Our client, an Agro-Allied company specializing in oil palm cultivation and crude oil processing, is seeking a GM Legal and Company Secretary. This role involves developing legal standards, policies, and procedures, and ensuring all legal documents comply with legal requirements. The GM Legal will promote corporate governance, provide legal and governance advice to the Board and Management, and support Board processes including succession, induction, and performance evaluation.
Position: GM Legal & Company Secretary
Location: Benin, Edo State
Work Mode: Onsite
Reporting: Reports to Board of Directors/ Managing Director
Direct Reports/ Subordinates Legal and Company Secretariat team members
Key Duties and Responsibilities
- Create new standards for legal analysis, policies, and procedures based on changing business environments to drive business performance.
- Communicate with impact (verbal, written, and presentations) at all levels within the company.
- Ensure all legal documents produced adhere to legal requirements and changes in laws and precedents
- Promote interactions and engagements with regulators, external parties, board, senior management, and other key stakeholders to facilitate decision-making on regulatory compliance and/or legal issues.
- Develop effective relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to drive compliance
- Promote the internalization of corporate governance within the organizational culture
- Provide governance advisory, secretarial, statutory, financial and or strategic advice to the Board and Management as well as subsidiaries and related companies.
- Advise directors on their duties and ensuring that they comply with corporate legislation and the articles of association of the company.
- Support Board processes to facilitate efficiency and effectiveness including Board succession, induction and Director Development, Board performance evaluation, Governance Assessment, and Reporting, etc.
- Convene and service annual general a nd extraordinary general meetings, board and committee meetings (producing agendas, taking minutes, conveying decisions, handling meeting correspondence)
- Keep up to date with any regulatory or statutory changes and policies that might affect the organization.
- Ensure that the business of the company is conducted in accordance with its objects as contained in its memorandum of association.
- Provide support to the board or other committees on specific projects
- Prepare, approve, sign and seal agreements leases, legal forms, and other official documents on the company’s behalf, when authorized by the broad of the directors or the executive responsible.
- Provide advisory services on issues that relate to the legal and regulatory framework and liaise with necessary regulatory bodies when needed.
- Assess and provide advice on liabilities and risks of proposed capital acquisitions/ investments, commercial transactions, or other agreements, and recommend solutions and action steps to
- mitigate identified legal risks.
- Ensure seamless coordination between the Corporate and Legal Services function and other entity functional areas/ departments.
- Develop and maintain relationships with relevant statutory/ regulatory bodies.
- Coordinate the maintenance of statutory books including registers of members, directors, shareholders, etc.
- Develop, maintain, and update corporate documents, including articles, bylaws, policies, licenses, corporate minutes, regulatory filings, and contracts
- Conduct checks on regulatory and legal compliance in all areas of the Company’s operations and undertake follow-up action
- Facilitate the preparation, review, and submission of periodic activity reports for the department, for Board and management decision-making.
Skills and Competencies
- Good understanding of trends, challenges, opportunities, regulations and legislations relating to the financial service industry.
- Experience in company secretarial practice, commercial legal practice, in house counsel or public practice.
- In-depth knowledge of international and local corporate and commercial law.
- Demonstrated expertise and knowledge of contract preparation and administration.
- Ability to exhibit sound judgment and high level of professionalism in internal and external relations.
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills
- Very good relationship building, interpersonal and networking skills.
- Excellent presentation and facilitation skills.
- Strong leadership and people management skills.
- Excellent problem solving and analytical skills.
- High sense of responsibility, accountability and dependability.
- Strong project management and organizational skills.
- Ability to advise different levels of staff on legal matters.
- Time Management skills
- Flexible approach towards work
Key Requirements
- Integrity and Professional ethics
- Ability to prioritize work and meet deadlines.
- Strong leadership/supervisory and people management skills.
- Knowledge of corporate governance best practice.
Key Performance Indicators
- Quality of legal opinion and other legal services.
- Quality and timeliness of legal/management reports.
- Frequency of lawsuits arising from legal contracts.
- Number of litigations resolved in favor of the company
- Frequency of issues arising from firm’s non-compliance to regulations and monitor the level of firm’s compliance to service level agreements.
- Board record keeping
- Timely filing of Statutory returns.
- Timeliness of contracts preparation
- Penalties related to regulatory filings
- Percentage of potential litigation averted
- Timely conclusion of litigations
- Frequency of regulatory sanctions
Qualification and Experience
- A first degree in Law at a minimum grade of Second Class Upper with at least 10 years’ experience (at least five of those years in a Company Secretarial role).
- Master’s degree in business administration and/ or membership of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators will be an advantage
How to Apply
Interested persons should click here to apply
