Job description

Allen & Overy is a leading global law firm operating in over thirty countries. Embracing new trends and harnessing decades of experience, we’ve earned our place at the forefront of the legal industry. Our partners are recognised as leaders in their field and our deals and cases often make headline business news. As a result, we’ve developed a reputation for delivering excellence, in all that we do. Today, we’re continuing to break new ground. By embracing new ways of thinking and integrating technology into our everyday work, we’ve been named as the Most Innovative Law Firm in Europe by the Financial Times five times.
 
Join our team and you’ll be part of a flexible, inclusive culture underpinned by openness and acceptance. We’re driven by the belief that, to perform, people need support and space to collaborate. By combining those values with an ambitious outlook, we can give you the opportunity to thrive.

Department purpose

The role of the Business Acceptance Unit (BAU) is:

• to process requests from partners for A&O to accept new legal matters including, in particular, performing anti-money laundering and background checks on new clients and performing conflicts checks (within internal databases) on each new matter (for both new and existing clients);
• to obtain from relevant lawyers required evidence of identity for new clients (and existing clients for whom the practice has done no work in the preceding two years and whose ownership or control may therefore have changed in the intervening period);
• to screen and, where requested, send conflict search emails (containing information on new legal matters) to all partners and to monitor responses, analyse search results and, in consultation with the originating lawyers, determine whether or not the new legal matter is clear of conflicts and appropriate for the practice to take on;
• to authorise the opening of new legal matters when checks have been completed and any issues or problems satisfactorily resolved;
• to facilitate resolution of legal conflict issues in consultation, where appropriate, with A&O senior management;
• to facilitate resolution of business conflict issues in consultation with relevant partners/senior lawyers including, if necessary, A&O senior management;
• to determine the need for information barriers to enhance the internal security of information and to facilitate them being established to meet the requirements of the situation;
• to intervene (where needed) to direct the required levels of matter/virtual file security within the A&O virtual filing system;
• to receive, monitor and (where appropriate) keep a central record of terms of engagement agreed with clients, to remind lawyers of the need to ensure that the terms of our engagements are clear and documented and to advise lawyers on unusual/non-standard terms and on aspects of the firm's engagement terms policy; and
• to deal with business acceptance queries (including conflicts and anti-money laundering ID queries).

Role and responsibilities

• To provide comprehensive analytical and specialist support to the Global Senior Project Manager Client Audit & Compliance to facilitate the development of improved working practices relating to client engagement for the firm
• Lead, champion and deliver team business improvement plans
• Driving operational excellence within the team, including ongoing process reviews, and improvement implementation including investigation of technology solutions
• Develop an in-depth understanding of Client requirements and lead the completion of complex and comprehensive requests, to guaranteed conclusion ensuring 100% accuracy and timeliness of responses
• To lead in client engagement (on-site audits, meetings and calls) to share an understanding of A&O processes and procedures in order to respond to client queries
• Work closely with internal teams to gain a greater understanding of internal processes and controls acting as a subject matter expert for client audit
• To effectively engage with a broad range of stakeholders whilst managing expectations through concise communication
• To proactively manage the collation, preparation and presentation of A&O specific information to address client requests
• To proactively manage a database of remediations ensuring timeframes are recorded and deadlines accomplished
• Responsible for the workflow of the Client Audit Team, including ensuring requests are triaged and assigned to a team member once received
• To maintain the client audit library of information (and/or other databases) to effectively support client audits
• To ensure maintenance of  a suite of “stock” template documents and “boiler plate” statements to facilitate responses to future client audits
• To proactively manage the Client Audit Collaborate site for the purpose of strategic client audits, using feedback as a means of developing the site
• To oversee accurate record keeping of complex and/or strategic client audits and advise on how best to access and report on this information to support future audits
• Develop reporting function within team trackers, to ensure the correct information is being captured and can be used for wider analysis
• Taking a lead on analysis of large volumes of audit data, to provide reporting and identify emerging trends
• To capture and report upon the direct and indirect costs of client audit and compliance
• To develop a broad understanding of the audit & compliance arena in the legal sector, and the changes on the horizon
• Personally maintain strong professional relationships with key client and internal stakeholders
• Provide project management support to the Client Audit and Engagement Terms team as required,  ensuring project documentation is of a high quality and consistently up to date
• Support dynamic teams working on a wide range of projects as and when required
• Provide support where required by the Global Senior Manager Client Audit, on Client Secondment enquiries acting as a subject matter expert

Key requirements

• Understands the commercial & risk management drivers of clients
• Comfortable speaking to clients about key deliverables
• Ability to effectively co-ordinate & manage high volumes of complex information
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work well under pressure and to drive through deliverables to completion
• Strong attention to detail (in presenting information)
• Enthusiastic, pro-active, persistent, robust, commitment to "getting the job done"
• Good organisational and administrative skills/ability to multi-task
• Excellent systems knowledge and IT skills
• Experience of process analysis and improvement implementation
• Project support and management skills

Who we are looking for

• Degree qualified in a relevant discipline
• Previous experience working within an ethics and compliance role
• Self-motivated individual
• Deadline driven
• Highly organised with ability to constantly re-prioritise workload
• High level of initiative and willingness to learn
• Willingness to travel to London to support on-site audits as required

Additional information - External

This is an FTC position based in the Belfast office. Applications close on Wednesday 13/01 at 5pm.