Risk function

In-House Legal is a core part of the Risk Function. We advise the entire global firm, including its senior management, governance bodies and partners, across a diverse range of complex and interesting subject areas. This includes advising on the firm’s group structure, the impact of new laws and regulations on the global business, complex supply chain risk issues (including high value commercial contracts), the legal and regulatory implications of new technologies and advanced delivery matters, and all areas of risk management.

We frequently lead on strategic global projects, and have a number of industry experts within the team. We also have a key role in looking to the future and providing strategic advice to the firm’s management to help them find solutions and achieve the firm’s strategic objectives.

As a member of In-House Legal you will have the opportunity to work regularly with our offices around the world, take a leading role on key projects and contribute to the growth of the business. You will be able to develop your career at a leading international firm, offering a unique in-house experience where high performance and innovation is encouraged and recognised. 

We process requests from partners for A&O to accept new legal matters including, in particular, performing anti-money laundering, sanctions and background checks on new clients and performing conflicts checks (within internal databases) on each new matter (for both new and existing clients). We also:

• obtain from relevant lawyers required evidence of identity for new clients (and existing clients for whom the practice has done no work in the preceding two years and whose ownership or control may therefore have changed in the intervening period);
• screen and, where requested, send conflict search emails (containing information on new legal matters) to all partners and to monitor responses, analyse search results and, in consultation with the originating lawyers, determine whether or not the new legal matter is clear of conflicts and appropriate for the practice to take on;
• authorise the opening of new legal matters when checks have been completed and any issues or problems satisfactorily resolved;
• facilitate resolution of legal conflict issues in consultation, where appropriate, with A&O senior management;
• facilitate resolution of business conflict issues in consultation with relevant partners/senior lawyers including, if necessary, A&O senior management;
• determine the need for information barriers to enhance the internal security of information and to facilitate them being established to meet the requirements of the situation;
• intervene (where needed) to direct the required levels of matter/virtual file security within the A&O virtual filing system;
• receive, monitor and (where appropriate) keep a central record of terms of engagement agreed with clients, to remind lawyers of the need to ensure that the terms of our engagements are clear and documented and to advise lawyers on unusual/non-standard terms and on aspects of the firm's engagement terms policy;
• deal with business acceptance queries (including conflicts, sanctions and anti-money laundering ID queries);
• deal with client audit and compliance matters.

The mission of Allen & Overy’s Data Privacy Team is to foster a strong culture of data protection compliance throughout the firm, while providing pragmatic and business-focussed advice in a highly regulated area. The Data Privacy Team advises on data privacy and information security issues affecting A&O, including:

• The creation and maintenance of a global programme of measures and documentation designed to ensure on-going compliance with privacy laws globally
• The firm’s advanced delivery strategy and data analytics work
• The legal aspects of information security and data management to meet legal and regulatory requirements
• Incident response and remediation
• Dealing with individual rights requests
• Data export restrictions and data localisation requirements with a view to preserving international data flows
• Working closely with fee earners, IT and others on technology and data innovations to ensure privacy and information security by design
• Devising and delivering the firm’s privacy training programmes
• Advising on, and ensuring compliance with, applicable regulatory reporting requirements

The Regulation and Conduct team is tasked with championing a culture of legal, regulatory and ethical compliance throughout the firm. This includes:

• advising on the overarching legal, regulatory and ethical standards applicable to A&O and its employees, with a particular focus on AML and SRA requirements;
• advising on temporary, fly-in fly-out, practising rights;
• designing and implementing AML systems and procedures;
• application of SRA and other regulators' rules to the firm's activities and to the ethical dilemmas faced by individuals in practice;
• advising on regulatory notification and reporting requirements, including AML reporting requirements;
• delivering the firm's compliance strategy, including global risk training and the Annual Compliance Return.