Legal Counsel - Corporate & Commercial

The Opportunity

A chance for a corporate and commercial lawyer in Cape Town to work on live, cross-border M&A inside one of the UK’s fastest-growing fintech groups, with a direct line to the Group General Counsel and real ownership of your matters from day one. You will build genuine English-law transactional experience that is hard to come by locally, while remaining based in Cape Town as part of an international team.

About OneDome

OneDome is a UK-headquartered property and fintech group. Our platform brings the homebuying journey together in one place, combining property search, mortgage advice, conveyancing and related services so that buyers and sellers can complete a property transaction through a single digital experience. Alongside the platform, the group includes a number of regulated mortgage and financial-services businesses and a mortgage broker network of more than 500 brokers.

OneDome has grown rapidly in recent years, ranked among the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies in the Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 and the Sunday Times Tech 100, and continues to expand through acquisition. Our team is distributed internationally, including an office in Cape Town. Group Legal supports the business on transactions, commercial contracting and corporate matters as it scales.

The Role

We are looking for a corporate and commercial lawyer to join our Group Legal function from our Cape Town office, reporting directly to the Group General Counsel in the UK. You will work as part of a lean, high-trust team across multiple jurisdictions, supporting live M&A transactions and day-to-day commercial contracting.

This is a hands-on role for someone who can take instruction from the General Counsel and other senior colleagues, then run with it: reviewing and marking up transactional documents, drafting ancillaries, handling commercial contracts and liaising directly with counterparties. A good deal of your work will be on English-law-governed documents, giving you the chance to develop cross-border transactional experience; prior English-law exposure is a strong advantage but not a prerequisite.

You will own your matters end to end and be trusted to exercise sound judgement, with the support of the wider team and a clear sense of when to escalate. This is a role for someone experienced enough to work without close supervision.

Key Responsibilities

• Draft, review, analyse and mark up transactional documentation, including share purchase agreements, options, loan agreements and related ancillary documents, and propose clear drafting changes.
• Draft and revise standard transaction documents and ancillaries to a high standard.
• Review and negotiate commercial contracts, NDAs and other day-to-day agreements.
• Communicate directly with counterparties and their advisers on live deals, taking and acting on instructions from the General Counsel and senior colleagues.
• Support corporate and commercial matters across the group as they arise.
• Work efficiently across UK and South African time zones, with reliable overlap with the UK team.

Essential

Experience and qualifications

• Admitted attorney in South Africa (registered with the Legal Practice Council), or equivalent SA qualification.
• More than 3 years’ post-qualification experience, with a meaningful proportion in corporate and commercial work.
• Demonstrable hands-on M&A transaction experience: drafting standard transaction documents and ancillaries, and reviewing and marking up SPAs and similar.
• Strong, precise drafting and document-review skills.
• Able to work autonomously on instructed matters without close supervision, with the judgement to escalate appropriately.
• Comfortable communicating directly and professionally with counterparties.

Desirable

• Qualification (or part-qualification) in England and Wales, or prior experience working on English-law-governed transactions.
• Experience in a fast-paced corporate, in-house or transactional environment.
• Exposure to cross-border or multi-jurisdictional matters.

Skills and attributes

• Commercially minded; understands the business context behind the legal point.
• Technically precise and accurate, with attention to operative detail and cross-references.
• Direct, clear communicator, in writing and on calls.
• Organised and self-directed; reliable under deadline pressure.
• Collaborative across a distributed, international team.

What we offer

• Direct exposure to live, cross-border M&A deals and a varied corporate and commercial caseload, with real responsibility from the start.
• A direct working relationship with the Group General Counsel and senior leadership in a flat, fast-moving structure.
• The opportunity to build English-law transactional experience within an international group.
• Competitive, market-related salary plus benefits