Legal Counsel

Legal Counsel

Location: London, UK

Salary: £65,000 to £72,000 per annum – dependent on experience

Job Type: Permanent

Posting Date: 01.02.2019

Closing Date: 01.03.2019

We are looking to recruit a suitably qualified and experienced solicitor to join our legal team.

Established in 2009, AgDevCo is a social impact investor and project developer operating exclusively in the agriculture sector in Africa. Our mission is to build successful African agribusiness through long-term investment and support to deliver positive impact at scale. We invest debt and equity in African agribusinesses to create jobs, improve food security, and boost prosperity. We have made over 65 investments to date, and committed $135 million. Our investments offer a way of leveraging large amounts of private capital into socially-responsible farming and agri-processing businesses in Africa, with major benefits for smallholder farmers and local communities. We now have more than $170m of capital to invest in a portfolio of investments in Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

Main duties of the role include:

• Providing legal advice on AgDevCo’s debt, quasi-equity and equity investments in eight Sub-Saharan African jurisdictions including managing and coordinating advice from external counsel
•  Advising the AgDevCo group in relation to a variety of legal, regulatory and compliance risks
• Advising on governance and policy matters
• Advising on the legal aspects of a wide range of legally related commercial issues
• Drafting papers for executive/investment committees on the legal aspects of transactions
•  Advising the UK and country offices with statutory filing requirements where necessary

Essential skills, competencies and qualifications:

• At least four years post-qualification experience
• Professional experience of advising on corporate M&A/private equity transactions
• Strong team player with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience of working independently within a legal department and managing priorities and working to challenging deadlines
• Experience of a flexible approach to working in a dynamic and fast-paced legal environment
• Experience of explaining legal issues and risks to investment teams, and recommending appropriate courses of action
• Passion for international development
• In-house legal experience
• Professional experience within an international organisation
• Professional legal experience in sub-Saharan Africa

Desirable experience:

• Experience advising agribusinesses
• Experience advising on/documenting project development
• Experience advising on debt investments

To apply:

Please send your CV and a cover letter explaining why you would be suitable for the role, with subject “Legal Counsel”. Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are unfortunately unable to respond to all applications individually. If you do not hear from us within 10 working days, your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

“In submitting this application, I agree that AgDevCo may collect the personal data it contains and use that data for current and future recruitment. In the event that my application is unsuccessful, I understand that my details will be securely destroyed after six months.”