Job Description

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Each province in South Africa is divided in districts constituted of several municipalities. The DBSA designed the PaD Programme to partner with 15 districts consisting of approximately 75 Municipalities over the next three (3) years to increase sustainable development outcomes in the districts through an integrated programmatic and partnership approach.



The Senior Legal Advisor is responsible for providing legal support by providing general legal advice, drafting and negotiating various agreements and implementing an effective contract management system. Work closely with SCM and procurement stakeholders to ensure all agreements are aligned to legal and DBSA supply chain/procurement management policies. The role is required to provide legal services across various operational functions operating generally in local government environment.

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Key Responsibilities

Legal Advisory Services

Provide legal advice and communicate the risks and legal issues involved in a broad range of commercial transactions and operational legal matters.

Draft, negotiate and/or and review a variety of legal contracts including services, consultancy, collaboration, software/ hardware support, lease, finance and grant agreements to minimise risks and maximise legal rights in alignment with corporate risk procedures.

Develop the contracting framework to support the structuring and development of support to inter alia local government programmes and advise on the (i) regulatory, (ii) governance and (iii) contractual components of the programme execution strategy.

Undertake legal research and draft legal opinions to facilitate the interests and objectives of the Partner-a-District and the DBSA and ensure legally sound practices.

Conduct legal due diligence and evaluate the legalities of how the various projects and partnerships are structured.

Manage legal litigation proceedings prepare legal briefs communicate with external Legal Counsel to ensure timely reporting and coordinating the flow of information.

Engage and manage external counsel / legal advisors to ensure alignment on legal briefs, work performed and monitor costs are within budget.

Assess legal risks and proactively provide solutions and mitigation actions that consider multiple stakeholders and the impact of the risks.

Work with SCM to guide material purchases, acquisitions, and engagement of vendors for new and complex services to ensure that the correct procurement processes are followed.

Monitor those operations within the programme are aligned to internal policies and procedures and meet regulatory requirements of compliance with National and Local Government laws and regulations.

Liaise with other legal operations within the DBSA to support the objectives of the broader legal and risk function for the programmes.

Prepare and present reports on contracts/agreements and legal matters to Exco, Board Committees and key stakeholders.

Provide general legal education and training to a broad range of stakeholders as may be required.

Contracts Management

Conduct due diligence on contractual documents to ensure the credibility of the contracts management process and take action to address any contract outages.

Provide advice on how to enforce performance management processes and contractual obligations of partners, service providers and consultants for the programme as per the contractual agreements.

Verify that payments to service providers and consultants are aligned as per the contractual agreements.

Maintain contracts management system database and electronic files.

Prepare contractual claims including extensions of time, prolongation cost, acceleration cost, and all other contractual claims in conjunction with the legal team and key stakeholders.

Prepare and provide reports on contracts/agreements and legal matters to key stakeholders.

Monitor compliance to contractual requirements ensuring all conditions are satisfied by all parties involved.

Initiates and/or conducts meetings with contractors concerning contractual problems as requested by line management.

Collaborate with SCM in developing procurement documents to ensure that they adhere and align to compliance principles laid out in the following: National Treasury Supply Management Circulars, Directives and Guidelines; Supply Management policies; Public Finance Management Act (PFMA); Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA); Other applicable Procurement Laws and Public Law principles.

Required to provide legal support to the programme with any other matters as required.

Key Measurements of Outputs

Quality and accuracy of contracts, legal opinions, and agreements.

No litigation due to contractual errors and or omissions.

Effective monitoring of the contracts and agreements.

Case duration: The time taken for a matter to go from open to closed.

Time taken to prepare and or review agreements, and opinions and provide solutions.

Effective management of legal claims and litigation risks.

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Expertise & Technical Competencies

Minimum Requirements

A Bachelor of Laws degree (LLB) or Legal postgraduate qualification.

Admitted Attorney/ Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

A minimum of eight (8) years, post admission experience in commercial and construction contracts drafting and negotiating.

Proven experience in contract management including construction contract management.

Firm working knowledge of the Joint Building Construction Committee (JBCC), International Federation of Consulting

Engineers (FIDIC), New Engineering Contracts (NEC) and General Conditions of Contract (GCC) 2010.

Knowledge and understanding of all legislation relevant to the business of DBSA and local government (i.e., PFMA, MFMA, PPPFA, etc.).

Experience in working with local government will be an advantage.

Demonstrated ability of strong legal / business writing skills. Excellent drafting of legal opinions and contractual agreements.

Demonstrated ability to lead contract negotiations and mitigate legal risks to the organisation.

Strong one-on-one and group negotiation skills.

Understanding of public procurement legal framework.

Technical Competencies

Legal Knowledge:

In-depth knowledge, understanding of the principles and investigation in their specialised areas such as contracts and agreement, litigation and other general legal advice and ability to give clear and accurate advice to DBSA.

Remains up-to-date with new laws, regulations and compliance with South African laws affecting the business, and regularly interprets and advises senior Stakeholders on these.

Identifies risk in commercial transactions and suggests risk mitigation methods where applicable.

Advises senior management on the sequencing and pacing of policy recommendations in terms of legal implications.



Business Acumen:

Deep understanding of commercial drivers and is able to take decisions based on an assessment of alternatives concerning complex business situations.

Deep understanding of economic priorities of South Africa and Africa and how they can be implemented to meet an organisations strategic objectives.

Deep understanding of the need to coordinate efforts with many government entities, private sector, community groups and individuals to ensure effective implementation of new policies and regulations.

Takes actions to fit business strategy.

Assesses and links short-term tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or perspectives.

Reviews own actions against the organisation's strategic plan; includes the big picture when considering possible opportunities or projects or thinks about long-term applications of current activities.

Anticipates possible responses to different initiatives.

Understands the projected direction of the industry and how changes might impact the organisation.



Negotiation:

Has an appreciation of cultural sensitivities and differences.

Effectively employs a variety of advanced behavioural/interpersonal competencies to control the negotiation situation.

Is able to take the lead in a variety of sensitive negotiation situations requiring high levels of tact and diplomacy.

Is able to place a discrete negotiation situation within the context of a broader long-term relationship and is not threatened by conceding ground to protect the longer-term interests of DBSA.



Detailed Oriented:

Identifies multiple sources / approaches of information to ensure that details are addressed.

Reviews the work of others for accuracy and thoroughness.

Follows up to ensure tasks are completed and commitments met by others.

Quickly identifies relevant and irrelevant information to support accurate decision making.

Maps out all the logistics and details of a situation to ensure smooth and flawless implementation.

Consistently identifies all relevant details that are not obvious in complex situations.

Requires the highest standards for accuracy and quality for their work.

Establishes processes to ensure accuracy and quality of services delivered by the team.



Risk Management:

Develops innovative approaches to managing significant business risks effectively and efficiently.

Leads implementation, execution and monitoring activities

Advises on best solutions and foresees the impact of changes in regulations, policies and procedures for noncomplex and increasingly complex business issues.



Solution Focused:

Identifies broad, highly complex problems based on a multitude of factors, many of which are complex and sweeping in nature, difficult to define and often contradictory.

Creates procedures to articulate the nature of problems and to identify and weigh alternate solutions.

Evaluates the effectiveness of solutions using approaches tailored to the situation.

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Required Personal Attributes

Behavioural Competencies

Customer Service Orientation:

Tries to understand the underlying needs of customers and matches these needs to available or customized products and services.

Adapts processes and procedures to meet on-going customer needs.

Utilises the feedback received by customers, in order to develop new and/or improve existing services/ products that relate to their on-going needs.

Thinks of new ways to align DBSA's offerings with future customer needs.



Self-Awareness and Self Control:

Withholds effects of strong emotions in difficult situations.

Keeps functioning or responds constructively despite stress.

May apply special techniques or plan ahead of time to manage emotions or stress.



Strategic and Innovative Thinking:

Experiments with new approaches, tests scenarios, questions assumptions and challenges conventional thinking.

Creates new concepts that are not obvious to others, leveraging internal and external sources of information, to build incremental revenue and growth opportunities.



Driving Delivery of Results:

Sets challenging goals that will have a significant impact on the business or support the organisational strategy.

Commits significant resources and/or time to ensure that challenging goals are achieved, while also taking action to mitigate risk.



Teamwork and Cooperation:

Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts.

Creates opportunities for cross-functional working.

Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience.