Vice President - Legal Counsel

Job Purpose
The role will involve advising numerous stakeholders on relevant legal issues, managing a wide array of real estate transactions (disposals, acquisitions and JVs), supporting corporate transactions from a real estate perspective, advising on commercial leasing, day-to-day operational legal issues, mitigating legal risk and supporting the business in achieving its strategic and commercial objectives both within the UAE and internationally.
Roles and Responsibilities
• Structure, draft and negotiate a broad range of strategic investment and partnership real estate transactions which could include assets such as hotels, schools, malls and office space.• Ensure all transactions are executed efficiently and aligned with Aldar’s commercial objectives.• Advise on documentation for leasing transactions across Aldar’s diversified investment portfolio and support the business on all legal aspects of tenant management, renewals, and enforcement.• Draft, review and negotiate property management agreements, facilities management contracts, licences, permits, and service agreements.• Support senior legal team members on large-scale or complex strategic projects, acquisitions, divestments, or group-level structuring initiatives.• Collaborate with internal stakeholders including Commercial, Finance, Treasury, Tax, Insurance, Strategy and Asset Management, coordinating all legal inputs and ensuring smooth execution of transactions.• Provide proactive advice in relation to legal risk mitigation.• Contribute to the continuous improvement of legal processes and templates.• Provide ongoing training to the business as required to ensure efficient use of templates and familiarisation with relevant legal updates.• Experience with hotel and/or school management agreements and franchise agreements preferred.• Provide accurate and timely legal advice to end user departments with a commercial slant.• Appoint external law firms, provide clear legal instructions, manage them throughout transaction negotiations and manage associated external legal spend within budget.• Comply with relevant internal governance documentation.• Research and evaluate different risks regarding business decisions and operations.• Deal with and manage multiple stakeholders (internal and external).• Maintain current knowledge of relevant legal updates and laws.• Co-ordinate, follow up and monitor the progress of active matters.• Prioritise work effectively and efficiently and manage end user Maintain accurate records of advice provided and documents negotiated. expectations.
RELATED YEAR OF EXPERIENCE
• Min of 10+ years of related experience ideally gained in international law firm and/or large in-house environment.• Min of 2+ Years of managerial position preferred.
FIELD OF EXPERIENCE
• Experience in transactional real estate matters and asset management• In depth knowledge of UAE legal systems and regulatory frameworks (onshore and ADGM preferred)• Excellent drafting skills & attention to detail• Systematic organizational capability• Ability to deal with multiple internal and external stakeholders• Good time management • Excellent negotiation skills• Excellent communication and relationship management skills• Good team player• Problem solver
QUALIFICATION
• Law Degree, Bachelors or Post Graduate Diploma in Law• Common Law Qualified