Director, Legal UK & Europe

The role of Director, Legal UK and Europe is responsible for overseeing and coordinating legal-related activities and other efforts in connection with Greystar Europe's operations and investment business, including managing relationships with and overseeing work performed by Greystar Europe's external legal counsel, providing input and consultation on proposed and existing operation and management strategies, and ensuring that Greystar Europe's operational and investment business complies with legal and regulatory requirements as well as Greystar's internal quality and risk management standards.

This position will assist in establishing and implementing best practices, processes, and policies within the legal and regulatory area to support the execution of Greystar's global investment management strategy.,

• Oversight of the operational and investment legal European business covering Greystar's operational assets in both the student and multifamily build to rent sectors, with a focus on real estate but covering legal matters relating to the following areas: Greystar owned asset management, third party owned asset management, operations, marketing, capital projects, data and analytics, sustainability, operational risk, health and safety and insurance.


• Day to day legal contact for the European operational and investment business and Investment partners, becoming a "go to" trusted advisor and ensuring risks are appropriately managed in the context of business objectives.


• Refine existing and build new processes within the operations and investment business to ensure the efficient and effective review of contracts and appropriate outsourcing to external legal counsel.


• Be the main point of contact for the external legal counsel, including establishing and maintaining the relationship, agreeing the scope of engagement, leading on outsourcing decision making, monitoring service levels, track and report legal spend and billing arrangements.


• Take steps and implement processes to ensure legal advice is applied uniformly and consistently across the European operational and investment business.


• Working with external legal counsel and other advisers as appropriate, ensure key precedent contracts (such as property management agreements, ASTs, Opco leases, procurement contracts) are regularly reviewed and remain robust.


• Create and implement processes, tools, systems, and methods for tracking, managing, and reporting progress on the completion and delivery of legal transactions/documents and provide Greystar's key business leaders with progress reports and updates as needed.


• Stay abreast of emerging issues and market practices in the private equity real estate industry, provide updates to Greystar's key business leaders, and recommend, develop and implement policies, practices, and other strategies to ensure compliance and mitigate or reduce risk.


• Review and comment on property management agreements from both a third party management and asset owner perspective.


• Advise on sustainability, health and safety, fire and building safety legal and regulatory requirements and recommend, develop and implement policies, practices, and other strategies to ensure compliance and mitigate or reduce risk.


• Working with external legal counsel, oversee the refinancing of operational assets from a legal perspective, including feeding into certificates of title and liaising with Investment partners.


• Oversee from a legal perspective key capex works to operational assets, including remediation works.


• Oversee and manage the outsourcing of tenant claims, including rent arrears.


• Working with the procurement team, outsource to external legal counsel as appropriate the review of commercial contracts (for example marketing, supplier of goods and services), feeding into the positions that should be taken on key clause/provisions.


• Working with external legal counsel and the data privacy team, ensure appropriate data protection procedures are in place to minimize the risk of data breaches and ensure legal contracts include appropriate data protection protections and appropriate steps are being taken to deal with any data subject requests or similar.


• Working with the compliance team and assistant company secretary, monitor and implement any compliance changes required in the European investment and operations business.
  
  Demonstrable post-qualification experience in a top-tier law firm, including experience related to the real estate private investment and asset management area.


• In-house legal or secondment experience preferred but not essential.


• Excellent legal drafting skills and the ability to understand complex legal issues and recommend and implement strategies, decisions, and solutions.


• Superior judgment and ethical practices.


• Demonstrated skills in interpersonal communication to establish and build internal and external relationships, manage external legal counsel and service providers, and effectively interact with executives, senior-level management groups, clients and other team members.


• Excellent project management skills and evidenced ability to take initiative in the area(s) of focus in order to develop and execute a project plan from conception through implementation and evaluation.


• Strong experience and knowledge of laws and applicable regulatory requirements within the European real estate industry.


• Excellent organisation skills, including the ability to prioritise workload, achieve deadline driven defined outcomes and displays good judgment under pressure.


• A positive team player, skilled at working collaboratively with team members, key business leaders, and external legal counsel to drive results and support the wider team and business objectives.


• Demonstrated willingness to be flexible and adaptable to changing priorities in a fast-paced environment, characterised by change and rapid growth.
  
  Greystar is a leading, fully integrated global real estate company offering expertise in property management, investment management, development, and construction services in institutional-quality rental housing, logistics, and life sciences sectors. Headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina, Greystar manages and operates more than $290 billion of real estate in 247 markets globally with offices throughout North America, Europe, South America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Greystar is the largest operator of apartments in the United States, manages more than 857,400 units/beds globally, and has a robust institutional investment management platform comprised of more than $76 billion of assets under management, including over $34 billion of development assets. Greystar was founded by Bob Faith in 1993 to become a provider of world-class service in the rental residential real estate business. To learn more, visit www.greystar.com.