POL00458052
POL00458052
Post Office Limited - Document Classification: INTERNAL
Group General Counsel
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POL00458052
POL00458052
Post Office Limited - Document Classification: INTERNAL
About Post Office
Post Office is in a unique position at the heart of communities across the UK, providing access to
vital services from mail to bill payments, banking and financial services. We play a key role in the
local economy - through our network of postmasters and commercial partners we connect people
and businesses. We are the place that allows local businesses to trade by offering mail and
banking services; we are the place that allows customers to communicate with friends and family,
to access banking and financial services, to pay bills. We’re at a pivotal point in out 370 year
history as we look to redefine ourselves for a new generation - one where we are sustainable and
profitable with our postmasters and customers at the heart of everything we do.
We are working hard to ensure that the next chapter of the Post Office’s history is a bright one.
Helping our Postmasters to run thriving local businesses which can continue to provide essential
products and services for our customers for many years to come. This is a uniquely exciting and
challenging time for the Post Office - we’re shaping the future and creating a business we can all
be proud of.
Working at the Post Office:
Post Office colleagues are the driving force behind our business and their passion, energy and
enthusiasm will be key to delivering our business strategy.
All Post Office people are guided by our three values and behaviours, see Code of Business
Standards:
We care by always thinking customer
We strive to make things ever better through honest challenge
We commit to decisive delivery
The basics
Job Title: Group General Counsel
Grade: RemCo
Post Reports to: Group Chief Executive Officer
Division: Legal, Compliance and Governance
Business Unit: Legal, Compliance and Governance
Budget Responsibility: Insert £xxx Direct and/or Indirect - leave blank if not
applicable
Number of Direct Reports: 5
Location: Finsbury Dials
The purpose of the role
The Group General Counsel role is a member of the Group Executive (GE) team reporting into the
Group Chief Executive Officer. As a GE member, this role will be accountable for executing on Post
Office’s strategic plans, by leading their function, functional strategy and its delivery roadmap.
The Group General Counsel will be responsible for overseeing our litigation strategies and
delivering on their outputs. The role will also need to lead on legal, compliance and governance
(LCG) support to deliver the Purpose, Strategy and Growth outputs, e.g. explore the idea of
partnerships.
The role will lead the Legal, Compliance and Governance function and be responsible for ensuring
it is a lean and efficient central function. The function will be made up of all LCG teams including
the legal, compliance, company secretary and litigation projects teams. These teams will be
responsible for:
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POL00458052
POL00458052
Post Office Limited - Document Classification: INTERNAL
e Delivering on group litigation claims and outputs, including GLO and Starling
e Investigating the following projects:
o The road to mutualisation
o Postmaster membership on the Board
o Sharing profitability
Principal accountabilities
e Provides wise counsel on legal issues to the Chairman, the CEO, and Group Executive. As a
member of the Group Executive, the role is responsible for partaking in and contributing to
strategic business decisions across all aspects of the business.
e Manages the executive decision-making process to ensure that decisions are timely, made
on an appropriate evidence base, and reliably and accurately recorded.
e Leads the Legal team which is currently a mixture of in-house and external legal counsel.
Responsible for identifying the most efficient and risk appropriate mix of internal resource
and external legal spend to ensure costs are controlled and good value for money.
e Leads on any litigation projects to ensure we deliver in-line with our Purpose, Strategy and
Growth outputs.
e Ensures delivery of outputs from recent GLO recommendations.
e Ensures lines of defence are maintained throughout the company by delivering a fit-for-
purpose Compliance strategy.
e Owns data protection and associated policies to main Post Office’s security.
*« Owns policy framework at Post Office ensuring adherence to all legislative and regulatory
requirements.
e Builds a professional network in order to understand legal issues topical in both private and
public sectors. Builds relationships with industry peers in financial and consumer services.
e Drives the transformation of the LCG function to be efficient and effective, reducing cost,
clarifying roles, accountabilities, process ownership, introducing technology where
appropriate, managing operational KPIs, driving up functional capability and supporting
talent development.
e Acts as Company Secretary for Post Office Ltd. and Post Office Insurance (POI).
Qualifications, experience and skills
An experienced General Counsel with the following qualifications, experience and skills:
e A qualified lawyer with the ability to practice in the UK.
e Previous experience working in an in-house General Counsel role, within the Financial
Services or Retail sectors or within an FSA regulated business.
e Private practice experience gained in a top 50 law firm.
e Substantial consumer finance law and financial services regulatory experience including:
the structuring and distribution of new and innovative products for the consumer and
business retail markets, financial services e-commerce projects, FS market conduct issues,
anti-money laundering and anti-bribery and corruption, regulatory investigations and
disciplinary proceedings and litigation.
e Experience of influencing regulatory bodies and government departments.
e Ability to translate complex legal and compliance requirements into practical workable
solutions for the business.
e Strong knowledge of compliance ideally gained from managing a compliance function
within a large corporate retail banking organisation or the FSA.
e Previous experience of working across complex, rapidly evolving programmes and senior
stakeholder management within this environment.
e Previous experience of operating at senior executive level with a demonstrable ability to
gain trust and influence at Board and senior leadership level.
e Previous experience of delivering and managing major outsourcing contracts and managing
disputes would be advantageous.
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POL00458052
POL00458052
Post Office Limited - Document Classification: INTERNAL
e Anunderstanding of or familiarity with working as part of the public sector and previous
experience of successful working with the public sector.
A strong intellectual with analytical and problem solving skills.
Able to work with uncertainty and change in a fast moving environment.
Able to gain credibility across an organisation quickly.
Able to work within a complex environment in which judgement, confidentiality and
discretion has to be exercised.
Excellent leadership skills and ability to work collaboratively as part of a senior team.
An ability to provide strong leadership behaviours in order to manage teams of specialists.
Able to think strategically in setting direction and follow through to delivery.
Able to prioritise own workload and others to deliver against demanding deadlines.
Self-motivated with drive and determination to deliver results.
Where does this role fit in with the rest of the team?
Group Executive
Director
I Group Retail and Franchise
Network Director
L hief Information
Officer
=
Group CEO
iT
Group Chief People Officer
Group General Counsel
Group Corpor
Communications
Compliance
This role is designated as a “Responsible Person” role for Money Laundering Purposes. As such,
the role holder will be required to demonstrate they have passed HMRC’s “Fit and Proper” test.
The test is conducted by HMRC by way of an online application and will examine the role holders’
honesty and integrity, competence and capability, and financial soundness. Any offer of
employment made by Post Office (or Group Company) is subject to the satisfactory completion of
that test. Continued employment in the role will be subject to maintaining the appropriate
clearance and approvals. For more information on the Fit and Proper test requirements, visit
https ://www.gov.uk/guidance/money -laundering-requlations-apply-for-the-fit-and-proper-test
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POL00458052
POL00458052
Post Office Limited - Document Classification: INTERNAL
IT permissions
Please note that the following section is to be completed by the Line Manager (deleting any on
the list that are not applicable and inserting any not already included):
ermissions
Job Role GE Member
IT Equipment GE Member
Applications Standard Application Build
System Access Standard System Build
Other System/Application Surface Pro
Approved by
[System Owner]
Job Title [System Owner]
Date
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