Assistant General Counsel

About the Team:

The Legal Department handles all of KBRA’s legal matters, with the exception of ratings analysis and determinations. The Legal Department works with analysts, compliance, finance, technology and senior management across the company.

About the Job:

As an Assistant General Counsel, your responsibilities may span a broad range of in-house legal matters and may include the review, negotiation and drafting of client engagement letters; subscription agreements with clients across various product offerings; vendor agreements for various types of services and products; all other types of contracts to which KBRA may be a party; and management of KBRA’s contracts. Your work may also extend to legal and regulatory matters arising across KBRA’s U.S., UK, EU, and broader international operations.

You may also be responsible for the following:

Engagement Letters/Business Development: You will review, negotiate and draft engagement letters with clients across all sectors in which KBRA issues ratings, including structured finance, project finance, and financial institutions. You will serve as a resource for Business Development with respect to questions that arise during the client engagement process.
Corporate Governance: You will support corporate governance matters, including assisting with board and committee meetings, preparation of materials, and related governance processes and documentation.
Data Privacy/Cybersecurity: You will gain familiarity with data privacy laws in the jurisdictions in which KBRA operates, collaborate with the Information Security team on best practices across jurisdictions, and support the implementation of cybersecurity, operational resilience, and related regulatory requirements.
Regulatory Framework: You will gain familiarity with the regulatory framework, laws and regulations applicable to credit rating agencies and how regulations affect all aspects of KBRA. You will advise KBRA’s employees about the applicability of regulations on KBRA’s day-to-day work.
Compliance: You will collaborate with the Compliance Department on discrete and ongoing matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including annual examinations, submissions to the SEC and various requests.
Regulatory Affairs: You will collaborate with KBRA’s Regulatory and Government Affairs group to the extent necessary, to assist in research on credit rating agency regulation in other jurisdictions, the preparation of registration documents, and respond to regulatory requests.
Intellectual Property: You will assist with protecting KBRA’s intellectual property, including filing and managing trademark and copyright registrations, and negotiating license agreements.

You will be successful in this role if you have:

Have a JD and admission to the New York bar
Have at least 6-10+ years of experience
Possess a strong background in reviewing, drafting and negotiating agreements
Have familiarity with corporate governance matters
Have knowledge of securities laws and experience working in highly regulated environments
Structured finance, capital markets, and mergers and acquisitions experience are a plus
Have strong verbal and written communication skills. Writing samples will be requested
Have strong research, analysis, organizational, and project management skills with excellent attention to detail Employment law experience is a plus
Familiarity with Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT for research, data insights, and general productivity is a plus.