Overview
ADSS (Abu Dhabi Securities) is a leading financial institution headquartered in Abu Dhabi, UAE, offering a broad range of financial products and services including trading, investment solutions and institutional services. With a strong presence across global markets, ADSS is committed to building world-class capabilities across all its functions — and the Legal team plays a central role in supporting that ambition.
We are seeking a commercially astute and self-sufficient Legal Counsel to join our Legal team. The successful candidate will manage a broad portfolio of legal matters, providing high-quality, pragmatic legal advice across corporate, commercial, regulatory, and transactional matters.
This is a hands-on role suited to a lawyer who is comfortable operating independently, engaging directly with senior stakeholders, and balancing legal risk with business objectives.
Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities
Commercial & Transactional
- Draft, review, and negotiate a wide range of commercial contracts including service agreements, NDAs, procurement contracts, and partnership arrangements.
- Advise business units on contract structuring, risk allocation, and contractual obligations from pre-signature through to completion and dispute resolution.
- Manage relationships with external counsel on complex or specialist matters, ensuring cost efficiency and quality of advice.
Corporate & Regulatory
- Provide ongoing corporate governance support, including board resolutions, statutory filings, and maintenance of corporate records across group entities.
- Monitor and advise on relevant regulatory developments across applicable jurisdictions, including UAE federal, ADGM, and applicable sector-specific regulations.
- Assist in managing regulatory submissions, licensing requirements, and correspondence with regulatory authorities as required.
- Advise the Compliance function on sanctions and anti‑money laundering (AML) regulatory developments where legal interpretation, regulatory analysis, or legal risk assessment is required, ensuring alignment between legal advice and compliance frameworks.
Data Privacy
- Lead on data protection compliance, including maintaining the organisation's data protection framework, conducting DPIAs, and managing subject access requests in line with UAE data protection legislation and applicable international standards.
- Draft and negotiate data processing agreements, data transfer arrangements, and privacy-related provisions within commercial contracts.
- Advise business units on data collection, retention, sharing, and processing activities, identifying compliance gaps and remediation steps.
Dispute Resolution & Risk Management
- Take ownership of pre-litigation matters including demand letters, negotiated settlements, and engagement with counterparties and their counsel.
- Managing recoveries and dispute resolutions, and relationships with external advisors and vendors in those workstreams and instruct and supervise external litigation counsel where matters escalate to formal proceedings, managing costs and outcomes.
- Identify legal and regulatory risks embedded in commercial activities and deliver proactive, practical mitigation strategies to business stakeholders.
Qualifications
- Qualified lawyer (LLB, LLM, or equivalent) admitted to practise in a relevant jurisdiction; familiarity with international legal principles is an advantage.
Experience
- Minimum 5–7 years of post-qualification experience, with meaningful in-house experience or a combination of reputable private practice and in-house tenure.
Skills and Competencies
Essential
- Proven track record in drafting and negotiating complex commercial contracts independently, including service agreements, procurement contracts, and NDAs.
- Demonstrable experience managing data privacy compliance matters and drafting data-related contractual provisions.
- Hands-on exposure to dispute management, including pre-litigation strategy, settlement negotiations, and supervision of external litigation counsel.
- Sound knowledge of UAE commercial law, including UAE mainland provisions and familiarity with the ADGM regulatory and legal framework.
- Demonstrated ability to manage a varied caseload independently and deliver accurate, timely advice under pressure.
- Full professional proficiency in English (written and spoken); Arabic language skills are an advantage but not required.
Desirable
- Prior experience in-house at a financial services, technology, or government-linked entity operating in the UAE or wider GCC.
- Exposure to cross-border transactions or multi-jurisdictional legal advice.
- Experience with legal technology tools, e-signature platforms, and matter management software.
