Company Secretary

Kennedys is looking for a proactive and efficient Company Secretary to join our Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield office. 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.

Team

Kennedys 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 Diligent
  • The group structure chart to reflect the recent organisational changes

Required experience

• ICSA qualified
• 5+ years' company secretarial experience
• Experience of partnerships and other entity types
• Proven 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 level
• Excellent stakeholder relationships and proven ability to influence
• Proactive 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.