Senior Legal Counsel

Job description / Role

• Provide sound legal advice on matters concerning Barwa’s activities, contributing to the development of systems, processes and procedures that support the effective management of legal issues and adopting a proactive approach towards potential problems, in order to ensure that the organization’s legal position is developed and maintained.
• Will also be responsible to provide sound advice regarding corporate matters such as establishment and liquidation of entities, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, and advice on entities legal standing.
• Participate in the preparation of contracts between Barwa and outside parties ensuring correctness and accuracy, whenever required.
• Study a given legal document using related texts and database information to draft a report involving legal observations, comments, and recommendations ensuring correctness, timeliness and accuracy.
• Draft/ review contracts, commercial agreements, sale purchase agreements when required and evaluate risks to ensure prevention of legal exposure.
• Provide professional legal advice, clarifications and legal opinions to the organisation on different matters, adopting a proactive approach and ensuring all legal provisions are adhered to so that Barwa is protected from adverse legal consequences.
• Provide internal opinion on all legal matters when required, including employee agreement and disciplinary review.
• Provide Management with updates on all relevant new laws and updates, and their impact on Barwa.
• Provide alternative dispute resolution methods for disputes and claims arising from or against the Group.
• Ensure that all contractual disputes (pre-litigation) affecting Barwa are resolved with minimal legal risks to the organization.
• Assist the Group Chief Legal Officer / Group Director Legal & Compliance in following up on the arbitration cases for resolving contractual disputes to mitigate legal risks and implications for Barwa.
• Manage the outsourcing of legal work and ensure accurate, timely and effective completion of such work.
• Review Barwa’s position with regard to local and international laws and regulations (both within real estate and in subsidiary industries) and ensure compliance. Monitor changes in order to advise senior management on their implications.
• Perform Legal due diligence studies as and when requested by Group Chief Legal Officer / Group Director Legal & Compliance.
• Establish and register companies at group and subsidiary levels while ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements.
• Manage asset liquidation process as per regulatory requirements.
• Prepare necessary documents for renewal of company registration and licenses.
• Recommend improvements to Group legal policies and contribute to the implementation of procedures and controls so that all relevant procedural / legislative requirements are fulfilled thus safeguarding Barwa’s legal position.
• Contribute to the preparation of the legal and compliance budget.
• Monitor the financial performance of legal activities relating to corporate advisory affairs versus budgets so that areas of unsatisfactory performance are identified and rectified promptly, and potential performance improvement opportunities are capitalised upon.
• Mentor subordinates for performance and work closely with them during the various stages of performance cycle (goal setting, performance evaluations etc.).
• Coordinate with subsidiaries to ensure Group Legal and Compliance is fully aware of all subsidiary legal disputes and claims.
• Ensure transparency in communication with the team members so as to enable inclusive functioning of the department.
• Prepare formal correspondences to external parties to advice on legal issues.
• Ensure a database of documents pertaining to legal is maintained so that all contracts are properly maintained, documented and easily retrieved for immediate reference.
• Identify primary and secondary sources of legal information in order to provide necessary data when required by the Group Chief Legal Officer / Group Director Legal & Compliance.
• Assist the Chief Legal Officer / Group Director Legal & Compliance by gathering relevant information on local and international laws and regulations (both within real estate and in subsidiary industries) to support informed decision-making on commercial matters concerning Barwa’s business and ensure full compliance.
• Conduct Merger & Acquisition due diligence and advise top management on legal implications of new projects and investments, including joint ventures and coordinate with national or international legal firms to manage legal operations in order to protect the corporate interests and minimise liabilities.
• Perform any other ad-hoc duties relevant to the role as assigned by the Group Chief Legal Officer / Group Director Legal & Compliance as per business requirements.

Requirements

Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s Degree in Law or any related discipline is required.
• Masters in Law will be preferred.

Experience:
• Minimum –9-12 years’ Corporate Law or related fields in the Middle East is required.
• Previous experience in the Real Estate industry is highly desirable.
• Effective stakeholder management.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Strong networking skills.
• Strong decision making skills.
• Professional Legal drafting skills.
• Time management and organizational skills.
• Analytical and problem solving skills.
• Planning and organizing skills.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Team player with good interpersonal skills.
• A high level of English proficiency, both verbal and written is required.

About the Company

Qatar Project Management (QPM) is an independent subsidiary of Barwa Real Estate Development Company that provides expertise in Project Management, Design Management, Construction Management, and Contract Administration together with other associated Project Management functions. Established in 2008, QPM is centralized platform for provision of Project Management services to Barwa and Qatari Diar as well as local and international markets. QPM provides these services through an in-house team of highly-skilled, motivated, and qualified professionals supported by state-of-the-art information technology and highly-effective Project Management systems.