Regional Head of Legal, Svitzer Europe

My name is Lise Demant, Managing Director for Svitzer Europe, and I’m looking for a new Regional Head of Legal to join our Svitzer Europe leadership team. In this role, you get the unique opportunity to take on responsibility for and lead Legal topics within the region – from taking an active part in contract negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, compliance and other legal matters.

We offer

Svitzer is a towage company, which means we help our customers maneuver their larger ships safely and timely in and out of port. You may have heard about the large container ship stuck in the Suez Canal – our Svitzer tug boats in the region played an active role in supporting the mission of freeing the large container ship from its dire straits and we helped unlock the gridlock that global trade was experiencing due to the incident. I look forward to sharing more about what we do and our important role in keeping the world supply of goods flowing.
In this role, you will get ample opportunity to take charge of all things legal, build your legal expertise further and develop yourself. We are a small team and occasionally we all need to roll up our sleeves and support the frontline business in solving day-to-day issues, while keeping focus on the strategic journey we are on. You will find that I am passionate both about our team and the business and that my style of communication is open and succinct. I appreciate that you are upright, structured and collaborative in your way of engaging with our team across functions in Svitzer Europe.
You will report directly to me and become part of the Svitzer Europe Extended Management Team (EMT) and your peers and close co-workers are the business function/cluster leads of the region (Operations, Finance, Communication, HR, Cluster management and Commercial). You will also have the pleasure of working with colleagues in the front-line business as well as our customers.
Our team is located at Maersk’s headquarter in Copenhagen with a beautiful view of the Opera House and a cozy coffee shop called Kafferiet at our disposal in the building reception. We work flexibly, not because there is a policy telling us to, but because it just makes good business and work/life sense and creates an engaging work environment.
Some ad-hoc travel may be required once the world allows. This will be planned flexibly and based on yours as well as the business specific needs.

Key responsibilities

You will play an important role as Regional Head of Legal both internally within the team and the broader Svitzer Europe organisation, but also externally towards key stakeholders. You will be responsible for legal within these areas:

PROJECT AND COMMERCIAL
• Initial legal analysis and project due diligence, transactions and related third parties and ensuring commercial contracts adhere with negotiated terms
• Leading discussions with customers’ legal counsel on liabilities
• Advise on contractual set-up for Svitzer Europe region and assistance in drafting commercial contracts in relation to charters, shipbuilding, sale and purchase, concessions service agreements and more
• Assist in drafting negotiating commercial contracts including compliance elements
• Assist in structuring, documenting and negotiating joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, purchase/sale of assets, lease of warehouse etc.
• Assist in preparation and maintenance of transaction documentation

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
• Drafting, amending and reviewing corporate documents, including board materials, powers of attorney and transaction approvals
• Developing and implementing systems and procedures for monitoring and recording corporate affairs
• Ensuring maintenance of up to date corporate appointments
• Assisting in preparation of standardized corporate materials, creating and maintaining corporate files
• Liaising with relevant regional personnel, external counsel and registered agents on corporate matters
• Setting up new entities and dissolving dormant entities in coordination with external counsel
• Updating the Maersk Group’s corporate data base (Black Book) for Svitzer Europe region entities

COMPLIANCE
• Coordinating internal communications in relation to competition, anti-corruption, export controls, whistleblower policies etc. between Corporate HQ in Copenhagen and countries within the region
• Assisting in development and implementation of internal processes and procedures within the region, including implementation of directives from Corporate HQ in Copenhagen
• Assisting with the implementation, documentation and monitoring of authority matrices
• Updating Svitzer Contracts database with relevant contracts

PROCESS MANAGEMENT & GENERAL LEGAL FUNCTION
• Providing advice and support across all business functions including finance, operations/technical, HR and business development on all general contractual/legal matters
• Advising all business functions on legal issues
• Developing and maintaining good working relationships with internal and external stakeholders

MANAGING EXTERNAL LEGAL COUNCEL
• Selecting, instructing, managing and monitoring performance of external counsel and related third party service providers and assisting with management of legal spend
• Managing litigation/arbitration matters with assistance of external counsel/group legal as applicable
• Main areas of responsibility will be within Corporate Affairs and General Legal Counsel. Tasks will amongst other encompass board and shareholder legal governance, commercial and shipbuilding contract reviews, company restructures, preparation of directives, black books, Board materials, etc. Furthermore, as you will be working closely with Treasury, Tax, and Compliance you will be expected to assist and/or take on responsibilities within these areas.

We are looking for

You have in-depth knowledge and experience within own job discipline and handle situations and assignments independently and will seek advice and guidance on more complex issues.
Further we expect that you;
• Have a Master of Laws or Master in Business Administration and Commercial Law
• Have 2+ years from an in-house legal function and/or as an attorney or assistant attorney in a law firm working with commercial law
• Have the ability to collaborate with and develop strong business relationships with people in the organisation of varying levels of legal knowledge
• Have a risk aware mindset and able to provide balanced advice on commercial contract terms and liability
• Have a high personal drive, high level of integrity, are structured, result oriented and proactive
• Have strong ability to plan and handle changes
• Our working language is English and you must be fluent in writing as well verbally