An opportunity has arisen for a Compliance Officer to join the Group's Office of the General Counsel ("OGC") in a role supporting both the Financial Crime team and the New Client Administration team. The role requires that the candidate attend our Leeds office a minimum of 2 days per week, perhaps more depending on business need.
Within the OGC, the Financial Crime and New Client Administration teams have primary responsibility for the Group's financial crime framework and client onboarding processes including, all aspects of anti-money laundering ("AML") and sanctions compliance. The teams provide support and advice to Fee Earners/Partners and other Business Services functions across the Group on a range of regulatory, risk and compliance issues.
The successful candidate will initially focus primarily on financial crime compliance, before progressively gaining experience within the New Client Administration team, supporting client and matter onboarding and associated risk processes.
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Identification, assessment and management financial crime risks and advising the business on their impact.
- Escalation of AML, sanctions and other financial crime risks in accordance with internal procedures, supporting the Money Laundering Reporting Officer ("MLRO") and Deputy MLROs as required, including preparation for regulatory reviews.
- Supporting the firm-wide Financial Crime Risk Assessment, ensuring updates reflect regulatory and policy change through horizon scanning and embedding updates into procedures and guidance.
- Review, verification and analysis of new and existing client information to ensure compliance with AML, sanctions and wider financial crime requirements, meeting agreed quality and productivity targets.
- Conducting comprehensive client due diligence ("CDD"), including identification and verification of corporate structures and ultimate beneficial owners.
- Liaising with Fee Earners and Partners to obtain additional information, provide advice on onboarding requirements, and support discussions with prospective clients.
- Performance of ongoing and periodic client monitoring, including daily screening reviews and scheduled CDD refreshes.
- Assisting with responses to client and supplier due diligence questionnaires and regulatory or audit data requests, including SRA thematic reviews.
- Supporting the effective use and continuous improvement of financial crime onboarding and screening systems and tools.
- Contribution to financial crime working groups and wider OGC discussions to support best practice and continuous improvement.
Additional Tasks
- Proactively horizon scanning, maintaining awareness of regulatory/compliance changes, developing knowledge of financial crime requirements, and helping to implement process changes.
- Responding to ad hoc queries.
- Assisting with regulatory reporting requirements, research and other administrative tasks to support the team.
- Supporting on project work including:
- Collaborating with the learning and development team to formulate and deliver bespoke training.
- Liaising with Business Technology and Procurement functions for the improvement of the new client onboarding/matter opening process.
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Must be graduate level (or equivalent i.e. have experience in the legal sector)
- Previous experience of working in a legal or financial services risk and compliance function is essential
- Experience and knowledge of anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations
- Good IT skills with a knowledge of Microsoft Office packages
- Strong attention to detail
- The ability to work on own initiative and manage own workload
- Good written and verbal communication skills
- Good interpersonal skills
- Focused and analytical
- Good team player
- Confident decision-maker
We are a leading international legal business with over 3,000 colleagues and a diverse range of capabilities. We are market leaders in insurance, health and real estate but with a full-service offering, including growing Financial Services and Tech capabilities. We represent a wide range of clients – from household names to government departments and NHS bodies. We act for nearly all of the top-20 UK and global insurers, we're market leaders in the provision of strategic, commercial and regulatory advice to providers and commissioners in the health sector, and in real estate we advise all of the UK’s top-five housebuilders.
We are a fast-growing international business with offices around the globe. In addition to our 11 UK offices, we also have offices in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Dublin, Lima, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Paris, Rome, Santiago de Chile, and Singapore plus a representative office in Miami and broad network of affiliations across the globe.
At DAC Beachcroft we are committed to and recognise the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion across the board, including and beyond the protected characteristics. We take decisions based solely on merit. We value, welcome and seek out people with different backgrounds and life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, ways of thinking and identities.
We are happy to talk flexible working with our Flex Forward scheme. We would encourage you to talk to us about our approach to flexible working during the hiring process if you would like to explore this further.
Note for Recruitment Agencies
DAC Beachcroft manages all vacancies via our in-house recruitment teams, prioritising direct sourcing and referrals. When external support is required, roles are released to selected agencies on our Preferred Supplier List (PSL).
Speculative CVs sent to any DAC Beachcroft employee without prior instruction from our recruitment teams (LLP and CSG) will not be accepted, and no fees will be payable.
