Knowledge Lawyer Global Financial Markets

The Role

Clifford Chance Middle East is a fullservice office which is completely integrated with and supported by our global network.  We advise clients on major transactions in the Middle East and beyond.  Our clients include public and private corporations investment banks and financial institutions governments and international bodies. Our lawyers specialise in providing a seamless integrated service.

The Clifford Chance Knowledge Expertise & Thought Leadership (KETL) team has an excellent reputation in the UAE market and a welldeveloped internal and external profile.  The team provides a service across our offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and provides support to our team in Riyadh AS&H Clifford Chance.  

Our leading Global Financial Markets team in the Middle East advises on the most significant finance and capital market transactions in the region. Our work spans the whole of the MENA region and beyond under both English and UAE law.

The Work

The role of the KETL team includes:

• Ensuring feeearners are kept uptodate with regards to legal developments and local market issues;

• Working on highly technical local law issues and developing deep expertise in key areas of regional law and practice;

• Knowledge management including knowhow development template updates and intranet resource development;

• Thought Leadership including helping the Firm and its lawyers to remain at the forefront of legal practice and thinking; and

• Managing and delivering training on local law to lawyers and clients.

Key Attractions

• You will be part of an innovative and highly regarded KETL team.

• You will be exposed to a range of work across the categories outlined above across practice areas (although mainly focussed on the Global Financial Markets team (including Debt Capital Markets)) and across jurisdictions.

• You will directly contribute to the strong relationships the team shares with both internal and external clients.

• You will have access to our awardwinning global Clifford Chance Academy learning and development programme.

• The role may also include some regular external facing legal training and the opportunity for some clientfacing work.

• This position offers a chance to work regular and predictable hours during the workweek but may also require the flexibility to work after regular business hours if a specific need arises.  

Qualifications :

Your Experience

Key responsibilities

The Knowledge Lawyer role is recognised as an important and valued one at Clifford Chance. 

The role will support the Global Financial Markets teams in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and provide support to AS&H Clifford Chance in Riyadh. The Global Financial Markets team covers general banking debt capital markets Islamic finance asset and project finance and includes our strategic Africa team. Working alongside transactional lawyers the role will be expected to deliver on a variety of regular support activities including:

Legal/regulatory 

• Analysing forthcoming legal/regulatory developments in order to brief lawyers and clients on their impact (including preparing client briefings or client presentation materials for the client team to use) and to update internal resources e.g. templates/Topic Guides.

• Responding to fee earner queries on legal and regulatory matters including on legal/regulatory developments including highly technical local law issues.

• Contributing to relevant legal/regulatory consultation responses.

• Preparing and presenting summaries on legal/regulatory developments at practice group meetings.

Templates

• Maintaining and updating existing templates.

• Identifying and creating new templates as required. 

• Improving the accessibility and ease of use of templates including template automation.

Thought Leadership

• Driving Thought Leadership initiatives and taking queries on this from lawyers Partners and Business Development.  

• Working with lawyers Partners and Business Development on key strategic areas of priority for Clifford Chance including ESG initiatives.

• Working with lawyers to write briefings and deliver training on key initiatives.

Training

• Contributing to the annual internal crosspractice training programme.

• Providing practice area specific induction training for new joiners and other legal training queries.

• Acting as point of contact with for Business Development/Partners for practice area specific client training.

Knowledge sharing 

• Encouraging knowledge sharing by lawyers and the submission of knowhow to a shared knowledge database.

• Facilitating post deal reviews analysis and knowledge consolidation.

• Considering better ways in which knowledge can be shared and develop other knowledge databases e.g. Topic Guides.

• Promoting and assisting lawyer with use of AI software alongside our Best Delivery Team.

Other:

• Fee earning on relevant GFM transactions when required

Skills & Experience

• The ideal candidate does not need prior PSL experience but will have experience of working within a similarly highprofile international law firm and at least 4 years commercial transactional experience.

• Knowledge and understanding of local UAE laws is essential.

• Experience in general banking & finance markets law is essential for this position. Experience on drafting and advising in respect of Legal Opinions is also preferred.

• Candidates will have an excellent academic background.  Candidates will have strong drafting skills a good attention to detail and strong organisational skills.  The candidate will also be proactive and committed to providing a firstclass service to our lawyers and clients.

• All candidates should demonstrate strong presentation analytical and communication skills as well as good commercial awareness.

• Fluency in English (oral and written) is essential.  Arabic language skills would be advantageous but are not essential.

Additional Information :

Equal opportunities statement

At Clifford Chance we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender gender identity and expression marital or civil partnership status race colour national or ethnic origin social or economic background disability religious belief sexual orientation or age.  This applies to recruitment and selection terms and conditions of employment including pay promotion training transfer and every other aspect of employment.

We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm. 

Find out more about our inclusive culture here.