Head of Legal - Business Banking Product and BUK Fraud & Scams

Are you ready to take on a pivotal leadership role in the legal landscape of Business Banking? Join the Barclays UK Legal team as Head of Legal: Business Banking Product and BUK Fraud & Scams. In this dynamic position, you will lead a team of talented lawyers, ensuring seamless legal coverage for all non-lending products and propositions in Business Banking, while also overseeing legal matters related to Fraud & Scams across Barclays UK (“BUK”). As a key member of the Head of BUK Legal- Business Banking, COO and Customer & Digital’s direct legal leadership team, and a member of the BUK Legal General Counsel’s extended leadership team, you will play a crucial role in shaping and executing the strategic agenda for BUK Legal.

This role offers a unique opportunity to energize and inspire your team, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders within Barclays. If you are a senior lawyer with a passion for leadership, a strong understanding of legal risk management, and a commitment to excellence, we invite you to apply and be part of a team that is dedicated to providing best in class legal support.

Key Accountabilities

• Lead a team of lawyers ensuring end to end coverage of legal support for all non-lending product and propositions in Business Banking, in addition to the legal support for Fraud & Scams across BUK. The role holder will energise and inspire their team, striving for continuous improvement of standards within the team, ensuring technical legal precision in the provision and documentation of legal advice, service excellence and escalation within Legal and the business of any concerns. Will be cognisant of the talent pipeline, ensuring growth and development of the team is factored into work allocation and key person risk assessment. Will input where requested, into BUK legal risk and matter reporting. Will work collaboratively with a broad range of stakeholders within Legal, the business and other functional areas, deepening relationships with them, to ensure SME resource is engaged where appropriate.
• Committees & Fora – Attendee for Business Banking senior oversight meetings and act as deputy when required for the Head of Legal - Business Banking, COO and Customer & Digital.
• Strategic Agenda: Shape and execute the strategic agenda for the Legal Team considering business priorities, ways of working, cost efficiency, adopting and shaping transformation initiatives that may enhance the use of technology and management information, proactive risk & control spotting and external horizon awareness and team preparedness. This includes identifying strategic priorities, developing action plans, and monitoring progress against strategic goals.
• Legal Leadership: Be an active member of the BB, C&D and COO Legal Leadership team and the BUK Legal Extended Legal Leadership team. This includes being a culture creator, mindful of the diverse, equitable and inclusivity needs within the team, raising issues and being solution focussed, and taking up opportunities to lead on broader team and colleague strategies.
• Risk and Controls: Ensure their team complies with robust risk management practices in place for Legal Principle Risks.

Essential Skills/Basic Qualifications:

• A qualified lawyer with a minimum of 8 years’ post qualification experience in UK retail banking and financial services.
• Strong leadership skills, with proven capability to build and lead high performing legal teams and to establish themselves as a trusted adviser to senior business stakeholders.
• Ability to assess legal and operational risk in difficult and sensitive situations, such as a matter of acute time pressure and/or materiality and to execute at pace.
• Comfortable engaging senior stakeholders, excellent communication skills and proven ability to flex style and form strong, effective and influential relationships at all levels.
• Quick learner and self-starter with ability to work with autonomy, who is proactive with their self-development and improvement.
• Excellent communicator, both in written reports and verbal briefings with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to get things done through others holding them to a high standard of account, tailoring delegation style to the individual and specific circumstances.
• Passion for driving cultural and mindset change, continuous improvement and ability to inspire and energise a team, with proactive performance management.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.