Legal Advisor at South African Bureau Of Standards (SABS)

The Legal Advisor at South African Bureau Of Standards (SABS) is to provide general legal counsel and guidance to the SABS on a wide range of legal matters including commercial issues and corporate transactions, regulatory and compliance, Intellectual Property, and litigation management.

Functional Management

• Provide legal advice on required remedial actions following the receipt of complaints and investigation reports on SABS intellectual property infringements.
• Advise on related intellectual property legislation such as the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, 2008.
• Review legal instruments to ensure adequate protection of SABS’s intellectual property.
• Research trends and developments in intellectual property legislation matters.
• Detect early notification of risky and potentially litigious matters from business units in order to provide timeous legal advice and avoid potential and unnecessary litigation.

• Consult with business units and external legal counsel on litigation strategy when required.
• Coordinate internal stakeholders to prepare briefs and recommend litigation remedies.
• Provide well-researched and cogent advice to business units regarding potentially litigious matters.
• Proactively manage external legal service providers by providing clear and well-informed instructions in pending litigation matters.
• Provide written comments on litigation documents prepared by external legal counsel in order to ensure that the SABS’ position in all litigation matters is fully and properly articulated, thereby protect the SABS’ interest.  
• Manage litigation matters for and against the SABS and its subsidiaries within scope of control.
• Research and draft, legally sound, implementable and timely opinions as required by the SABS and its subsidiaries to inform key decisions.
• Research and draft all legal correspondence and relevant documents on behalf of the SABS and its subsidiaries.
• Provide general legal support and advice to management and business units to protect the reputation of the SABS and its subsidiaries.

Risk and Compliance Management

• Provide legal support to the SABS and its subsidiaries to ensure the mitigation of risk through the application of fraud controls and risk prevention principles and implementing of sound governance and compliance processes and tools to identify and manage risks.
• Research and advise on the trends in relation to various legislation and regulatory developments impacting on the operations of the SABS.
• Keep abreast of parliamentary legislation development processes impacting on the SABS and its subsidiaries and SABS’s legal position.
• Support and collate evidence to support all internal and external audit requirements.
• Support the maintenance and enforcement of related Service Level Agreements to minimise business risk and ensure business continuity.
• Support the drafting and review of the Legal Department’s operational instruments/policies for operational efficiency and organisational support.
• Support on drafting, reviewing and interpretation of organisational policies.
• Support compliance to all relevant laws, policies and Standard Operating Procedures throughout the organisation.
• Support the implementation of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000.   

Stakeholder Management

• Build and maintain effective internal and external stakeholder relationships for the purpose of managing stakeholder relations, knowledge sharing and integration and to manage the organisation’s reputation.
• Represent and participate in the organisation’s committees and tasks teams when required.
• Convene, chair and attend meetings and present findings and business cases to relevant stakeholders when required.
• Provide technical support on projects when required.
• Actively liaise and build relationships with SABS clients and service providers so as to ensure that the service standards are met appropriately.
• Effectively management customer complaints through timeous resolution and/or escalation as required.
• Analyze queries and develop mechanisms to proactively resolve common issues and share lessons learned across the SABS.
• Ensure the documentation of all stakeholder engagements to ensure continuity for future engagements.

Qualifications and Experience

• B-Degree in Law  
• 5 years relevant legal advisory work experience (Post Admission)
• Relevant legislation and regulatory frameworks
• Risk Management practices and principles
• Legal research principles, methods and resources
• Legal Opinion principles and drafting
• Judicial system and procedures
• Legal Contracting
• Commercial Law
• Computer Literacy