Litigation Counsel - MEA (Middle East & Africa)

Responsibilities

• Assist in handling ongoing litigations and arbitrations in jurisdictions where the business has operations.
• Manage legal efforts in response to contentious inquiries, including managing pre-litigious and regulatory matters, encountered by the company and internal stakeholders.
• Take charge of external communication with external counsels and negotiating with the opposition.
• Provide proactive, in-depth, commercially sensible legal advice to all stakeholders.
• Support in the development and implementation of legal strategy to reduce the risk of disputes while balancing against the organisation's overall business strategy.
• Assist in negotiation of contracts for different business lines in the ecosystem, and support in a variety of risk management projects.
• Be responsible for drafting and reviewing court, arbitration documents, liaison and settlement agreements.
• Partner with cross-functional and regional teams and provide support on legal matters of varying complexity, sensitivity, and tangibility.
• Provide legal business partner training and counsel non-legal associates to enable stronger legal acumen across the company.
• Take prudent risks within the context of the overall business, and advise and implement solutions to address issues identified.
• Provide administrative support to manage billing, legal contracts, corporate documents and other documentation.
• General overall support to the legal team.

• Qualified lawyer in dispute resolution with 4-8 years of experience at a reputable global law firm in a civil law jurisdiction in the Middle East or Africa, in-house experience is a plus.
• Bachelors or Master of Laws degree from a top law school.
• Knowledge of financial products (including spot trading, margin trading, futures and options) essential.
• Experience with handling disputes for traditional financial institutions and cryptocurrency organisations is highly preferred.
• Experience with handling regulatory inquiries, requests for information and investigations are a plus.
• Interest in the cryptocurrency industry and its development.
• Possesses solid legal technical expertise as well as sound business and people judgement sense.
• Hands on at work and can be independent in managing complex projects.
• Can develop relevant and creative solutions to handle risks and manage disputes.
• Excellent legal drafting and interpretation skills.
• Excellent command of written and spoken English, fluency in Arabic is a plus (but not required).