Senior Legal Counsel, FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence

We are seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to provide legal support to the FTSE Russell and Risk Intelligence divisions. This Cape Town-based role plays an important part in enabling product innovation, managing legal and regulatory risk, and supporting commercial execution across global markets, focusing on the FTSE Russell business.

• Enable delivery of risk management and commercial objectives for FTSE Russell, ensuring alignment with Group strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to business and other functional stakeholders, identifying legal and regulatory risks and supporting strategic business decisions.
• Negotiate and manage important, high value agreements (including data, software, IP, outsourcing, and M&A), ensuring robust risk assessment and mitigation.
• Partner with stakeholders on the implementation of legal aspects of new product development, regulatory change, market expansion, and strategic initiatives, including AI.
• Demonstrate the legal team culture of high performance, inclusion, and continuous development.
• Collaborate closely with privacy, litigation, compliance, GRRS and risk teams on disputes, advocacy, regulatory matters, and cross functional projects.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with legal service providers, ensuring efficiency, value and alignment with business objectives.
• Maintain up to date knowledge of relevant laws and regulations, and ensure the implementation of effective internal controls, policies, and procedures.
• Represent Legal at FTSE Russell governance forums and committees, providing input on risk, compliance, and business transformation.
• Contribute to special projects, including group/division/function wide initiatives, template and playbook development, MLS, regulatory change, and operational improvements in collaboration with the FTSE and Risk Intelligence and broader L&C teams.

• Qualified lawyer with meaningful post qualification experience in commercial, regulatory, and financial services law.
• Demonstrated experience as a legal counsel, including managing strategic initiatives.
• An understanding of LSEG and the financial markets infrastructure and data industry, with exposure to FTSE Russell, financial indices and benchmarks regulation an advantage.
• Ability to steer stakeholders as a trusted advisor across functions and geographies.
• An enterprise, commercial and solution oriented mindset, with outstanding commitment to internal and external customer service.
• Strong strategic, organizational, operational, analytical, and decision making skills, with the ability to simplify complex issues and propose solutions that balance legal considerations.
• Shows ability to come up with new ideas and novel approaches to problems.
• Ability to work both collaboratively and independently with quality judgement, including when to elevate matters to senior members of the Legal and Compliance team and business.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills and capability to build robust working relationships with key stakeholders across different functions, demonstrating desired behaviours and supporting pragmatic commercial solutions.
• Fluency in English (written and oral) is required.

Manager

We are a proud equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. We can reasonably accommodate applicants' and employees' religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs.