Senior Manager, Legal Advisory

The role

The Senior Manager Advisory Legal will be a member of APRA Legal’s Senior Leadership team, supporting the General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel. Working alongside another Senior Manager, you will lead and support Advisory Legal colleagues in their engagement with stakeholders, formulation of legal strategy and expert advice, and the continued development and embedding of best practice within the team.

Reporting into the General Counsel, you will have a number of direct reports, including Special Counsel and up to two Managers, who in turn are each responsible for the line management of a number of Advisory Legal team members. As a people leader role, the development of colleagues and the ability to create a cohesive, dynamic, high-performing and collegiate team is of the utmost importance. You will engage with senior internal supervisors, supervised entities and their legal advisors, external law firms, and Counsel instructed by APRA.

The team

The Advisory Legal team is responsible for supporting APRA in the performance of its functions as a government agency and across the three industries that it is responsible for supervising. The team provides legal advice across various aspects of financial services, corporate and administration law and prudential regulation, involving life insurance, private health insurance, friendly societies most of the superannuation industry.

The advisory Legal Team also plays a key role in APRA’s internal governance and for the provision of corporate and commercial legal advise to the organisation. Key stakeholders will primarily be from one or more of APRA’s frontline supervision and policy divisions and APRA senior executives. You will also have a key role in providing support to other APRA divisions and initiatives involving peer Commonwealth agencies.

Key responsibilities

• Manage the workflow across the legal ensuring operational efficiency and the timely delivery of advice, ensuring that Legal’s resources are delivered in a timely matter:
• Support Advisory colleagues in the delivery of high quality, practical legal advice;
• Act as an independent and trusted adviser to key decision makers, establishing rapport and showing how APRA Legal can add value;
• Oversee and support the delivery of high quality, practical legal advice embodying APRA’s risk appetite to internal stakeholders, informed by a ‘one-APRA’ mindset;
• Be a steward of APRA Legal’s ‘Communities of Practice’ which are specialist knowledge sharing forums;
• Directly engage with senior stakeholders in industry-aligned supervision teams and support Enforcement colleagues and other members of the wider Legal team in their engagement with those stakeholders; and
• Model inclusive leadership behaviours and encourage feedback and a ‘speak up’ culture to create an open culture, where staff can challenge and present diverse views and opinions to foster better outcomes.

About you

• Strong people leadership experience;
• Experience of complex legal problem-solving as part of a team;
• Strong project management skills:
• Demonstrated experience of senior engagement with internal and external stakeholders;
• Experience in Corporate governance, commercial, and/or corporate work; OR
• Advising in one or more of insurance, banking and corporate, whether this expertise has been obtained working in-house, in a Regulator or in private legal practice; and
• Legal qualified, holding a current practising certificate;

To work with us, you need to be an Australian citizen with eligibility to gain a Baseline Security clearance. 

About APRA

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) places you at the heart of Australia’s financial services industry. APRA serves the Australian community by helping ensure financial institutions deliver on the financial commitments they make, within a stable, efficient and competitive financial system.

At APRA we’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where everyone belongs, feels valued and respected. We aspire to attract and foster diversity of background, thought, and experience, recognising that a broad range of perspectives, approaches and ideas makes us stronger, and better enables us to meet our obligation to protect the financial wellbeing of the Australian community. When applying, please inform us of any adjustments you may need during the interview process.