Associate Vice President, Legal

Associate VP Legal
Glencore Canada – Legal Department
Toronto, Ontario

The role at a glance

Ready for your next step? In this role, you will have the opportunity to work as an integral member of the Glencore Canada Corporate Legal team. Reporting to the VP Legal, you will be responsible for providing high quality general legal advice and support to Glencore’s North American metals operations in all aspects of their business, including business development, regulatory, environmental, exploration, contract negotiation, property management, commercial sales, employment matters, engagement, governance and dispute resolution (litigation/arbitration/mediation). The ideal candidate will benefit from the significant opportunity for professional growth and initiative in a dynamic in-house legal environment.
 
You are a practical lawyer who will be expected to:

• become an integrated member of Glencore Canada’s business team(s),
• take ownership of significant legal work, and
• oversee and manage external legal support over a wide variety of topics.

Glencore Canada is Canada’s largest critical minerals producer, with 7,000+ employees operating copper, nickel and zinc mines, smelters and refineries across the country on a 24/7 basis. Furthermore, Glencore Canada manages dozens of legacy sites in various jurisdictions around North America, a large by-products supply operation (including sulphuric acid), various public company interests and additional business opportunities as they arise, as well as corporate secretarial and governance and compliance support to reduce risk exposure. Therefore it is important that the ideal candidate hold a relevant and important skillset and be willing and motivated to adapt and develop additional skillsets representative of the breadth and pace of our operations

More specifically, you will: 

• be accountable for a broad and diverse set of legal problems of all manner, resulting from a complex and sophisticated business such as Glencore Canada. Although reporting directly to VP Legal, you will be expected to be accountable to senior business leaders and teams across all business units. You will be expected to identify and solve issues in order to provide sound, timely and practical business solutions on a time-sensitive basis.
• be expected to exhibit a strong work ethic and leadership skills to produce results that add value, motivate a wide range of stakeholders and minimize risk to the business.
• be prepared to provide governance oversight and advice,
• will be expected to fully support the Glencore compliance protocols, function and group at all times so as to ensure effective oversight and controls.
• learn and adapt across a wide spectrum of legal issues including but not limited to litigation/dispute resolution, corporate matters including lending, M&A, public company regulation and liabilities, health, safety and HR-related legal matters, regulatory matters across multiple jurisdictions in Canada and the US, contractual and procurement, privacy and personal data, land tenure, community engagement including first nations, etc.

Relationships:
Internal:
As a critical service provider, with a direct reporting line to the VP Legal it is important that the ideal candidate understand the need to build effective relationships with heads of the various business units and their teams, including but not limited to:

• senior Officers/Directors of GCC,
• GMs/VPs/CFOs of our individual operating units and sites,
• additional legal team members, both in Canada and elsewhere in Glencore (particularly the U.S.),
• Glencore compliance functions (will be an expectation of extensive support), and
• the various operational teams (e.g. environmental, regulatory, HR etc.) requiring direct support on bespoke issues.

The ideal candidate will also have one or more direct reports on the legal team.

External: 

The ideal candidate will be responsible for:

• ensuring direct oversight and management over a wide variety of external legal providers, and
• building relationships and engaging with regulators and agencies across a wide variety of federal and provincial functions

Do you have the essential qualities?

• At least one law degree (JD, BCL, LLB or equivalent)
• Exposure (or ability to adapt to) to both North American legal systems (common law and civil law)
• A degree of specialization/proficiency will be required in an applicable field and ability to learn/diversify legal knowledge on a case-by-case basis and in timely manner will be required.
• Minimum 5+ years legal experience in private practice at a top tier law firm or as in-house legal counsel in a large international extractive resources company environment
• Extractive industry experience and interest will be beneficial
• Solid legal training and pragmatic experience in a significant variety of corporate legal matters, including commercial/M&A, environmental, regulatory, contractual negotiation, corporate governance and/or dispute resolution
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills along with proficient research & analytical skills
• Leadership skills required to oversee direct report(s)
• Ability to quickly grasp legal and business issues and provide tailored legal advice and counsel in plain language
• Ability to provide timely advice in dynamic, entrepreneurial environment
• Ability to take leadership of and manage discrete legal projects in a cross-functional team environment
• Responsiveness and ability to engage reflective of the 24/7 operating nature of the business and international time zone expectations

Languages: Bilingualism (French-English) strongly preferred.

Travel: You are flexible to travel up to 20% within North America with additional opportunities to travel internationally.

Working Conditions: Based in Toronto, Ontario, work demands are reflective of the broad operational business in Canada (7,000 employees) which operates on a full-time (24/7 basis) and some international exposure to the business. The Glencore Canada legal function is a service-focused legal function committed to providing top-level service and responsiveness to the business.

Only candidates with full working rights in Canada will be considered. 
Accommodation is available throughout our recruitment process for applicants with disabilities.