Legal Counsel- Africa

Our company:

Tokyo-headquartered Bridgestone Corporation is the one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tires and other rubber products as one in five vehicles in the world drives on our Bridgestone, Firestone or Dayton tires. We employ over 140,000 people around the world and sell our products in more than 150 countries. 

Bridgestone Middle East & Africa (BSMEA) operates from locations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, CIS, Ivory Coast & Kenya. From these locations BSMEA covers 68 markets.

Summary:

We are looking for a Legal Counsel at Bridgestone Middle East & Africa FZE. The successful candidate would support the Director of Legal and Compliance Africa Middle East in their role to serve as the key legal and compliance business partner for the Africa business The MEA Region, headquartered in Dubai, also includes offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Kenya and Jordan.

In this position, the Legal Counsel will be responsible for the day-to-day activity of structuring and drafting commercial contracts with Bridgestone key customers, including both private and public sector customers, while maintaining commercial policies and procedures, and ensuring consistent application of these throughout the business.  The Legal Counsel is also responsible for providing supporting advice to the business in regards to civil and corporate law related issues, engaging all other areas involved.

The Legal Counsel reports directly to the Director of Legal and Compliance in Africa and Middle East and will have a dotted line reporting to the Regional Director for Africa. The role will be based in our office in Cairo, Egypt.

Main Responsibilities:

• Acting as a business partner by applying combined business and legal judgment to proposed deals, relationships and other issues requiring legal or compliance attention.
• Drafting, reviewing and supporting negotiation of business agreements and transactions such as (but not limited to) customer sales contracts, strategic alliance agreements, public tenders, franchises and distribution agreements.
• advising the business on all legal matters and drive solutions.
• Providing hands on legal advice on regulatory, privacy, antitrust and advertising/promotional matters - in conjunction with the regulatory experts in the BSMEA legal team and the Chief Compliance Officer.
• Supporting coordination of any restructuring of our legal entity structure and set up in the region.
• Driving legal and compliance projects to improve efficiency and business responsibility, including using influencing skills to achieve buy-in from all levels of the business.
• Data protection officer for Jordan
• All MEA IP issues

Required Qualifications / Capabilities:

1. JD,L.L.B( Or Equivalent)
2. 6 –8 years’ PQE experience
3. Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
4. Good commercial awareness and pragmatic point of view.
5. An ability to work in a team at all levels of seniority within Bridgestone and outside.
6. Strong values in line with Bridgestone’s Leadership Essence and behaviors
7. High level of business and personal ethics.

Preffered Qualifications/Capabilities:

1. Admission as an attorney or Equivalent
2. Proficient knowledge of Arabic and/or French is a strong plus.
3. Prior Government relations experience is a strong plus
4. Knowledge of the automotive industry is a strong plus.
5. Experience in an industrial B2B setting and/or retail experience is desired.
6. Excellent Knowledge of MS Office Tools.

Experience

1. At least 3 years of business law expreince at  alarge law firm or corporate/commercial Legal department in-house.
2. Previous experience in identifying and resolving legal issues quickly and effectively.
3. Previous experience prioritizing conflicting demands from multiple business clients in a fast paced environment.
4. Previous experience in legal compliance specifically in relation to sanctions and bribery and corruption.

Bridgestone BEHAVIORS

Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:

• Agility – to work in a matrix and complex environment where change happens at a rapid pace
• Courage – to share ideas, think out of the box
• Ownership – to see the bigger picture and take ownership by thinking and acting beyond the role

Bridgestone LEADERSHIP ESSENCE

Qualified candidates for this important position will therefore need to demonstrate the following:

• Establishes strategic direction and effectively communicates the vision:  Communicates a clear and inspiring vision for the business; drives competitive and innovative strategies and is able to generate alignment against the strategic direction
• Demonstrates business acumen to achieve results through others:  Understands, educates and applies the fundamental business concepts by which a company operates in order to deliver results and create a climate that fosters personal commitment to excellence
• Promotes and enhances company culture:  Champions the organization’s shared values and beliefs
• Effectively manages across cultures: Achieves effective collaboration, alignment, and communication across multiple dimensions of cultural diversity
• Demonstrates self-awareness and emotional intelligence:  Recognizes one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits.  Understands emotions and their effects
• Intellectually curious in support of learning agility:  Actively identifies new areas for learning; regularly creates and takes advantage of learning opportunities; uses newly gained knowledge and skill on the job and learns through their application
• Embraces and leads change and innovation:  Encourages different and innovative approaches to address problems and opportunities; facilitates the implementation and acceptance of change within the organization
• Identifies and develops organizational talent:  Attracts high calibre diverse talent , leads and guides others to accomplish organizational goals and objectives through on-going development and collaboration