R HIGHLY NEGOTIABLE PLUS ANNUAL PERFORMANCE BONUS
Our client began as a small start-up based in South Africa offering domestic investment strategies. They offer distinctive investment strategies spanning equities, fixed income, multi-asset, alternatives and sustainability to help institutional investors, those advising others and individuals navigate an ever-changing world. All the employees have the opportunity to own part of the firm. They also have their founding leadership in place. The distinctive owner culture allows them to commit to building a long-term, inter-generational business. It supports a business fully aligned with their clients’ long-term investment objectives.. They have a strong belief in giving individuals the freedom to be themselves and ensuring all diverse perspectives are heard. Their culture provides all of the people, no matter what their background, with the opportunity to build a rewarding career.
They now seek a legal counsel – private markets to join their team.
The team is not building a conventional private markets platform—they are reimagining how it operates, scales and interacts with clients in a data-driven, automation-first environment. As part of this transformation, they are hiring a legal counsel to join their global legal team and work in direct partnership with investment, product and technology leads to shape the legal architecture of the private credit and private infrastructure strategies. This is a role for lawyers who want to build. You will work at the point of innovation: designing fund structures, guiding regulatory frameworks and embedding legal precision into intelligent, scalable operating models. You will help accelerate the platform’s growth through agile execution, commercial fluency and practical legal structuring that anticipates, not just reacts to business needs. The legal team at the company is a globally distributed group of experienced lawyers located in London, South Africa, and the United States. The team is responsible for managing all aspects of the firm’s legal affairs including fund structuring, maintenance and distribution; commercial, institutional and investment agreement negotiation and corporate organisation and governance.
JOB DESCRIPTION WILL INCLUDE BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO:
- You will be required to sit within the private markets vertical and will work in tight alignment with their private market’s product and investment teams. It is a strategic legal seat with direct exposure to senior stakeholders, live fund launches, co-investment structuring and transformational operational initiatives;
- You will be required to join a group that moves fast, collaborates deeply and is trusted as a core enabler of business growth and innovation;
- You will be required to lead the legal design and structuring of new private markets vehicles including GP/LP funds, co-investment structures, SPVs, feeder funds and credit instruments, with a focus on integrating sustainability and responsible investment principles where relevant;
- You will be required to draft, negotiate and maintain core fund documentation including LPA’s, PPM’s, side letters and subscription agreements;
- You will be required to advise on jurisdictional structuring across key hubs (UK, Luxembourg, Guernsey, Delaware, Cayman) and coordinate with local counsel;
- You will be required to run institutional investor negotiations (side letters, MFN processes, placement agent agreements) ensuring commercial alignment with global clients;
- You will be required to support investment and operations teams on direct lending transactions, co-investments, fund-level financing and secondary trades;
- You will be required to act as a regulatory lead on frameworks such as AIFMD, securitisation regulation, SEC exemptions and cross-border marketing regimes including sustainability disclosure regulation;
- You will be required to work with platform and product teams to embed legal guardrails into digitised documentation workflows, approval processes and reporting pipelines;
- You will be required to manage external counsel engagement, scope, budget and execution quality across jurisdictions and projects.
CORE COMPETENCIES REQUIRED, BUT NOT LIMITED TO:
- You are able to balance legal risk with commercial objectives in a fast-moving investment environment;
- You have excellent communication (verbal and written) skills in English and can present complex legal concepts clearly to non-lawyers and senior management;
- You are comfortable working across multiple projects, time zones and countries;
- You are driven and intellectually curious, with a keen eye for detail;
- You are comfortable in agile, cross-functional environments where priorities shift and innovation is constant;
- You are commercial, pragmatic, and solution-oriented with the judgment to balance legal risk and business delivery.
CORE QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:
- You have a minimum of 3 years current, relevant PQE with strong exposure to private funds, alternative assets, or structured investment vehicles;
- You have a mix of private practice and in-house experience preferred, ideally within asset management, infrastructure, or private credit platforms;
- You have demonstrated experience in designing private infrastructure and/or private credit fund vehicles, including GP / LP agreements, SV / SPV structures and feeder funds;
- You have confidence navigating institutional investor negotiations and commercial-side discussions with DFI’s, pensions, insurers and SWF’s;
- You have familiarity with fund regimes and legal norms in core jurisdictions (Luxembourg, UK, Cayman, Delaware, Guernsey, US);
- You have experience supporting deal teams on primary, secondary and co-investment transactions and fund-level finance;
- You will be part of:
- The design of a modern Private Markets platform; one that is natively intelligent, scalable and built for institutional-grade outcomes;
- A legal function that shapes business strategy, not just reacts to it;
- A team that believes lawyers should help rewire how investment platforms operate, not sit outside of them.
- Awesome opportunity!!!! Report to COO in London.