Vice President - Legal Counsel

Job Purpose

The role will involve advising numerous stakeholders on relevant legal issues, managing a wide array of real estate transactions (disposals, acquisitions and JVs), supporting corporate transactions from a real estate perspective, advising on commercial leasing, day-to-day operational legal issues, mitigating legal risk and supporting the business in achieving its strategic and commercial objectives both within the UAE and internationally.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Structure, draft and negotiate a broad range of strategic investment and partnership real estate transactions which could include assets such as hotels, schools, malls and office space.
• Ensure all transactions are executed efficiently and aligned with Aldar’s commercial objectives.
• Advise on documentation for leasing transactions across Aldar’s diversified investment portfolio and support the business on all legal aspects of tenant management, renewals, and enforcement.
• Draft, review and negotiate property management agreements, facilities management contracts, licences, permits, and service agreements.
• Support senior legal team members on large-scale or complex strategic projects, acquisitions, divestments, or group-level structuring initiatives.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders including Commercial, Finance, Treasury, Tax, Insurance, Strategy and Asset Management, coordinating all legal inputs and ensuring smooth execution of transactions.
• Provide proactive advice in relation to legal risk mitigation.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of legal processes and templates.
• Provide ongoing training to the business as required to ensure efficient use of templates and familiarisation with relevant legal updates.
• Experience with hotel and/or school management agreements and franchise agreements preferred.
• Provide accurate and timely legal advice to end user departments with a commercial slant.
• Appoint external law firms, provide clear legal instructions, manage them throughout transaction negotiations and manage associated external legal spend within budget.
• Comply with relevant internal governance documentation.
• Research and evaluate different risks regarding business decisions and operations.
• Deal with and manage multiple stakeholders (internal and external).
• Maintain current knowledge of relevant legal updates and laws.
• Co-ordinate, follow up and monitor the progress of active matters.
• Prioritise work effectively and efficiently and manage end user Maintain accurate records of advice provided and documents negotiated. expectations.

RELATED YEAR OF EXPERIENCE

• Min of 10+ years of related experience ideally gained in international law firm and/or large in-house environment.
• Min of 2+ Years of managerial position preferred.

FIELD OF EXPERIENCE

• Experience in transactional real estate matters and asset management
• In depth knowledge of UAE legal systems and regulatory frameworks (onshore and ADGM preferred)
• Excellent drafting skills & attention to detail
• Systematic organizational capability
• Ability to deal with multiple internal and external stakeholders
• Good time management
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Excellent communication and relationship management skills
• Good team player
• Problem solver

QUALIFICATION

• Law Degree, Bachelors or Post Graduate Diploma in Law

• Common Law Qualified