Senior Legal Counsel

Are you ready to embark on a dynamic legal journey with the BOQ Group? We are seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to join our Business Bank Legal team, where you will play a pivotal role in delivering practical and commercial transactional legal and regulatory advice across our diverse business units. This is your chance to support multiple brands and business units, including BOQ Business Bank, BOQ Specialist, BOQ Finance, and BOQ Financial Markets, and make a significant impact in our organisation.

The role will support a range of banking and finance activities including corporate and SME lending, equipment finance, vendor finance, novated leasing, and FX contracts.

This role will focus predominantly on transactional work, however, it involves a broad range of activities including, but not limited to:

• Structuring and settling banking and finance transactions.
• Providing advice on legal and regulatory requirements, including under the Corporations Act, ASIC Act and BCOP.
• Legal support for regulatory projects, including projects to address bank initiatives to minimise regulatory risk and to respond to new legislative or regulatory requirements.
• Legal support for projects aligned with the bank’s strategy to strengthen, simplify, digitise and optimise its operations, including M&A transactions (where required).
• Commercial, quality and timely legal advice on such matters as marketing and promotional activities, advice on credit and financial products, mandatory breach reporting and customer remediation.

This is a challenging and exciting role with a wide range of opportunities to help you take your career to the next level. We are committed to helping you learn and grow to become a top-tier professional across the legal domain and will seek to consistently encourage and help you achieve your career growth plans.

Holding admission as a legal practitioner in Australia (at least 6-8 years PQE), you’ll join us with experience in an in-house role and/or private practice preferably within the banking and finance industry.

You will have relevant experience advising on a range of transactional business banking matters, but particularly SME business structures with a foundational knowledge of property law, corporate law, and trust law.  You will be comfortable finding solutions to settle transactions and advising on PPSA and PEXA related issues.

You are passionate about creating a positive stakeholder experience, where you will have the ability to build trust and rapport with internal and external stakeholders through a positive and proactive approach.  You will have honed your ability to clearly communicate complex matters and tailor information to different stakeholders. You will be comfortable leading complex transactions and projects with limited supervision. You will have built a reputation for being a trusted advisor.

You will have a practical working knowledge of key legislation, rules, codes of practice and guidance, including the Corporations Act, ASIC Act, Privacy Act, Banking Code of Practice and AML/CTF Act. This entails an understanding of the responsibilities and approach of key regulators (ASIC, APRA and AUSTRAC).

We operate in a highly regulated, fast-paced environment so we are seeking a strategic thinker who can problem-solve in a variety of situations and timeframes. This will require you to have sound judgement in decision making and strong advisory skills, supported by the ability to consider commercial outcomes. Your time management skills will always be displayed, where you are organised and hold the ability to prioritise and meet tight deadlines.

Working for us is energetic and fast-paced, and we need top talent to take us where we want to go. BOQ Group people are easy to spot. They're smart, enthusiastic, full of ideas and passionate about what they do. If this sounds like you, even if you only have some of the experience and knowledge listed above, we'd love to have a conversation!

BOQ Group is a truly unique group of challenger brands with a purpose – to provide a genuine alternative to Australian financial services for customers and employees.

Our family of brands (Bank of Queensland (BOQ), ME Bank, Virgin Money Australia, BOQ Specialist), each come with their own defined customer audience and brand personality, but share one goal – to build social capital through banking. That’s creating trust with customers, exploring staff potential and believing that tiny gestures and big ideas can change the world for communities.

BOQ Group’s inclusive vision is to foster a workspace that values and leverages difference and creates new possibilities, a place where our people feel confident to bring their best selves to work every day. We embrace difference and believe that our workforce should reflect the customers and communities that we serve.

Since 2021, BOQ Group is recognised as an Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

In 2023, we successfully implemented an innovative Reconciliation Plan, driving positive change and promoting inclusivity across BOQ Group.

• Flexible working arrangements
• Discounted financial products
• Salary sacrificing options
• Paid parental leave with no minimum
• Purchase annual leave
• Discounted private health insurance plan
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Access to employee network groups focused on First Nations Reconciliation, LGBTQIA+, Multicultural, Gender, Early Careers and accessibility
• BOQ Group is a member of Pride in Diversity and a participating organisation in the Australian Workplace Equality Index

To apply for this role at #boqgroup, follow the links or apply via our Careers Page. 

BOQ Group is committed to diversity and an inclusive workforce. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People are encouraged to apply.

We celebrate, value and include people of all backgrounds, gender and expressions, sexualities, cultures, bodies and abilities. When you apply, you are welcome to tell us the pronouns you use and please let us know any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

If you are successful for a role with BOQ Group, it is a condition of employment that background screening is completed to ensure that the Bank complies with its obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act. These checks may include, but are not limited to: identity, verification, reference checks, criminal background checks, immigration checks, verification of academic qualifications, bankruptcy checks.

Please no agency applications.