Legal Counsel

The Legal Counsel is responsible for providing expert and professional legal advice, guidance and support to the business, ensuring that the legal and reputational risks faced by the country are identified, escalated and mitigated in a timely and effective manner. The role works closely with key stakeholders to deliver clear, practical legal input that supports sound decision-making and helps the organisation operate safely and responsibly.

Principal Responsibilities:

Provide legal support and guidance to key stakeholders, including:

• Advising business, operations and other stakeholders on all CIB-related matters, including customer onboarding and issues arising throughout the account lifecycle; the Bank’s standard terms and conditions; engagement with counterparties; assessing risks arising from changes to the Bank’s policies, processes and developments.
• Supporting the Bank’s response to law enforcement enquiries and court orders.
• Identifying and escalating risks relating to ongoing activities and new business initiatives, ensuring exposure to legal and regulatory risk is managed in a commercially sensitive and practical manner.
• Working closely with regional and global teams, including advising on complex matters or those with potential for significant governance, legal, financial and/or reputational impact.
• Providing governance guidance to other functions and businesses on expected legal policies and standards across the HSBC Group.
• Partnering with other second line of defence functions (e.g., Regulatory Compliance and Risk) to identify and manage risks arising from business activities and functional areas.
• Collaborating with the wider CGS and Legal teams on matters relevant to the local entity and/or the HSBC Group.
• Attending governance meetings as secretary or legal representative, such as the Risk Committee, Business Control Committee, Audit Committee and other similar governance forums.
• Exercising judgement to promptly escalate significant matters to the General Counsel.
• Reporting on legal risks arising from CIB activities to the General Counsel, and being accountable for setting and monitoring action plans and remediation activities.
• Holding formal risk management responsibilities within HSBC’s Operational Risk framework, with a strong understanding of the framework to effectively challenge Risk Owners and manage legal risks across the lines of defence (as applicable).

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in law and enrolled in the Brazilian Bar Association;
• Recently graduated or early-career professional with 0–5 years’ relevant experience in the Brazilian banking industry working in Legal Department.
• Fluent Portuguese and English is mandatory, Spanish is not essential but is helpful for the role;
• General banking experience is required with a solid understanding of banking business, cross border loan documentation and principles of lending and taking security in Brazil;
• Able to provide clear, commercial, risk-mitigated advice to the business and functions;
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills;
• Up-to-date knowledge of developments affecting the industry;
• Able to handle a diverse range of issues;
• Self-learner, Self-starter, independent with good organisational skills and ability to prioritise, sequencing and triage;
• Stamina and ability to work under pressure and to compressed timescales, and ability to adapt working styles to meet complex and varied workloads;
• Lateral thinking/problem solving in an open and connected manner;
• Ability to prioritise workloads in terms of legal risk and commercial consideration;
• Solution-oriented individual who is mentally agile and open-minded to multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural issues;