Job: Legal Assistant

Location: Johannesburg
Deadline: Sunday, 17 November 2013

Background / General description

Background / General description Note: The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, promotes sustainable private sector development in developing countries. The Legal Department of IFC (CLED), under the Vice President and General Counsel, is responsible for providing legal and policy advice to the IFC Board, its Management and client departments on operational, advisory and corporate matters. Specifically, CLED supports client departments in (i) the delivery of IFC’s annual program of financing private sector projects in emerging markets; (ii) the delivery of IFC’s Advisory Services programs; (iii) project portfolio management (including jeopardy projects and projects in litigation); (iv) the delivery and design of structured finance products, sub-sovereign lending, equity and quasi-equity, public-private partnerships, and carbon finance transactions; (v) advising on corporate policy and operational matters such as operating policies and procedures and Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Funding of Terrorism; and (vi) knowledge management and training. To support IFC’s growing activities in the Sub-Saharan Africa (CAF) region, CLED is recruiting a Legal Assistant, to be based in Johannesburg, South Africa. This position is for legal support to IFC’s Investment Services (IS) and Advisory Services (AS) in CAF under appropriate supervision by IFC in-house counsel. Note: If the selected candidate is a current Bank Group staff member with a Regular or Open-Ended appointment, s/he will retain his/her Regular or Open-Ended appointment. All others will be offered a 2 year fixed term appointment.

Duties and Accountabilities

• Prepare supporting documentation for internal and external matters e.g. powers of attorney & proxies, signature designations, counsel retainer faxes and Article III notices (notifying governments of an IFC investment);
• Assist IFC in-house counsel prepare and review draft legal documentation and prepare routine amendments, consents and waivers;
• Liaise with IFC external counsel, where required;
• Attend to the signing of transaction documents and completion of conditions to payment;
• Attend to filing of all transaction documents in accordance with IFC guideline and practices;
• Perform other routine loan or portfolio administration;
• Handle and review AS transaction documents under appropriate supervision by IFC in-house counsel and follow up on the completion of any such agreements with IFC AS staff;
• Assists IFC counsel with general AS tasks;
• Develop and maintain a good knowledge of the CLED Website (in particular the Country Legal Database, other Practice Group resources, the CLED Specimens (in particular Confidentiality Agreements, Mandate Letters and Term Sheets);
• Identify and analyze legal and policy issues associated with assigned investment or advisory projects and present results / recommendations clearly and concisely to IFC in-house counsel and the relevant IFC business teams;
• Contribute to and support CLED’s Knowledge Management objectives;
• Develop and maintain a good knowledge of IFC’s policies, procedures and operations, including IFC's Articles of Agreement, I-Desk/IFC-Docs (IFC’s internal systems), etc.
• Attend meetings and discussions with internal and external clients, and be able to effectively communicate IFC’s policies and procedures.

Selection Criteria

• Law Degree or equivalent or at least 4 years of relevant experience in a law firm as a legal assistant/paralegal;
• Excellent organizational, administrative and time management skills with the ability to handle a diverse range of issues within tight deadlines;
• Ability to provide effective support to IFC legal team by performing multiple, concurrent and progressively more difficult assignments;
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work as a team member in a multi-cultural environment;
• Strong oral and written communication skills in English and ideally French;
• Excellent analytical and research skills; Ability to work independently and take initiative;
• Word processing experience and proficient computer skills, particularly in using information databases, internet/intranet services and library sources.

More Info and Application