About This Role
Providing legal counsel and support to specific countries and geographies is the core of this senior-level position. The Senior Lead Counsel will offer legal support, advice, and guidance across various practice areas, focusing on local laws and regulations. This role requires a thorough understanding of business needs and a solid grounding in the laws of the operating geographies, contributing to strategic decisions with sound legal judgment to develop proactive, risk-appropriate, and commercially practical solutions.
Responsibilities
- Provide legal advice and support to Country Business Management on legal, control function, and regulatory matters associated with Citi’s business activities and legal entities in the covered countries, ensuring appropriate addressing of legal, regulatory, franchise, and reputational risks
- Support strategic initiatives of the businesses and functions in covered countries by providing legal guidance and interpretations of relevant laws, rules, regulations, and industry practices, and advising business management on legal matters impacting the business
- Coordinate the provision of internal and external legal support to Citi’s local businesses, working closely with the relevant Regional Product Counsel to ensure legal needs are met cost-effectively
- Develop a broad understanding of Citi’s businesses and the major legal and regulatory risks facing those businesses
- Ensure business decisions are made with appropriate legal advice and input by applying institutional knowledge against industry standard, widely accepted business practices, laws, rules, and regulatory guidelines, escalating as appropriate
- Collaborate across internal lines of business and control/support functions to achieve coordinated and efficient outcomes on matters of common interest; coordinate closely with Legal team members, as appropriate
- Advise (or arrange for the provision of legal advice by other internal or external counsel) business management on legal and regulatory risks affecting Citi’s businesses, as well as franchise and reputational risks, to help ensure that Citi is appropriately addressing those risks
- Provide legal advice to the Citi Country Officers and country management to support Citi’s maintaining of good relations with local regulators and all other local regulatory bodies that are relevant to Citi business activities
- Assure that key legal and regulatory developments that may impact or otherwise be relevant to Citi’s businesses in the country, including those involving other financial institutions, are appropriately monitored and that country management is apprised of significant developments
- Take an active role in any relevant country-level or cluster-level governance committees as assigned, e.g., coordinating committee, business risk & controls committee, legal & compliance committee, legal vehicle management committee; act as lawyer providing support to the country in any matter
