Director & Counsel - Insolvency Litigation Lawyer

London, England, United Kingdom

12/19/2024

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We are looking for an experienced insolvency litigation lawyer for the role of Director & Counsel, reporting directly to the EMEA Vice President & Senior Counsel in the Litigation and Investigations Team.

In this role you will be based at Belgrave House in London (minimum 3 days in-office) and will play an integral part of the legal team who sit within the General Counsel's Organization (“GCO”). You will play a key role as trusted advisor in the GCO and provide key support and advice predominantly on the Global Merchant Services, Consumer, and Collections business line. You will also partner closely with other teams dedicated to the support of this business line within and outside the GCO. Given the international breath of the Team’s remit, you will also play a crucial role in advising Business and GCO Colleagues of many other different Markets on mitigation risk strategies, in collaboration where necessary with local Outside Counsel, or supporting the delivery of trainings and/or participating or leading projects where there is an insolvency related angle.

You will be responsible for managing your own portfolio of UK matters varying from contentious to advisory matters, delivery of trainings to upskill colleagues, raise awareness or fill identified knowledge gaps [as well as having oversight of more junior lawyers in the team from time to time]. In this role you will closely support and act as trusted advisor to colleagues and stakeholders of all levels from business units, particularly senior leaders in the GCO or Business such as Global Merchant Services Risk and Collections. You will also be leading the American Express Insolvency Centre of Excellence in partnership with other insolvency lawyer colleagues based in the US.

You, in consultation with Outside Counsel, will also provide legal advice and support to Amex’s businesses and management throughout the Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) region in connection with insolvency matters.

How will you make an impact in this role?

The work involved and related responsibilities will include the following:

• Leading the conduct of insolvency related litigation or pre-litigation matters, managing and advising stakeholders of all levels of seniority on the strategy, merits, brand and litigation risks of a wide range of insolvency related issues, including:
• preference claims;
• claims to recover property under transactions which are void;
• dealing with Insolvency Act applications from officeholders;
• Contractual disputes arising out of Amex’s exercise of its protective action rights .
• Advising on cross-border insolvency matters.
• Advising and liaising with external third parties (e.g. Insolvency Practitioners) regarding requests for information;
• Advising, drafting and or acting as representative in complex or high value proof of debts claims;
• Advising Collections on escalated legal matters;
• Selecting, instructing and managing local external counsel to defend pre-action and issued claims or provide advice notes. To include critical analysis of recommendations, canvassing and balancing differing stakeholder views and managing fee budgets to ensure good business outcomes.
• Establishing yourself as the main point of reference for insolvency related matters for other teams which you will work closely with, such as Collections and Global Merchant Services Risk but also work closely with our Insolvency Lawyers in the US;
• Encouraging a cross-function approach of bringing others with you when advising business colleagues in order to ensure quality, holistic risk-based advice is given. To include partnering with key control functions and SMEs (including Compliance, Credit & Fraud Risk, Corporate Affairs & Communications), line of business lawyers and specialist subject matter lawyers (e.g. Privacy, Regulatory)
• Communicating concise advice, at pace, adapted to senior stakeholders requirements in a mix of written, verbal and PowerPoint presentation formats.
• Ability to challenge the status quo but at the same time be able to understand the stakeholders’ goals to enable them to achieve them in the best way.
• Ability to manage challenging conversations or deliver uncomfortable messages to our stakeholders
• Promoting efficiency by preparing and making use of templates, flowcharts, established frameworks and capturing know-how management on our internal document management platform(s).
• Leading and delivering in-person and remote training sessions in order to upskill colleagues and raise awareness or flag risks on insolvency related topics.
• Working with locally qualified internal lawyers through the EMEA/international Markets to provide strategic and risk-based insolvency advice.
• Assisting in maintaining litigation reporting case management system and database for the preparation of reports and in order to comply with regulatory requirements and respond to internal and external audits.
• Assisting in building processes and risk escalation frameworks which enable more efficient and accurate tracking and better management of insolvency related litigation, trend spotting, and outside counsel budgets throughout the region.
• Managing internal financial accounting processes including litigation reserve setting and liaising with Controllership and internal auditors.
  
  

Minimum Qualifications:

Candidates must have significant PQE Solicitor qualified in England & Wales with extensive experience in restructuring and insolvency, including both litigation/contentious and non-contentious experience, at all stages gained in a financial services context.

• Relevant and significant amount of experience should have been obtained in both a strong private practice law firm, and in-house with another financial institution.
• Experience of managing or working with foreign lawyers, or cross-border litigation where cases span several jurisdictions would be an advantage.
• Experience of managing junior lawyers or paralegals desirable.
• Experience of managing/conducting litigation (as a team leader or member) and managing the strategy of specific matters.
  
  

Skills:

• Fluency in spoken and written English is essential.
• Familiarity with other European languages an advantage, but not a pre-requisite.
• Competency with office software essential (Outlook, Powerpoint, Word etc.)
• Commercial Acumen, team spirit, initiative/proactiveness but at the same time an ability to follow instructions are key to this role.
• Emotional Intelligence
  
  

Competencies:

• Ability to manage and adapt to different working and communication styles according to the different level of internal stakeholders, always enabling stakeholders and GCO colleagues to maintain an open and constructive communication channel.
• Flexibility –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.
• Ability to raise awareness when certain gaps identified, propose remedial actions, delivery of trainings including but not limited to, to upskill colleagues where deemed necessary
• 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 but equally ability to escalate to senior leaders without any delay.
• Client Focus – ability to deliver excellent levels of client service.
• Excellent Team approach - ability to promote collaboration within own peer group and throughout the organization, across different teams acting as people leader at all times.
• People management skills – ability to nurture talent and further development of more junior members of the team.
• Excellent 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.
  
  

This role provides fantastic scope for development within an in-house legal team and excellent exposure to senior stakeholders as well as global markets.

We back our colleagues and their loved ones with benefits and programs that support their holistic well-being. That means we prioritize their physical, financial, and mental health through each stage of life. Benefits include:

• Competitive base salaries
• Bonus incentives
• Support for financial-well-being and retirement
• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location)
• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need
• Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location)
• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location)
• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program
• Career development and training opportunities
  
  

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