Senior Consultant - Legal

Engagement with GSTN would be on contract basis. The contract would be of 2 years, which is further extendable upto 1 year.

Role : Senior Consultant - Legal

Reporting to : Senior Vice President - Support

Experience : More than 15 years of post-qualification experience

Location : New Delhi

Role Description

To establish highest standards of governance by ensuring compliance to all legal, statutory and regulatory requirements and provide inputs in contracting and matters of litigation.

The role holder would also be responsible for ensuring that administrative responsibilities set out in company law are carried out properly and requisite support for effective governance is provided to senior leadership of GSTN and its Board in the execution of their tasks.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy Design and Implementation

• Design legal policies, guidelines, controls and checkpoints and working experience in RTI response.
• Establish and drive implementation of Corporate Governance norms to ensure transparency in all operations.
• Plan the budget of the Legal Department during the internal budgeting exercise.
• Work in close coordination with the Department Heads to capture their key expectations from the Legal function and provide efficient service and support to them.
• Keep abreast of changes in relevant laws, rules, regulations, etc. and identify their implications for GSTN.
• Oversee the identification of possible legal risks that GSTN might be exposed to in the current operating environment and design risk mitigation plans for the same.
• Provide functional guidance to ensure standardization of Legal practices across the Organization; Act as the final authority on all decisions with respect to the Legal Function across the Organization.
• Lead the development of a mechanism to check and counter check adherence to legal compliances across all the Departments in the Organization.

Managing Relations with External Agencies

• Establish relationships with external Lawyers, Advisors, Government Agencies, Regulatory Bodies etc. to take advice and facilitate timely resolution of legal matters/disputes.
• Liaise and build relations with the Registrar of Companies and other statutory authorities.
• Identify and empanel external legal counsels and consultants for various jobs as and when required.
• Coordinate with lawyers from the Ministry of Law for representing GSTN in hearings, brief them about the case details, oversee filing of petitions, affidavits etc. in courts.

Legal Operations

• Pre-empt and minimize legal and regulatory risks and costs for GSTN due to errors in legal and regulatory non-compliance related issues.
• Ensure the drafting of legal documents such as Contracts, Power of Attorneys, Agreements, etc. for GSTN is done in a timely accurate manner.
• Provide legal inputs in designing of RFPs for selection of Vendors/ Consultants.
• Provide legal opinion to all Functions in the organization on various issues, as and when required (especially on procurement issues).
• Ensure timely response to legal notices received from Courts/ queries received from other Internal Departments.
• Keep abreast of changes in the regulatory framework, legal formalities and compliances pertaining to GSTN; Provide inputs to the senior leadership team regarding the same.
• Drive safe custody of original agreements, contracts, major court orders, certificate of incorporation of company, commencement of business, approvals and all regulatory filings/ reports.
• Ensure timely payment of legal consultancy fees to Legal Counsels/ Firms.
• Collaborate with Head, Customer Service to understand key legal concerns of the stakeholders of GSTN; Provide required support in timely resolution of the same.
• Provide relevant inputs to Procurement and Contracts team as and when required.

People Development

• Take an active role in recruitment of incumbents into own team.
• Conduct formal performance appraisal and provide developmental feedback for own team.
• Identify training needs of subordinates and provide functional training inputs through internal and external sources.

Others

• Ensure timely preparation of MIS and Status Updates for circulation to the Top Management and other authorities as may be required.

Key Interfaces

External:

• Regulatory Authorities
• Judiciary- Local Courts, High Courts, Supreme Courts
• Legal Counsel
• Ministry of Law

Internal:

• Board of GSTN
• Leadership Team
• All Internal Departments

Eligibility Criteria

• Graduate or Masters degree (preferably in Law) with adequate domain knowledge of legal affairs, litigation matters, RTI, CPGRAMs and relevant administrative processes etc.
• Candidates having experience of working with Government Departments and in the Legal Departments of IT/ITES companies will be preferred.
• More than 15 years of post-qualification experience in drafting and vetting of contracts and agreements, litigation management, internal policy development to ensure compliance to all statutory and regulatory requirements and overseeing and evaluating the compliance related matters of the organization.
• Knowledge of various relevant statutes, Government policies, regulations and directives, and company policies and guidelines.
• Excellent knowledge of all legal aspects relating to various laws - Labour Laws etc., and the procedures in respect of Civil and Criminal Matters.
• Excellent knowledge of Cyber Laws in India, relating to Information Technology, protection of IPRs procedures in respect of Civil and Criminal Matters.