risks.
• Assist management with 3rd party due diligence requests.
• Assist with the management of outsourced legal services in terms of engagement with external attorneys.
• Assist with communication regarding IP filing and compliance.
• Assist with maintaining Intellectual Property as well as liaising with internal stakeholders and external counsel regarding Intellectual Property matters. 
• Assist with US Insurance where requested.

Quality Management System Compliance 15%

• Maintain the legal register and any other legal documentation / policies in collaboration with the QMS system.
• Assist in the interpretation of identified legislation in terms of compliance to quality standards (ISO13485, CE Certification).
• Assist and implement requirements per legislation in terms of compliance to data and medical record standards (POPI, GDPR, HIPAA).
• Compile and disseminate information to relevant employees, training them as necessary on regulatory and legal requirements.
• Advise on privacy concerns and compliance within active product markets.
• Assist in the setup and maintenance of controls and documentation procedures.
• Perform internal legal review on existing processes, as requested.

This job description is not a definitive or exhaustive list of responsibilities and is subject to change depending on changing business requirements. Employees will be consulted on any changes. Employee’s performance will be reviewed based on the agreed upon objectives.