Commercial Associate Counsel

**BAT is evolving at pace
- truly like no other organisation**

To achieve the ambition, we have set for ourselves, we are looking for colleagues who are ready to live our ethos every day. Come be a part of this journey

**ROLE PROFILE**

**JOB TITLE : Commercial Associate Counsel**

**REPORTS TO: Senior Legal Counsel**

**FUNCTION : Legal and External Affairs (LEX)**

**SUB-FUNCTION : Business, Integrity & Compliance**

**LOCATION : Selangor, Malaysia**

**PURPOSE STATEMENT**:
The Associate Counsel is a member of the Business, Integrity and Compliance Legal team in Malaysia, reporting to the Legal Counsel. The job holder will be working in a dynamic, fast-paced environment and will be expected to engage confidently and effectively with local and global stakeholders.

The Assistant Counsel is responsible for:

- ensuring robust corporate governance is in place for internal compliance.
- supporting legal and regulatory risks of the Company's business operations in all aspects and safeguarding the Company's legitimate business rights to pursue strategic objectives.
- providing pragmatic advice and support to the Company and relevant functions, locally and globally.
- taking a leading role in problem-solving and decision-making in all areas of the business, and consistently working to minimize and manage commercial and legal risks.

**WORKING RELATIONSHIP**

**INTERNAL:

- **Business, Integrity and Compliance Legal and wider LEX globally, and LEX from end markets, stakeholders and functional leadership teams of local and global entities, including but not limited to Tax, Finance, Procurement, HR.

**EXTERNAL:

- **External counsels,** **Government Authorities and Regulators,** **Suppliers and third-party supplier representatives, including commercial and legal leads, Professional Bodies and Organizations

**PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES**:
i) Business
- Support and provide legal and commercial advice and service to the entire organization, in a manner which advances its business objectives while effectively managing relevant risks.
- Proactively provide pragmatic and sound advice to support the Company's commercial and corporate activities.
- Negotiating, drafting and advising on execution of all commercial transactions related to the Company’s business operations.
- Support the overall contract management system and processes including drafting, negotiating and executing contracts pursuant to the Company's contract management policy.
- Ensuring proper corporate governance in place for internal compliance.
- Support in setting and implementing various corporate governance procedures and ensuring strict compliance including but not limited to review and audit of all processes from time to time to ensure continued compliance with the Group's compliance guideline such as Standard of Business Conduct, GDPR, Trade Compliance and TPABACP/Third Party Anti-Financial Crime Procedure (TPAFCP) policies.
- Proactively support to drive corporate strategies in LEX driven areas as a member of the Business, Integrity and Compliance Legal team.
- Create and maintain a database of relevant work product and general advice.
- Instructing and managing external legal counsel in relation to complex, high profile and/or strategically important transactions and other advice, reviewing output, and controlling and approving spend.
- Ensuring good information flows between business stakeholders, LEX and other business partners about business initiatives to optimise commercial opportunities and manage risks.

ii) People
- Demonstrating excellence in own work by improving technical and managerial skills as identified and agreed in personal development plan.
- Proactively seeking to identify opportunities to create legal awareness and working to improve the Company's position.
- Demonstrating personal and professional experience by:

- sharing best practices and knowledge efficiently;
- outstanding management of significant legal risks to the business; and
- concentrating at being lawyers at the heart of the business.
- Establishing strong links with the Global LEX community and contributing to the success of the LEX function.
- Proactively engaging and working cross-functionally and effectively with stakeholders globally to fully understand and support their business needs.
- Keeping abreast of developments in the relevant areas of law and to advise functions and stakeholders of the legal impact when appropriate.
- Working closely within the Business, Integrity and Compliance Legal team to support a ‘One Team’ concept.
- Demonstrating continuous improvement and development of self by always ensuring behavior aligns with Company’s ETHOS.

**KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS and EXPERIENCE**
- Malaysia, UK or equivalent qualified lawyer with a minimum of 5 years post qualification experience, gained either in an international or reputable law firm and with in-house counsel experience for a major multi-national company. Additional legal qualifications