Legal Counsel

The Role: Legal Counsel

The Team: The S&P Global Market Intelligence (“SPGMI”) Division’s global legal team is comprised of legal and non-legal professionals who support the Division’s commercial organization, product development/technology functions and business management/leadership. We value our partnership with the business and it is crucial that you are a collaborative partner who easily builds relationships with other teams and functions in order to succeed within our organization.

The Impact: You will be responding to internal client inquiries, providing valuable support in the handling of legal matters and involved in all aspects of the contract process.  This includes reviewing contracts, training the commercial organization on legal and contracting procedures, negotiating and drafting contracts for financial information and analytical products and services and assisting with special projects outside of routine client facing contracting.

What’s in it for You: You will work in a high-energy, client-facing, multi-cultural, and will have the opportunity to apply and develop negotiation and drafting skills and be part of a cohesive team that provides crucial support to the organization across multiple jurisdictions and legal systems within Asia Pacific with a focus on Greater China.

Responsibilities:

You will use legal knowledge and related skills to:

• review and advise on agreements and other matters impacting the SPGMI products and services which include data, platform, regulated, and advisory services, as well as software products;
• draft and negotiate a variety of agreements, including but not limited to, complex agreements, NDAs, customer agreements for SPGMI products and services and data vendor agreements;
• manage and mitigate the risk of disputes, and of contract and legal breaches by the Division
• resolve day to day matters relating to agreements and intellectual property matters, including resolution of disputes;
• develop, maintain, and update boilerplate/standard forms) as needed and in response to changing markets and industry trends and practices;
• develop, draft, provide training and guidance about applicable policies and procedures; and
• engage in a variety of other projects, including due diligence activities for acquisitions and divestitures, archiving, and other projects.

Who We’re Looking For:

Basic Qualifications/Experience:

• Malaysian qualified lawyer with 7+ years of PQE in drafting, negotiating and advising on commercial agreements in either a law firm or in-house legal position (both types of experience are desirable).
• Excellent organizational and oral and written communication skills in English with full professional proficiency in the required foreign language.
• Requires a practical, business-oriented approach to problem-solving and effectively advising internal clients by providing them with clear, concise and pragmatic advice and creative solutions where necessary to meet their business needs.
• Strong working knowledge of contract, intellectual property law and an understanding of the international laws of the jurisdictions where SPGMI does business (e.g. US, UK, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Australia and New Zealand). This includes protection of copyright and other proprietary rights, data privacy, warranties, indemnification, disclaimer of liability and information reuse provisions.
• Ability to think outside of the box in order to solve problems and provide advice to various stakeholders.
• General understanding of financial products and services.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while also being a team player who brings a positive attitude to the workplace, values working with a diverse team and works collaboratively across functions and departments.

Preferred Qualifications/Experience:

• Excellent interpersonal skills. You should be people oriented, collegial, confident and willing and able to conduct frequent client-facing interactions (via e-mail, phone, and in-person).
• Experience of working on Contract management tools (such as Salesforce) is a plus.
• Working Experience in the financial services industry and coordinating with sales and product management departments.
• Ability to stay current with the rapidly evolving industry trend and practices, as they relate to the financial services industry, data, intellectual property, technology, etc.
• Advanced knowledge and experience of Microsoft applications, including Word, Excel, Adobe, Outlook and PowerPoint as well as familiarity with a contract database-type system

Working Hours:

• 9am-6pm Malaysia Hours but we need someone flexible when needed.
• Hybrid Setup. Required to come on-site 2x a week.