"The team is well balanced and well led. Their technical
and commercial expertise is complemented by a culture of
approachability, openness and business friendly
professionalism." - Chambers & Partners
Due to continued growth of the
team we have an exciting opportunity for an Associate Director to
join our market leading Payments practice within our Financial
Institutions Group. This is an exciting time to join the team with 2
NQs joining the team in September 2023, as well as a second TKL,
demonstrating how the team is going from strength to strength
following the arrival in January 2022 of Paul Harris (Partner) who
specialises in Payments, working alongside Paul Anning (Partner).
Consistently ranked in the top
tier by Chambers & Partners, you will join an ambitious team and
play a key role in shaping the future of the practice.
The Payments practice
Overview
Our highly regarded Financial
Institutions Group spans 4 core service lines: Payments, Consumer
Finance, Financial Regulation, and Investment Funds. With excellent
support from our Commercial and Disputes & Risk teams, the team
has a market leading Payments practice and a track record of acting
for clients across the whole Payments ecosphere.
We advise clients across the full
range of Payments issues, including: regulatory change, new product
launches, new technology solutions and platforms, M&A and
investments into Payments firms, partnering and distribution
arrangements, applications to the FCA for authorisation or
registration (including under MLD5), reporting and other regulatory
interactions, complex perimeter and structuring analysis, the use of
cryptoassets of all kinds, and international surveys.
Our practice is at the forefront
of both regulatory developments and product innovation. We have led
on numerous digital, online and mobile product launches from new
Open Banking products (including the UK's first use of PISP) to
innovative card and acquiring offerings, and we advise several
global digital platforms, marketplaces and technology service
providers on how payments are integrated into their offerings. We
also act for infrastructure providers to the payments ecosystem, as
well as electronic money issuers and cryptoasset issuers.
Clients
We have a fantastic roster of key
clients, all of them international, innovative and significant, and
we are their trusted (and first choice) adviser on key strategic
projects. Long-term clients with which we have key, trusted advisor
relationships include Airbnb Payments UK, Block (fka Square),
Cashplus (APS), ClearBank, GoCardless, gohenry, JPMorgan, Marqeta,
Mastercard/Vocalink, NewDay, Plaid, Revolut, TikTok and Trustly, as
well as UK Finance. In the crypto space, we are long-time advisers
to a number of well-respected US HQ'd exchanges.
International reach
Osborne Clarke, uniquely, has
dedicated Payments specialists in the key European countries -
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and
Sweden, as well as the UK - and the OC team also extends to India,
Singapore and China. Each of these domestic practices is thriving
and, in combination, this team gives us an unrivalled international
network and, with it, pan-European (and global) Payments insights.
Where we are not present in a
country, we work with local best of breed law firms (our largest
survey to date has been 172 jurisdictions). This means we can
deliver 'one stop shop' international advice, efficiently,
effectively and (from a client's perspective) free of
administration. Through this we are attracting more and more
regional and global mandates.
The team
Our Financial Institutions Group
operates from our London and Bristol offices and comprises 8
Partners, 1 Legal Director, 6 Associate Directors, 6 Senior
Associates, 9 Associates, 5 Trainee Solicitors and 4 Paralegals.
Helen Parsonage (Partner) leads the FIG team and works closely with
Paul Anning (Partner) who leads the Payments practice (both
domestically and internally).
Paul has been described by
Chambers & Partners as an 'industry leader' within Payments and
'unparalleled in terms of his knowledge base'.
Alongside Paul Anning you'll also
work closely with Paul Harris (Partner) who we welcomed to Osborne
Clarke in January 2022 from a firm with a highly respected Financial
Institutions team. Paul is an exciting addition to the team bringing
a host of expertise in Payments law.
Currently 10 members of the team
spend almost all of their time doing Payments work with several
others spending part of their time doing Payments work: the team
work very closely with other parts of the firm, including Disputes
(both litigation and regulatory investigations), Commercial,
Corporate, Competition and Tax.
The work
The following are examples of
recent work undertaken by the Payments team:
We have supported Airbnb
Payments UK (APUK) since its authorisation as an
Electronic Money Institution, through all the regulatory changes,
enhanced FCA supervision around safeguarding and its Brexit
arrangements (via regulated entity in Luxembourg), as well as
day-to-day queries on reporting, etc..
A new client to OC in 2019,
ClearBank is the UK's first clearing bank in over
250 years. Our relationship with ClearBank has developed
considerably and we have become a trusted advisor, assisting them
with a number of strategic projects, including the provision of
embedded finance to Tide and others.
JPMorgan is amongst the world's largest financial
services companies. OC advises JPMorgan on all manner of payment
services regulatory questions (having advised it on PSD and PSD2),
new transactional banking products and services, and co-ordinating
advice and product roll-out across multiple European jurisdictions
(Ireland, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain).
Vocalink, and Mastercard more generally, is
looking to take advantage of the 'Open Banking' regime introduced
under PSD2 and to support this they talked to trusted adviser OC
to support the development and launch of its PaybyBankapp (PbBa)
and also its Aiia Open Banking products and services (offered out
of Denmark).
We have supported UK
Finance in its work around PSD2. In particular, we have
supported their SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) Programme,
with both successful advocacy at European level on key
requirements, with the FCA on a managed roll-out plan for the
introduction of SCA in an e-commerce context, and on the
development of industry accepted detailed guidelines.
In addition to these clients,
there is a swathe of Osborne Clarke clients to which the Payments
team provides critical support, including: Facebook, TikTok
and Vodafone, as well as many a Retail client (on their
payments processing, gift card programs, co-brand arrangements,
etc.), many a Workforce Solutions client (typically organised as a
platform), and several in the Mobility space also.
Technical skills and experience
You will have knowledge and
experience across Payments matters which will have been gained at a
firm with a well-respected practice. You will be organised and
methodical as well as a team player who wants to be a part of a
dynamic and successful group.
Due to the nature of the work and
the structure of the team, we are looking for a lawyer at Associate
Director level, although we will consider candidates with more or
less experience.
Your career development
Like all our lawyers, you will
benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme.
At each stage of your career this provides you with:
clear expectations of your role
and what it takes to progress;
high quality clients and work,
with early responsibility and client exposure;
thorough assessment and
individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
robust technical training with
early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
reward for your contribution,
progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.
Salary and benefits
We offer competitive salaries and
generous benefits.
For more information or to apply
At Osborne Clarke we welcome
direct applications - if you would like any further information
about the role, or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Please contact, in complete confidence, Rachael Nye in the
recruitment team on rachael.nye@osborneclarke.com.
Please note we are not currently
accepting agency CVs for this position. If you would like to make an
application please do so directly.
At Osborne Clarke we value
difference and encourage applicants from all social backgrounds,
ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities, and sexual or
romantic orientations. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place
where you can be yourself and where you belong, and our range of
interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great
teams - are a part of making that a reality.
We support working families via a range of family and caring
friendly policies and will accommodate flexible working where we
can. We value the health and wellbeing of our people: for example,
we're signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, have an active
network of mental health champions and offer free initiatives and
flexible benefits to all our people.
Being an inclusive employer is important to us. We have made a
number of external commitments such as the Race Fairness
Commitment and Women in Law Pledge, and are working with
organisations like Stonewall to become a more inclusive employer.
Osborne Clarke is a Living Wage Employer, so we're committed to
paying everybody in our business enough to live on and to enable
them to save for the future.
We want you to be able to show us your best during the
recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to be made
during the application, interview process or when working with us,
please let us know.
