Derivatives and Trading Paralegal

About Macfarlanes

Macfarlanes is a pre-eminent law firm that serves a global client base in private capital, private wealth, M&A and disputes. Personal connection, an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to excellence are at the heart of our firm. These values drive our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.

We are big enough to undertake the most complex and demanding mandates yet small enough to know each other well and to be agile, adapting to the needs of our clients. We seek to strengthen the firm by recruiting talented people from all backgrounds who want to build long-lasting and impactful careers with us. Our culture is challenging and supportive, creating an environment where individuals can thrive.

What this means for you

Joining Macfarlanes means being part of a collaborative, Partner-led team where you’ll develop and learn from experienced lawyers and business professionals. Our size means you’ll be given genuine responsibility early on and often be involved at the heart of client matters, gaining insight into how our high-quality legal advice is developed and delivered to help clients overcome their most pressing issues.

You’ll work closely with senior colleagues who are approachable and who want you to succeed. You’ll be encouraged to get involved in client and business development activities, and you’ll be recognised for your contribution.
The majority of our work has a cross-border focus, so you’ll often collaborate with global clients and specialist advisers in overseas jurisdictions. You’ll build connections with international law firms, broaden your experience, and be part of a multidisciplinary team that comes together to achieve the best results.

We also place real importance on your development. Our training and mentoring programmes are second to none, and designed to help you strengthen your legal and commercial skills. 

Above all, you’ll be part of a firm where we all work together as part of a cohesive and supportive team, where you’ll be recognised and appreciated, and encouraged to succeed.

Practice overview

Our Derivatives and Trading group, part of our Finance practice, consists of one Partner, two Senior Counsel, five Associates, one Trainee Solicitor and three Paralegals.

The group represents hedge funds, credit funds, corporate treasuries, financial institutions, managed account platforms, asset managers, pension funds, family offices and high-net-worth individuals in structuring, negotiating and executing complex and bespoke derivative instruments. Our team works alongside our specialist lawyers in financial services, regulatory, capital markets, tax and dispute resolution and is able to advise on both the day-to-day trading requirements of our clients, and the most complex derivative and structured product transactions in both transactional and contentious roles. The team prides itself on not only knowing the legal issues inside out, across a broad spectrum of standard form and bespoke documents, but also on understanding the strategies, risks and operational issues that affect the clients.
Our team advises on a wide range of products including repos, stock loans and all kinds of derivative, covering interest rate, fixed income, currency, commodity, equity, credit, basket and index underliers. The team routinely advises on matters such as, prime brokerage and clearing, and issues around rehypothecation and segregation, custody and collateral, securities lending and margin financing matters, repos, structured products, exchange traded derivatives, central clearing including OTC clearing under Dodd-Frank and EMIR, cash equities and cash bond trading under broker terms of business and electronic trading arrangements.

Our client base is also global; we act for managers in the UK, the US, Europe and the Far East (with a particular concentration of clients in Hong Kong) and we have daily experience negotiating for these clients with the international offices of the leading US, Asian and European banks and broker dealers.

The issues we face are global. We routinely advise on practical issues of trading in the US markets, on structuring offshore derivative instruments accessing the Chinese, Indian and emerging markets and on dealing with multiple regulatory regimes.

Further details about our derivatives and trading group, the work we do, and examples of recent deals can be found on our website.
 

The role

The role entails co-ordinating the launch of new hedge funds for a major client of the group and managing on-going negotiations and legal issues following each launch, as well as implementing regulatory driven changes and on-going matters. You will work closely with a partner and a team of associates in the group and you will be responsible for keeping each workstream on track. In addition, you will assist with negotiations of some trade and financing documents and may be asked to research and review points of law and market practice. You will be in daily contact with the client, hedge fund managers, and brokers across the world’s leading financial centres.

This job description encompasses the main duties of the role and is by no means exhaustive. It is anticipated that duties may vary from time to time according to the needs of the practice area.

The candidate

Broadly, we want to recruit a paralegal that fulfils the following criteria:

• strong academic qualifications from degree upwards;
  
• some work experience from a highly regarded derivatives practice or financial institution is desirable – in particular in the broker-dealer or hedge fund community;
  
• ability to work across teams – the role will require the paralegal to work with investment banks, hedge funds and other law firms across multiple jurisdictions;
  
• excellent organisational skills – the role is process-orientated, organising negotiation and document execution to very demanding timetables;
  
• ambitious, with a genuine commitment to develop their professional and legal skills; and
  
• articulate and confident to deliver at the highest standard in a fast-paced environment.
  

Paralegal development 

Our learning curriculum is designed to equip our people with the broad range of skills and knowledge they need to develop and be effective in their roles. The curriculum includes sessions specifically aimed at paralegals, covering essential legal and business skills to support individuals at the start of their legal career.

We deliver training throughout the year in a range of different ways. This includes webinars, workshops, one-to-one skills support, mentoring and coaching. We support development opportunities in a variety of topics, including communication, presentation and drafting skills.

Routes to qualification

Paralegals looking to qualify as associates are encouraged to apply for our Training Programme. 

Some paralegals may prefer not to (or are unable to) undertake the Training Programme route for a variety of reasons, choosing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) route instead. The firm will offer study leave and exam leave for paralegals sitting the SQE, and will sign off QWE (that meets the SRA’s requirements) gained at Macfarlanes. Internal paralegals that have qualified in this way may be considered for NQ vacancies not filled by those qualifying through the firm’s Training Programme and where the firm is or may be looking to recruit externally providing they have completed at least one year of their QWE at Macfarlanes and passed both SQE 1 and SQE 2 on the first attempt.

Application screening

Any offer of employment with us is subject to our pre-employment checks which are conducted by a third-party screening provider. These checks will be initiated with your consent, and your CV will be sent to the provider by us. The screening will include but is not limited to your employment references, professional and academic qualifications including grades and any criminal records. Your offer will be subject to the successful completion of these checks. 

Our commitment to inclusion

Inclusion is one of our key priorities and it is a goal we are actively working towards. We believe that an inclusive, forward-thinking culture is intrinsically important and enables us to provide innovative solutions to our clients.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, bringing different perspectives and experiences, making Macfarlanes an exciting and stimulating place to work. We seek to recruit the best candidates, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social or economic background, religion, disability, sexual orientation or any other characteristic.

As part of this commitment, we will ask you certain diversity data questions. We would really appreciate you and/or your recruiter completing these questions when submitting an application to Macfarlanes as this data enables us to measure our progress and identify any actions needed to continue to support an inclusive culture. This data is anonymised to maintain the privacy of applicants. If you have any questions relating to how this data is used, please contact a member of the recruitment team.

Should you require any adjustments during the application and/or interview process, please do not hesitate to inform your recruiter or a member of the recruitment team. Please note, the job description is available in other accessible formats (for example, large print).

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme, please email the recruitment team at [email protected].