Entity Governance and Compliance Specialist

Location:

Belfast

Workplace:

Hybrid

The Opportunity:

The Entity Governance and Compliance Specialist will focus on the design and implementation of complex domestic and cross border reorganizations. The Group is experienced in reorganizations of all types and includes experts from a number of our practice areas.

As part of this Group, our Corporate Maintenance practice helps clients meet their annual corporate compliance obligations such as filing statutory accounts and annual returns, as well as implementing changes to legal entities such as director and auditor changes.

Our Global Corporate Maintenance Solutions ("GCMS") service has been established as an innovative way to help clients coordinate and monitor the performance of their essential corporate maintenance obligations and the GCMS team in Belfast has been established to carry out, track and coordinate related work efficiently and to high standards of quality and consistency.

The role of a Global Corporate Maintenance Solutions Specialist is to work with our lead offices and corporate maintenance teams across the Baker McKenzie office network and to be lead contacts for and supporting key global clients. It is expected that the GCMS client portfolio will continue to grow.

A GCMS Specialist will have a very strong work ethic, attention to detail and a genuine interest in assisting with corporate maintenance matters and advancing the development of the GCMS team.

Working at Baker McKenzie:

Baker McKenzie is the world’s leading law firm with offices all over the world. Our Belfast Centre is home to over 400 teammates in both legal and professional services such as finance, IT, marketing and business support.

We offer one of the best workplace benefits packages in the business with comprehensive private health cover, income protection, life assurance and a full employee assistance plan. These and a host of other benefits make us one of the most desirable companies to work for in Belfast.

We are committed to promoting inclusion, diversity and equity for all and are confident we can provide a career as individual and as exceptional as you.

About the role:

As part of this role, the successful candidate will:

Responsibilities:

• Act as a key client contact on GCMS projects
• Develop, populate and maintain project and client-specific IT platforms
• Coordinate the provision of corporate maintenance services and be responsible for technical quality. This will include working with local legal experts around the world to manage corporate maintenance deadlines such as filing annual accounts for clients' entities globally, managing large-scale multi-jurisdictional changes such as director and officer changes, developing know how and templates in this area, advising clients on any compliance issues identified by local legal experts and working with local experts to advise best course of action
• Project manage the onboarding process for new GCMS clients including transition planning, liaising with clients as to the delivery of internal instructions and transition plans to their internal teams and third party providers, managing the in-scope entities list, fees and budgets, documenting the invoicing schedules and fee arrangements, establishing timing for completion of the initial compliance review, setting up regular client update calls, collating contacts for preferred correspondent law firms, supervising GCMS Legal Professionals and Administrators involved in the process, managing client expectations, cementing the client relationship, and providing the GCMS team manager with regular updates in relation to the above
• Track and monitor the updating of compliance trackers, escalate any upcoming or lapsed deadlines to the GCMS Company Secretary and lead associates as appropriate
• Escalate issues to the GCMS Manager or lead associates as appropriate with proposed solutions to those issues and independently implementing their resolution
• When required, contact correspondent law firms for fee proposals, contribute to pitches, fee proposals and client RFPs, assist with demonstrations and provide context as required during the sales process and assist the GCMS Manager in liaising with partners, business development teams and other internal contacts as to the suitability of GCMS for clients
• Work with other GCMS Specialists to prepare client invoices
• Assist GCMS Manager in preparations for quarterly/bi-annual or annual client review calls and client visits, and in answering client queries about the GCMS retainers, scope of services, and in general, to build lasting relationships with client contacts
• Identify ways to enhance and retain current GCMS client relationships
• Assist the GCMS Manager in conducting fee analysis, and monitoring project and fee status
• Work with the GCMS Manager and Company Secretary to capture know-how, refine process mapping, efficiencies and best practice on an ongoing basis; facilitate embedding of new processes; refine process guidance and communicate across the network as appropriate
• Provide training and guidance to corporate maintenance teams across the network, external local counsel and clients
• Identify areas for professional development
• Assist in the orientation of new staff and the development and supervision of GCMS Legal Professionals
• Share and contribute to the growth of the collective knowledge of the GCMS team

Essential Criteria:

To be successful in this role you will need:

Skills and Experience:

• Graduate (2:1 preferred)
• Advanced in Microsoft Office applications (Intermediate Excel and Word is essential)
• Strong technical skills (experience of SharePoint an advantage)
• Previous professional services sector experience, ideally legal or as a company secretary
• A positive team member and active contributor in a team environment
• Excellent organisational, prioritisation and problem solving skills
• Confidence to liaise with people at all levels of the firm
• Exceptional attention to detail is a must
• Manages multiple work tasks, prioritizes time and meets deadlines and proposes solutions where conflicts exist

Diversity & Inclusion

• Respects and enjoys the diversity of cultural, social and academic backgrounds found in the Firm