Legal Counsel, SPG Ratings

Grade Level (for internal use): 12

S&P Global Corporate

The Role: Legal Counsel, SPG Ratings

We are seeking a dynamic Legal Counsel to work in Melbourne, Australia. In coordination with your colleagues, you will be responsible for advising our business on a broad range of legal issues with a primary focus on advising our analytical teams working on analyzing Debt Capital Market (DCM ) transactions across the APAC region. Our business is engaged in the provision of Credit Ratings and related analytical services.

The Impact: You will serve as one of the primary advisors to our Ratings analytical teams in APAC in connection with their analysis of specific debt capital markets issues and the impact of corporate and insolvency laws. Your secondary role will be to serve as a privacy specialist for the Global Ratings organization in APAC, and to provide regulatory/commercial legal support. You will be working autonomously but as part of a well-connected, global team providing advice to our business on regulatory, governance, analytical, and commercial matters.

The Career Opportunity: You will get a chance to develop and apply skills at both a technical and a strategic level and gain experience across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Team / The Business: You will be part of the Global Ratings Legal team, working in close contact with colleagues regionally and globally. The team operates on lean principles and is focused on providing efficient and effective legal advice to our analytical teams, as well as advice on regulatory and governance issues affecting our business and in support of our business strategies.

Your Skills: Ideally, you would have demonstrated experience working on debt capital market transactions, especially structured finance and/or experience advising on banking and insolvency law matters. In addition, experience advising on privacy and data management matters would be valuable. You should be comfortable in monitoring and providing advice on legal developments and/or regulatory requirements in APAC. Importantly, you should be comfortable working on your own with your direct manager and colleagues located in different countries.

Essential Experience:

• A minimum of four (4) years of experience as a qualified lawyer reviewing and/or drafting Debt Capital Markets (DCM) transaction documents, in particular, structured finance and/or project finance transaction documents and legal opinions.
• Understanding core concepts of structured finance and/or project finance, including asset isolation, non-consolidation, security interests, special purpose entities, and an understanding of key legal opinions in structured finance and/or project finance.
• Experience drafting and/or reviewing ISDA derivative documentation.
• Experience advising on cross-border/conflicts of law issues inherent in DCM transactions.
• An understanding of the varied role of key participants in DCM transactions.
• Familiarity with applicable Privacy Laws would be an advantage.

Key Accountabilities:

• Conducting review of transaction-level legal structures and related legal opinions and counseling analysts about adherence of structures to S&P Global Ratings' structured finance legal criteria and/or legal aspects of S&P Global Ratings' project finance criteria.
• Counseling ratings analysts on developing legal issues in DCM, especially structured finance and/or project finance.
• Analyzing and interpreting relevant laws and regulations to keep analysts up to date on legal developments affecting their analysis.
• Counseling of Compliance, Risk, and other control functions on issues related to compliance with and changes to laws, regulations, and the application of internal policies and procedures.
• Preparing and conducting internal trainings for ratings analysts on legal issues.
• On request, reviewing and revising legal related criteria used by analysts.
• Providing general legal counseling/participation in ad-hoc projects in support of S&P Global Ratings business activities across analytical practices.
• Counseling S&P Global Ratings' personnel regarding external speaking engagements, presentations, publications, and other outreach efforts.
• On request counseling S&P Global Ratings' commercial team on legal issues relevant to a particular ratings engagement.

Qualifications:

• Admitted to practice law in Australia or other relevant APAC jurisdiction.
• At least four (4) years' post-qualification experience in DCM, structured finance, and/or project finance as a lawyer in either a major law firm or corporation, where you have gained an understanding of DCM, structured finance, and/or project finance and capital markets principles.
• Ability to grasp legal and analytical concepts quickly and apply sound legal judgment with little supervision.
• Well-developed emotional intelligence; superior interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Excellent presentation, writing, and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and listening skills with internal/external audiences.
• Self-motivated and well-organized with the ability to handle multiple, high-priority projects while attending to details; able to prioritize tasks and work well under pressure.
• Hands-on, energetic, intellectually curious.
• Professional and collegial demeanor, a team player, ability to work effectively and collaboratively with in-house colleagues, internal stakeholders, and external parties.
• Proficiency in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); comfortable using web-based connectivity platforms (e.g., Skype, Zoom, Teams, etc.).
• Comfortable working on your own with your direct manager and colleagues located in different countries.
• Amenable to work in a Hybrid Work Setup.
• Amenable to work on normal Australian work hours but with flexibility to adjust for meeting calls that happen outside these hours.

About S&P Global Ratings:
At S&P Global Ratings, our analyst-driven credit ratings, research, and sustainable finance opinions provide critical insights that are essential to translating complexity into clarity so market participants can uncover opportunities and make decisions with conviction. By bringing transparency to the market through high-quality independent opinions on creditworthiness, we enable growth across a wide variety of organizations, including businesses, governments, and institutions.

S&P Global Ratings is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity, and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world's leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today.