Legal Counsel

Main Purpose:

- To provide legal advice and support to Trafigura’s established and developing business across the North America region with particular focus on Trafigura’s power division.

- To provide additional advice, as necessary, in connection with transactional, contentious and regulatory matters across the entire portfolio of Trafigura’s commercial trading activities, including the trading of physically and financially settled power, natural gas, oil, oil products, coal, metals, and renewables.

- To work to meet the legal demands of Trafigura’s business and to provide advice in a clear, succinct and practical manner often under tight time constraints and commercial imperatives.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities, Key Responsibilities:

- To be the first point of contact in the region for the provision of legal services, with a focus on power related matters, including advising on:

• corporate transactional matters, including joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions;
• physical and derivatives trading (including under ISDA, EEI, WSPP and HRCO agreements); and
• regulatory requirements both in ERCOT, other US wholesale power markets and at a Federal level.

- To identify key legal risks and to report these to management and the commercial stakeholders in a timely and proactive manner and to develop effective and practical strategies to mitigate the same.

- To work as part of the wider Global Legal Team in providing excellent legal service to the business in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment.

- To procure and manage, where necessary, external legal advice and support.

- To work as an effective member of the Global Legal Team and to establish strong working relationships across the business.

- Planning, developing and providing training to staff on legal issues and on an ad-hoc basis and as part of established training programs in relation to legal and compliance policies.

Education, Experience, Skills:

• Legal professional qualification with at least 8 years post qualification experience.
• Strong preference for experience within power markets.
• Qualified in the US with credible private practice experience.
• Preference for in-house experience in a trading or an equivalent commercial environment, with significant international and cross border experience.
• Broad range of legal skills, with a focus on transactional work.  
• Good IT and organizational skills.
• Excellent command of the English language.

Core Competencies:

• Positive, self-motivated, committed, pro-active and efficient.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a wider team.
• Excellent communication skills to communicate complex legal issues and advice in an easily digestible manner.
• Ability to relate to commercial staff and management under pressure and with commercial perspective.
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with people at all levels, across the business.
• High integrity is essential.

Key Relationships and Department Overview:

Reporting to the Head of Legal for North America.