Vice President–Legal Counsel (Equity Derivatives)

Responsibilities

• Advise on, analyze and review complex flow/exotic and corporate and strategic equity derivative transactions including, but not limited to, affiliate/issuer hedging and monetization transactions, capped call and call spreads, structured forward and option transactions, 10b5-1/10b-18 plans, ASRs, structured buybacks, fund of fund financing and margin loans.
• Review and negotiate exotic and flow equity derivatives transaction documentation, draft custom derivative and QIS templates, provide legal advice to front office personnel in relation to standard and bespoke derivatives transactions.
• Review and negotiate custom index documentation including, but not limited to, index license agreements, dealer agreements, marketing materials, and rulebooks, draft new custom index disclosures, address various equity derivatives/custom index documentation related inquiries from internal stakeholders and clients.
• Draft, review and negotiate master agreements including ISDAs, CSAs, MRAs, GMRAs, MSFTAs, Account Control Agreements and related derivatives documentation, as well as other financing and trading products documentation, with outside clients.
• Escalate various negotiation points to business, risk, collateral, treasury and other internal functions for review and approval in connection with derivative transactions.
• Review clients’ formation documents to determine capacity and authority to engage in derivatives trading and review loan and security documentation to determine scope of security interests for hedging counterparties.
• Analyze derivatives trading-related legal and regulatory issues, including close-out netting, ERISA, Investment Company Act requirements, applicability of various U.S. and cross-border regulations including Dodd-Frank and Margin Rules, trading venue agreements, and discuss issues with internal stakeholders and clients.
• Maintain and update internal legal documentation databases and pipelines and attend status meetings and conference calls.
• Manage ad hoc projects as required.
• Work closely with GM Legal teams in NY, including, but not limited to, coordinating workload and training.
• Assist in creating effective advisory, control and governance frameworks to design, implement and support automated and streamlined transaction execution.
• Participate in industry working group calls (including ISDA) and update GM Legal teams and business management as appropriate.
• Work with and manage external counsel.

Qualifications

• Law Degree from an accredited law school and admission to (or eligible for admission to) the New York bar.
• Preferred 2-4 + years of direct law firm or in-house experience.
• Familiarity with US and cross-border derivatives regulatory framework (including Dodd-Frank and EMIR requirements for financial institutions and corporates), US securities laws (including the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934) and Investment Company and Advisors Act as they pertain to derivatives and product disclosures.
• PREFERRED experience in corporate and strategic equity transactions and negotiating and structuring equity derivative and finance documentation.
• Willing to train candidates with less direct subject matter expertise.
• PREFERRED experience in:
• Negotiating with external clients
• Advising global markets trading businesses
• Excellent:
• Negotiation skills
• Oral and written communication skills
• Analytical skills
• Organization skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Experience handling multiple projects simultaneously. Ability to prioritize workload, manage time efficiently while retaining attention to detail. Work well in a fast-paced environment. Work across the organization as required and maintain high standards of professionalism in all dealings with team members and internal/external clients.
• Technical: Microsoft Office Proficient in Excel
• Artificial Intelligence