Associate Counsel, Litigation

Job description

American Express is a global service company, providing customers with exceptional access to products and experiences that enrich lives and build business success.

Each day, we make it easier, safer and more rewarding for consumers and businesses to purchase the things they need and for merchants to sell their goods and services, enabling them to do and achieve more.

We're committed to becoming the world's most respected service brand and daily deliver extraordinary service to our customers, constantly reinventing our ways of working to ensure we offer rich rewards that redefine expectations for our clients and ourselves.

We are looking for a Qualified Lawyer / Associate Counsel, who has experience of and is passionate about litigation. You will provide legal advice and support to Amex businesses and management throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) region in connection with a broad range of contentious issues and disputes, and to manage any litigation arising out of disputes.

The matters advised upon will be of varying significance and complexity and will include civil/commercial litigation as well as contentious financial regulatory issues.

In this role you will report to the Lead - EMEA Litigation& Investigations based at Belgrave House in London, and will play an integral part of the legal team who sit within the General Counsel's Office who provide support and advice across the full range of Amex's businesses in the region, with emphasis on the UK.

This is a new role and provides fantastic scope for development within an in-house legal team and excellent exposure to global markets.


Key Responsibilities:

The work involved and related responsibilities will typically include the following:

• Advising on disputes/potential disputes

• Managing the conduct of legal proceedings, to include managing litigation in-house, as well as the selection and instruction of local external counsel and the ongoing management of related legal costs.

•Advising in relation to fraud-related, anti-money laundering, bribery and other investigations, sometimes of a regulatory nature.

• Advising upon the nature and effect of Court Orders received in connection with customers and clients (e.g. freezing orders; third party debt orders; insolvency-related court procedure etc).

• Advising on recoveries issues, including those arising out of domestic and cross-border insolvencies.

• Working with local internal country lawyers throughout the region

• Assisting in maintaining litigation reporting database for the preparation of reports and in order to comply with regulatory requirements

• Assisting in building processes which enable more accurate tracking and better management of litigation throughout the region

Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.

Desired profile

Knowledge/Experience:

• Sound PQE in banking and finance litigation experience required.

• Experience of the English legal system and civil litigation process essential

• Experience of drafting pleadings, witness statements, and instructing barristers

• Relevant experience should have been obtained either in private practice or in-house with another significant financial institution.

• Experience of managing foreign lawyers, where cases span a number of jurisdictions would be an advantage.

• Experience of managing junior lawyers or paralegals desirable

• Experience of managing/conducting substantial litigation (as a team leader or member) and experience of running case-load of smaller cases would also be advantageous.

• Experience of conducting regulatory investigations desirable

Skills:

• Fluency in spoken and written English is essential.

• Familiarity with other European languages an advantage, but not a pre-requisite.

• Basic IT / computer skills a requirement (Word, Outlook etc).• Candidates should be qualified Solicitors or Barristers in the United Kingdom

Exceptional candidates who do not meet these criteria may be considered for the role provided they have the necessary skills and experience.

Competencies

• Flexibility - there is a broad range of work. The successful candidate will be involved in work at all levels and should be prepared to ‘roll up his/her sleeves'.

• Resourcefulness and commercial awareness – ability to respond to business issues often under critical time pressure.

• Communication skills – ability to relay precise information orally and in writing in a concise manner.

• Ability to work independently - to include preparedness to take the lead in making appropriate recommendations

• Client Focus – ability to deliver high levels of client service, including to non-litigation lawyers.

• Team approach ability to promote collaboration within own peer group and throughout the organisation

• Good people management skills – ability to nurture talent and further development of more junior members of the team.

• Intellectual strength and sound judgment – ability to distil information rapidly in order to identify and advise upon key legal and business issues; ability to identify when to escalate issues to line manager.

We place great importance on doing what is right, what is best and what is innovative. And we continue seeking people to champion these values and beliefs as we grow. The world's a big place, filled with big ideas and amazing people. And we want the best of them here at American Express. We're interested in where you came from, but we're even more excited about where you will go with American Express.

To complete your application please click on the links below. However, if you require any assistance with the completion of this process – or need any reasonable adjustments to be made – then please contact the Recruitment Team on ************@*******.** or +44 (0)116 2421776.