Attorney / Legal Counsel

This role will report to the Senior Counsel CEA. Synchronize cross-divisional approach while managing legal matters within. Managing contractual support for Kazakhstan, as well as a number of legal matters in East markets (KZ, KG, TJ, TN, UZ, Mongolia), building strong business partnership and cross functional collaboration. Serve as ambassador of Five Principles, Intelligent Risk taking and proactive risk management culture within East markets associates. Driving Compliance initiatives and self service tools implementation among CEA business units associates and, in particular, leading CEA Legal hub development to make this happen.

What will be your key responsibilities?

Procurement agreements for Pet Nutrition (PN) and Snacking, incl. direct and indirect for KZ, KG, TJ, TN, UZ, Mongolia:

• Templatizing key contracts, devising tracker and repository for contracts;
• Reviewing agreements and counterparties’ comment upon agreements, stepping into negotiation on legal aspects when needed;
• Serve as ‘gate keeper’ in internal escalation for proper decision making upon potential risks – prior to final internal contract approval.

Consulting on construction and tangible assets matters;

Sales agreements for PN and Snacking:

• Preparing templates for sales agreements for KZ, KG, TJ, TN, UZ, Mongolia (East Markets);
• Reviewing agreements and counterparties’ comment upon agreements, stepping into negotiation on legal aspects when needed;
• Serve as ‘gate keeper’ in internal escalation for proper decision making upon potential risks – prior to final internal contract approval.

Corporate matters across all CEA markets for PN and Snacking:

• Managing corporate matters for all legal entities and representative offices across CEA cluster, which includes manage and coordinate the Board of Directors, Annual & Extra Ordinary General meetings, prepare and finalize meeting agendas, minutes of meetings, and resolutions, prepare and file various forms, and manage law firms when needed – to handle respective matters outside of Kazakhstan;
• Review of advertising/ marketing communication to ensure compliance with advertising guidelines & applicable Laws for East markets for PN and Snacking;
• Providing legal assessment and legal contribution to the employment documents templates for PN and Snacking, and legal risk assessment for associates related cases for East markets – when it is more complex then covered by respective guidelines and trainings;
• Ensure compliance with applicable data privacy legislation and local Anticorruption laws and Mars global policy within East markets in collaboration with Mars Global Data privacy and Ethics & Compliance teams accordingly for PN and Snacking;
• Litigation management for PN and Snacking in Kazakhstan and another East markets– developing and coordinating litigation strategies, participate in the trials in Kazakhstan and managing and supervising external legal counsels, tracking developments and outcomes to minimize exposure.

Business Partnership:

• Serving ambassador of Mars Five principles and Governance & Compliance culture in Almaty office, being role model for all associates;
• Serving as trustful, reliable business partner for major projects teams in Kazakhstan and East markets One demand team KZ;
• Building on proper cross-functional collaboration by establishing clear ways of working and communications with key function leaders in East markets.

Associates Legal capabilities development:

• Provide legal updates on newly enacted laws in East markets with practical focus on, ‘what does it mean for Mars business’
• Preparing and conducting trainings for associates in East markets to enhance their legal capabilities and Governance & Compliance culture in CEA
• Leading CEA Legal team efforts on creating and developing Mars Legal CEA HUB, incld. developing self service tools for associates, launch them for associates and put on CEA Legal HUB to support Governance & Compliance culture in CEA and ensure One Mars CEA Legal team operates in line with Efficiency principle by providing such tools which will enable associates to handle standard processes w/o legal function involvement, and staying focused and involved in those areas where legal contribution matters most.

Risk assessment and proactive risk management:

• Identifying, evaluating and addressing risks on business initiatives and different areas of operation thoughtfully and providing quality, pragmatic, expert strategic legal advice in ‘how make it happen’ mode to ensure business strategy implementation in East markets;
• Developing and launching company policies and processes in East markets within legal function area of responsibility, eg., on PoAs, stamps, etc. in collaboration with another One Mars CEA Legal team members;
• ‘Digital first’ mindset – ensuring optimum utilization of digital compliance management tools at the units and driving momentum towards digitization of legal matters, including contribution to CEA Legal hub development;
• Management of outside counsel in East markets within area of responsibility;
• Handle other projects and legal/compliance matters, not explicitly listed in the section, but falling within the scope of general legal support for the business in Kazakhstan and East markets.

What are we looking for?

• The position requires an attorney with a minimum of 3-5 years of experience with LLB/ LLM degree from a reputed Law school.
• Generalist lawyer having expertise and experience in various commercial / business matters, incl. Contracts, Corporate, Marketing and Advertising, Employment, being able to provide contractual support for direct and indirect procurement (factory related and not only), as well as distribution agreements, and handling a number of other day – to - day legal matters for KZ, KG, TJ, TN, UZ, Mongolia (East markets).
• Competition law expertise would be an advantage.
• Previous work experience as in house legal in a company preferably FMCG/ Pharma (good to have not mandatory).

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles;
• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today;
• A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University;
• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.