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Our General Counsel
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At Post Office, we aspire to be at the very
heart of customers’ choice by becoming the
Most trusted provider of essential service
to every person in the land.
We are Europe's largest retail network and
the largest financial services chain in the
UK with more branches than all of the UK's
banks and building societies put together.
We are proud to have:
* Over 370 years of service
¢ More than 170 products and
services
Over 11,800 Post Office branches
nationwide run by local trusted
people
Over 20 million customer vi
Post Office and our partners offer over 170
Products under four product pillars
* Mails & Retail
* Financial Services
Government Servi
Telephony
Our products and services are available
through three main channels: our branches,
call centres and online.
With a stable network, investment,
modernisation and a drive to improve
Convenience and service for the customer,
the Post Office is moving forward.
Our Values
We promise to:
Care about doing the right thing
Challenge convention, competitors
and ourselves
Commit to our customers and to
each other
Department Overview
The General Counsel is responsible for managing
the Company Secretariat: Internal Audit, Legal, Risk
& Compliance and Security Teams.
The Legal Team of 12 are responsible for managing
all aspects of legal risk, identifying and solving
strategic and operational legal issues and providing
understandable, accurate and timely advice to the
business on a very wide-ranging and changing set
of complex issues, which are frequently novel and
to short deadlines.
The team comprises commercial lawyers, who
advise on all aspects of commercial and public law,
including contracts and procurement (including
complex and high value outsourcing arrangements),
data protection, equality, intellectual property,
bribery, confidentiality agreements and Freedom of
Information, financial Product lawyers who advise
focus on retail banking regulations and savings
Product portfolios including the launch of new
financial products and on-going review and
guidance on the existing product portfolio and real
estate lawyers, who advise on all aspects of the
Post Offices extensive commercial real estate
network.
The legal team’s expertise is complemented by the
Use of external legal advisers and secondees where
appropriate.
The Risk & Compliance Team consists of 12
employees and is responsible for ensuring that best
tisk practices are consistently delivered, supporting
the Executive Management Team and Board,
ensuring efficient operation of the applicable
frameworks. This team is Tesponsible for
formulating and maintaining. the company’s -risk
appetite, tolerances and limits, aligned to strategy
and business plan to optimise the risk/return profile
of the company whilst maintaining key internal
policies.
The Security Team consists of c.83 employees. Its
Purpose is to protect Post Office network (physical
security) and Manage investigations to recover
losses, fraud cases and other incidents impacting
the branch network.
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They monitor losses across the business and
ensure effective controls are in place and managed
by the business owners. Deliver fraud software
proof of concept to understand POLs risks relating
to fraud and non-conformance. Deliver all security
elements of the Facilities Management tender and
Grapevine tender and deliver a burglary and
robbery reduction Programme that protects the
assets, reputation and profits of PO Ltd.
The Company Secretariat 's a team of 4 ensuring
Overall corporate governance and Board support.
Internal Audit - the Head of Internal Audit is a fixed
line direct report, with a dotted line to the NED
Chair of Audit. A small team of 4 running the third
line of defence and focused on delivering key audits
on Business activity and key transformational
programmes as required.
Position Overview
Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, this role
will be responsible for Providing strategic and
Operational legal advice and counsel to the Chief
Executive, Chairman and the Executive team.
The Géneral Counsel Manages the Company
Secretary, Internal Audit, Legal, Risk & Compliance
and Security teams, currently approximately 110
people, and is responsible for the appointment and
Management of external legal advisers, and has
oversight of all legal budgets.
Over the coming years, The Post Office is looking to
grow its revenue by introducing new products and
services across our Portfolio to offset declining
revenue from traditional product areas. Additionally
the Post Office is also looking to modemise its
branches through the network and Crown
transformation Programme. The — successful
candidate will be responsible for managing all legal
risk within the business's appetite, and overseeing
and seeking improvements to the Post Offices legal
framework to ensure the business operates within
its powers, is well Managed from a governance
Perspective and is able to meet its strategic
objectives,
Job title General Counsel
Grade Exco
Reports to Paula Vennells,
Chief Executive
Number of 5 Direct
reports 110 Indirect
Directorate Corporate Risk & Governance
Location London
Key areas of accountability
or responsibility
° The primary responsibility of the General
Counsel will be to Provide wise counsel on legal
issues to the Chairman, the CEO, and Executive
Team. As a member of the Executive Team
you will also be responsible for partaking in and
contributing to strategic business decisions
across all aspects of the business.
° Managing the decision-making Process to
ensure that decisions are timely, made on an
appropriate evidence base, and Teliably and
accurately recorded.
e- The successful candidate will be responsible for
managing a diverse mix of professional and
technical specialists and demonstrate leadership
behaviours and create a management
environment which will ensure this team
continues to be high performing and meet
business needs.
e The Post Office is looking at supporting its
business through the delivery of an integrated
outsourced supply chain and the General
Counsel will be responsible for ensuring that
sufficient legal resource and expertise is
allocated to the delivery and management of
these contracts and any contract changes.
e The Post Office currently utilises a mix of both
in-house and external legal counsel. The
successful candidate will be responsible for
identifying the most efficient and risk
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appropriate mix of internal resource and
external legal spend to ensure costs are
controlled and good value for money.
This role will straddle both the public and
private sector, and so building a professional
network in order to understand legal issues
prevalent in both sectors is essential for this
role. This includes building relationships with
the government as well as. exchanging ideas
with peers in financial and consumer services,
Risk &
{Compliance}
Company:
lnternal
Audit
Knowledge, experience,
~ qualifications and skills
Experience required
Previous experience working in an in-house
General Counsel role, within the Financial
Services sector or within an FSA regulated
business.
Private practice experience gained in a top 50
law firm is essential.
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.
° Experience of influencing regulatory bodies and
government departments.
¢ 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.
© — Previous experience of. working — across
complex, rapidly evolving programmes and
senior stakeholder management within this
environment.
© . Experience of running the — Company
secretariat,
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.
* An understanding of or familiarity with working
as part of the public sector and previous
experience of successful working with the
public sector
Qualifications required
A qualified lawyer with the ability to practice in the
UK
Skills required
° Astrong 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
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quickly.
¢ Able to work within a complex environment in
which judgement, confidentiality and
discretion has to be exercised.
e 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,
e Able to think strategically in setting direction
and follow through to delivery.
e Able to prioritise own workload and others to
deliver against demanding deadlines.
* Self-motivated with drive and determination to
deliver results.
Our behaviours
1) Deliver results with Pace - Taking personal
accountability for delivering results decisively
and responsibly.
Adapt plans to stay on track and deliver results
even when the situation changes
Maintaining focus on results even when the context
changes, anticipating changes, adapting the
approach and finding different ways to still deliver,
helping others to shift their focus
2) Know the numbers - Using robust and
_ Televant information to inform business
» decisions
Create robust cases for business change
Building clear, logical, responsible and thorough
recommendations for spending or saving money,
time or resources by intelligent use of data and
astute assumptions about risk
3) Wow the customer - Paying close attention
to our customers - internal and external -
earning and growing their loyalty and trust
Stand up for customers
Making systemic changes to improve customers’
experience of doing business with the Post Office
and, where required, resolving fundamental
problems
4) Challenge to make us more efficient -
Always looking for better ways of doing things
and removing harriers to success
Learn from the competition and the market to
ensure we have the organisational capability to stay
ahead
Translating Post Office strategy into future
capability requirements: stretching and challenging
myself and others; making sure we have the people
we need to be successful: keeping up to speed with
what the best are doing
5) Work with others - Working as one great
team to deliver great solutions
Inspire brand loyalty and commitment
Using vivid or memorable stories or symbols to
engender pride, and create a sense of shared goals
right across the Post Office.
6) Develop myself and others - Taking
accountability both for our own development
and for supporting others to realise their
potential
Learn from the competition and the market to
ensure we have the organisational capability to stay
ahead
Translating Post Office strategy into future
capability requirements; stretching and challenging
myself and others; making sure we have the people
we need to be successful: keeping up to speed with
what the best are doing