Legal Counsel – Commodities (5-7 years PQE)

Role: Legal Counsel: Commodities (qualified solicitor 5-7 years PQE) 

Department: Legal

Location(s): Zug, Geneva, Dubai, Singapore

Squarepoint is a global investment management firm that utilizes a diversified portfolio of systematic and quantitative strategies across financial markets that seeks to achieve high quality, uncorrelated returns for our clients. We have deep expertise in trading, technology and operations and attribute our success to rigorous scientific research. As a technology and data-driven firm, we design and build our own cutting-edge systems, from high performance trading platforms to large scale data analysis and compute farms. With offices around the globe, we emphasize true, global collaboration by aligning our investment, technology, and operations teams functionally around the world. Building on our quantitative research platform and process-driven approach, Squarepoint also runs discretionary strategies to augment our systematic approach and monetize opportunities which may not be suitable to be traded in a systematic strategy.

Position Overview:

This is an in-house counsel position for a lawyer with strong legal commodities expertise (mainly physicals). The candidate taking on this position will report into a senior member of the legal team dealing with commodities, will work very closely with her and with the global commodities trading team, with significant exposure to the management, investors as well as to other senior members of staff within the business.

The key areas of work and expected knowledge include:

• Broad overview and knowledge of all physical commodities, with particular focus on the metals sector. Additional experience in gas and power, shipping, agri / soft commodities would be ideal
• Broad knowledge of commodities warehousing, logistics, insurance and other commercial contracts in the commodities space
• Experience in negotiating general terms and conditions, specific transactions, swaps and repurchase agreements, warehousing and storage agreements, trade financing documentation and various other contracts with counterparties, as well as onboarding of counterparties
• Handling of claims and potential litigation in the commodities sector
• Assisting in building out the internal know-how for the team and the business unit

Typical day:

There is no typical day for a Legal Counsel. The role will be varied and will include legal assistance on all aspects of commodities trading. It will be a multi-disciplinary and collaborative environment and the successful candidate will be required to interact with other teams (also located in different jurisdictions) and senior management.

Candidate requirements:

• 5-7 years post qualification (or equivalent knowledge and expertise)
• Qualified lawyer in UK, ideally, or the US or a commonwealth jurisdiction (and an additional civil law jurisdiction ideal)
• Previous experience/training at a top law firm, preferably followed by an equivalent in-house role
• Previous experience in a wide range of commodities and related work, with particular focus on metals. Additional experience in gas and power, shipping, agri / soft commodities, as well as derivatives would be ideal
• Enthusiasm for a variety of legal areas relevant to a global commodities business
• Pro-active and ability to think outside the box in order to provide solutions and assist in all the phases of the build-out of the physical commodities business
• Familiarity with financial services and hedge funds practices preferable
• Strong interpersonal, organisational and communication (both written and verbal) skills
• Ability to work well with colleagues and external counsel across multiple regions and time zones
• Ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks, and work under pressure with tight deadlines
• Willingness to support a growing business team based in different jurisdictions
• Fluent / professional English language essential

Read Full Description