Derivatives and Trading Associate 1 to 3 years' PQE

We are recruiting an Associate with one to three years’ post qualification experience to join our Derivatives and Trading practice.

About Macfarlanes

Macfarlanes is a pre-eminent law firm that serves a global client base in private capital, private wealth, M&A and disputes. Personal connection, an entrepreneurial spirit and a commitment to excellence are at the heart of our firm. These values drive our ability to deliver exceptional outcomes for our clients.

We are big enough to undertake the most complex and demanding mandates yet small enough to know each other well and to be agile, adapting to the needs of our clients. We seek to strengthen the firm by recruiting talented people from all backgrounds who want to build long-lasting and impactful careers with us. Our culture is challenging and supportive, creating an environment where individuals can thrive.

What this means for you

Joining Macfarlanes means being part of a collaborative, Partner-led team where you’ll develop and learn from experienced lawyers and business professionals. Our size means you’ll be given genuine responsibility early on and often be involved at the heart of client matters, gaining insight into how our high-quality legal advice is developed and delivered to help clients overcome their most pressing issues.

You’ll work closely with senior colleagues who are approachable and who want you to succeed. You’ll be encouraged to get involved in client and business development activities, and you’ll be recognised for your contribution.

The majority of our work has a cross-border focus, so you’ll often collaborate with global clients and specialist advisers in overseas jurisdictions. You’ll build connections with international law firms, broaden your experience, and be part of a multidisciplinary team that comes together to achieve the best results.

We also place real importance on your development. Our training and mentoring programmes are second to none, and designed to help you strengthen your legal and commercial skills.

Above all, you’ll be part of a firm where we all work together as part of a cohesive and supportive team, where you’ll be recognised and appreciated, and encouraged to succeed.

Practice overview

Our Derivatives and Trading practice consists of two Partners, two Senior Counsels, one Senior Associate, three associates, two trainee solicitors and four paralegals.

The group represent hedge funds, corporate treasuries, financial institutions, managed account platforms, asset managers and high-net-worth individuals in structuring, negotiating and executing complex and bespoke derivative instruments. Our team works alongside our specialist lawyers in financial services, regulatory, capital markets, tax and dispute resolution and is able to advise on both the day-to-day trading requirements of our clients, and the most complex derivative and structured product transactions in both transactional and contentious roles. The team prides itself on not only knowing the legal issues inside out, across a broad spectrum of standard form and bespoke documents, but also on understanding the strategies, risks and operational issues that affect the clients.

Our team advise on a wide range of products including repos, stock loans and all kinds of derivative, covering interest rate, fixed income, currency, commodity, equity, credit, basket and index underliers. The team routinely advises on matters such as, prime brokerage and clearing, and issues around rehypothecation and segregation, custody and collateral, securities lending and margin financing matters, repos, structured products, exchange traded derivatives, central clearing including OTC clearing under Dodd-Frank and EMIR, cash equities and cash bond trading under broker terms of business and electronic trading arrangements.

Our client base is also global; we act for managers in the UK, the US, Europe and the Far East (with a particular concentration of clients in Hong Kong) and we have daily experience negotiating for these clients with the international offices of the leading US, Asian and European banks and broker dealers.

The issues we face are global. We routinely advise on practical issues of trading in the US markets, on structuring offshore derivative instruments accessing the Chinese, Indian and emerging markets and on dealing with multiple regulatory regimes.

Further details about our derivatives and trading group, the work we do and examples of recent deals can be found on our website.

The role

The individual will be required to carry out a broad range of good quality work. Key duties will include:

• predominantly transactional work including, negotiating a broad spectrum of derivative and trade documents between broker-dealers and/or hedge funds, and managing the document and execution process for fund launches and businesses as usual transactions;
• day to day advisory work for our predominantly buy-side client basis will also be required. A good working knowledge of current regulatory issues is therefore useful, although we carry out extensive training in this regard;
• creating and/or diligencing innovative structures for our clients and colleagues in other practice areas;
• supporting wider firm transactions with hedging queries and related collateral and regulatory issues; and
• researching new products and regulations around the world, whenever our clients wish to trade.

This job description encompasses the main duties of the role and is by no means exhaustive. It is anticipated that duties may vary from time to time according to the needs of the practice area.

The candidate

We want to recruit an associate that trained in the UK and fulfils the following criteria:

• experience gained from a law firm or a recognised investment bank trading desk, including work on some or all of OTC Derivatives and ETDs, prime broker and custody agreements, collateral arrangements, clearing and repos;
• preferably will have completed at least one seat within derivatives, finance or funds during their training contract;
• strong academic qualifications from degree upwards;
• articulate and confident to deliver at the highest standard within a team of highly competent associates;
• ambitious, with a genuine commitment to develop both their professional and legal skills and the profile of the group;
• the ability to instil confidence to the client by delivering clear, efficient and robust advice in a derivatives context;
• willing to take on responsibility;
• be committed and motivated; and
• possess excellent interpersonal skills at all levels.

The team is known as being very friendly and collegiate, and so the right person would need to fit well within the group and, for example, be willing to pitch in with transactions that others are working on, if required to help relieve workload pressures.

Application screening

Any offer of employment with us is subject to our pre-employment checks which are conducted by a third-party screening provider. These checks will be initiated with your consent, and your CV will be sent to the provider by us. The screening will include but is not limited to your employment references, professional and academic qualifications including grades and any criminal records. Your offer will be subject to the successful completion of these checks.

Our commitment to inclusion

Inclusion is one of our key priorities and it is a goal we are actively working towards. We believe that an inclusive, forward-thinking culture is intrinsically important and enables us to provide innovative solutions to our clients.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, bringing different perspectives and experiences, making Macfarlanes an exciting and stimulating place to work. We seek to recruit the best candidates, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, social or economic background, religion, disability, sexual orientation or any other characteristic.

As part of this commitment, we will ask you certain diversity data questions. We would really appreciate you and/or your recruiter completing these questions when submitting an application to Macfarlanes as this data enables us to measure our progress and identify any actions needed to continue to support an inclusive culture. This data is anonymised to maintain the privacy of applicants. If you have any questions relating to how this data is used, please contact a member of the recruitment team.

Should you require any adjustments during the application and/or interview process, please do not hesitate to inform your recruiter or a member of the recruitment team. Please note, the job description is available in other accessible formats (for example, large print).

We are a Disability Confident Employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to apply through the Disability Confident Interview Scheme, please email the recruitment team at recruitment@macfarlanes.com.

Key people

William Sykes
Partner, Head of Derivatives and Trading

Will is head of our derivatives and trading practice, and advises investment funds, banks, pension funds, high-net-worth individuals and corporates on a wide spectrum of trading, hedging and financing transactions. This covers the full range of derivatives, as well as prime brokerage, repo, crypto, debt trading, commodities and clearing.

Will has a broad experience of trading, custody, brokerage and clearing agreements for derivative products, repos/stock lending and other financial instruments. 

He advises sell- and buy-side clients across a wide range of asset classes, and on the associated regulations and issues of market-practice. He covers debt trading transactions and cryptocurrencies and has a particular focus on trading and financing arrangements for hedge funds and credit funds. He has clients in the US, the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Australia. He advises on global trading issues, and has extensive knowledge of local requirements in markets such as India and China. Will has particular interests in legal issues concerning prime brokerage, and structured derivative financing and balance sheet transactions for direct lending funds.

Chris Acton
Partner

Chris advises hedge funds, managed account platforms and proprietary trading houses, on prime brokerage, derivatives and derivative regulation in Europe. He acts for the buy-side only.

Chris' clients cover a broad range of strategies including equities, equity long/short, special opportunities and distressed debt, global macro, commodity trading advisors, emerging markets and fixed income.

He advises on all aspects of his client's counterparty trading relationships including prime brokerage, custody, repo, securities lending, margin foreign matters, FX PB and intermediation, exchange traded and OTC derivatives and central clearing generally.

His practice also covers debt and claims trading having advised clients on the diligence, structuring and negotiation of numerous debt trade transactions and on a number of master confirmations arrangements for loan or trade claims total return swap transactions.

Chris' clients are primarily based in London, Europe and Hong Kong and he has developed close ties with local counsel who are able to provide local regulatory advice and market colour.