Legal Advisor

Role Overview

Legal Advisor at AD Ports Group. The position plays a key role in advising on domestic and cross-border M&A transactions, including acquisitions, disposals, and joint ventures across the Group's ports, logistics, maritime and industrial clusters.

Role Purpose

Provide comprehensive legal support on M&A transactions and strategic advisory services to senior leadership, while managing external counsel and ensuring alignment of legal strategy with group objectives across multiple jurisdictions and business clusters.

Key Responsibilities

M&A Transactions and Due Diligence

• Provide legal support on M&A transactions, including acquisitions, disposals, and joint ventures.
• Draft, review and negotiate transaction documents, including NDAs, SPAs, SHAs, investment agreements and ancillary documents.
• Lead legal due diligence and advise on transaction structuring, risk allocation, regulatory considerations and closing mechanics.

Stakeholder Management and Coordination

• Manage and coordinate external legal counsel across multiple jurisdictions.
• Work closely with senior internal stakeholders, including Strategy & Growth, Finance and executive management.
• Advise on post-completion integration, corporate governance, and ongoing shareholder matters.

Strategic Leadership

• Participate in the formulation of the overall Legal strategy and ensure alignment with group objectives.
• Act as a strategic advisor to the leadership team on legal best practices and trends.
• Lead the strategic planning, development, execution, and evaluation of all legal initiatives.
• Lead cross-functional team to streamline processes and implement best practices to drive operational excellence.

People Development

• Support identification of skill gaps and training requirements for the teams to ensure consistent high performance.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Law or equivalent LLM/PhD from a recognized University.
• Minimum of 12–15 years of experience in same or similar role.
• Post-qualification experience with a strong focus on M&A transactions.
• Experience gained at a top tier or international law firm and/or in-house within a large multinational or government-related entity, preferably within the Middle East region.
• Proven experience advising complex cross-border M&A transactions.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong commercial judgement.
• Drafting, negotiation and project management skills.
• Pro-active approach and ability to operate independently and effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• English language proficiency.