Company Secretary

Kennedys is looking for a proactive and efficient Company Secretary. This is a standalone position where you'll play a crucial role in ensuring corporate governance excellence across multiple jurisdictions and office locations. The role sits in the Risk & Compliance team and works closely with the Tax Team and the Senior Partner's Executive Assistant.TeamKennedys Risk & Compliance team handles a wide range of partnership and risk and compliance issues for the firm and acts an in-house legal department assisting with regulatory and professional conduct enquiries.Key responsibilities Corporate Governance: Oversee and ensure compliance with corporate governance principles and regulations across multiple jurisdictions where the firm operates.Board Support: Provide comprehensive support to the Kennedys Group, including organizing board meetings, preparing minutes, resolutions, deeds of adherence/retirement and other ancillary documents, and facilitating communication between members.Regulatory Compliance: Stay abreast of regulatory changes and ensure the firm's activities adhere to relevant laws and regulations in all jurisdictions, most notably the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023.Company Policies: Develop and maintain corporate policies and procedures to uphold legal and ethical standards, ensuring alignment with industry best practices.Risk Management: Identify and mitigate legal and regulatory risks that could impact the firm's operations or reputation, and implement effective risk management strategies.Corporate Records Management: Maintain accurate and up-to-date corporate records via Diligent; including appointments, partner details, compliance dates (confirmation statement and annual accounts filings), statutory registers and other legal documents.Legal Compliance: Collaborate with regulatory bodies, the SRA and CILEX to ensure the firm's activities comply with relevant laws, regulations, and industry standards; including notification requirements during the on boarding of partners and the annual bulk renewal of practicing certificates.Corporate Secretarial Services: Oversee all aspects of corporate secretarial services, including entity formation, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate restructuring activities.Continuous Improvement: Continuously evaluate and enhance corporate governance practices and processes to adapt to changing business needs and regulatory requirements.Training and Education: Provide training to partners, directors and senior management and employees regarding the Group's obligation to corporate governance, compliance, and ethical standards to promote a culture of integrity and accountability.Administration: Update and maintain: Disclaimers – drafting the disclaimer for email and letterhead footers, per region where Kennedys has a presence, including legal notices on the intranet;Annual corporate governance calendar(s), via DiligentThe group structure chart to reflect the recent organisational changes Required experience ICSA qualified5+ years' company secretarial experienceExperience of partnerships and other entity typesProven track record of serving as a Company Secretary in a complex corporate environment, preferably within a multinational organization or large law firm.Strong communication skills with the confidence to work with stakeholders at all levels but particularly at partner levelExcellent stakeholder relationships and proven ability to influenceProactive self-starter who is able to work on their own initiative with minimal supervision. Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys. *where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience. About KennedysKennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,500 people worldwide across 45 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.We're a fresh-thinking firm, and we're not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.What do we have to offer?We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you'll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive. Our are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people's development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on-the-job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.We strive to celebrate empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We've created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested. Documents