FS Regulatory - Senior Associate / Associate (3-6 PQE) - London

The FS Transactions team advises pension schemes, insurers, reinsurers, banks and other financial institution clients on regulatory and capital-driven transactions. The team has 3 partners and 13 associates, some of whom come from a traditional finance background. While the transactions are often insurance based, they are typically collateralised and built around core financial markets concepts such as set-off and netting. No pensions or life insurance knowledge is required for the position.

Our desire to bolster our finance capacity arises from the uptick in the volume, scale and complexity of the transactions we work on.
A large portion of the work is structured reinsurance transactions between UK life companies and global reinsurers. A smaller part of our practice is bank and pension trustee facing. Most of the transactions we work on involve working with different asset classes (including illiquid assets, many of which are debt-based) that comprise the premium or security in these structures.
In this role, you can expect to get involved in a variety of work including:

• novel structured products;


• vanilla tripartite custody account security structures (usually including an account control agreement);


• title transfer collateral arrangements;


• capital regulation;


• securitisations and repackaging, including SPIRE;


• taking security over illiquid structures, like fund units and interests, long term mortgages, credit and real estate;


• issues around set off and netting, close out and termination, including for cross border transactions.


Core clients of the team include: L&G, Pacific Life, PIC, Pheonix, Rothesay and Just Retirement.
The CMS team is the largest in the city to focus on this work and is involved in many cutting edge and novel transactions. Successful candidates will be well supported and will get the opportunity to work on big, complex transactions in a growing area.

We are ideally looking for candidates with between 3-6 years of previous qualified experience, though this is not conclusive and we will consider each candidate on their own merit.

We will invest in your ongoing training and development to support your professional goals and help you to thrive in your role from day one. Our opportunities are open to all suitably qualified applicants, so to be considered for this role you must have transferable transactional skills, be open minded and enthusiastic.

No specific regulatory experience or knowledge is needed - we are looking for solid legal skills with enquiring minds keen to learn on the job to develop a sector specific focus in transactional work in the FS team at CMS.

CMS is a Future Facing firm. With 79 offices in 45 countries and 5,000+ lawyers worldwide, we combine deep sector understanding with a global overview, giving us the ability not only to see what's coming, but to shape it.

CMS is well equipped to help our clients face the future with confidence. We are driven by technology and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of delivering legal services. Our bold approach to a changing future ensures that we nurture our employees and recruit top talent., At CMS, we place diversity and inclusion at the centre of our culture and at the heart of our organisation. Not only does it make our firm a more rewarding place to work, but it also creates a stronger, more successful, and sustainable business where everyone feels comfortable and welcome.

We want to reward you today and help you plan for tomorrow. We appreciate that everyone is different, therefore we have designed a benefits system that offers choice and flexibility based on individual needs and lifestyles. To name just a few, these include:

• Competitive basic salary (reviewed annually)


• Flexible, hybrid working policy


• Generous bonus scheme


• Up to 25 days holiday (rising to 28 days with service)


• Holiday exchange scheme


• Private medical insurance


• Enhanced parental leave


• Reasonable adjustments and accommodation for disabled talent in accordance with the Equality Act 2010