Title:  Senior Legal Assistant and Law Clerk, Corporate Governance Office

Requisition ID: 238804

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

Directly supports the Vice President, Bank Governance and Corporate Secretary and the Vice President, Subsidiary Governance (collectively, the “VPs”), as well as provides administrative and corporate governance support for departmental activities contributing to the overall success of the Corporate Governance Office and Corporate Secretary’s Department globally. Ensures specific individual goals, plans, and initiatives are executed and delivered in support of the team’s business strategies and objectives. Ensures all activities conducted comply with governing regulations, internal policies and procedures.

Is this role right for you? In this role you will:

Executive Support

• Provides a variety of complex and routine administrative and governance support for the VPs.
• Maintains daily calendar and schedules meetings of the VPs.
• Receives inquiries and identifies priorities for the attention of the VPs.
• Arranges and coordinates domestic and international travel.
• Administers expenses, including expense tracking and preparation of expense reports, clearing corporate cards in the Travel and Entertainment (T&E) platform and processing invoices, and recovering expenses from international subsidiaries via the Payment Request Centre (PRC) platform.
• Develops and maintains a filing system.
• Performs a variety of other administrative duties and support as required.

This includes regular interaction with members of the Board and executive management across all business lines and corporate functions, the internal and external auditors, regulators, shareholders and other stakeholders

Administrative Operations for the Corporate Secretary’s Department

• Supports the VPs with the development and distribution of strategic department communications to ensure the strategy, goals and department initiatives are understood globally.
• Monitors the Corporate Secretary’s general inbox and coordinates responses to inquiries, internally and externally, ensuring appropriate actions, dissemination of information and follow-up, as necessary.
• Monitors the Corporate Secretary’s general phone line, responding to and resolving/escalating inquiries.
• Supports the development and distribution of documentation including procedures, presentations, correspondence, attestations, and business plans.
• Oversees the centralized tracking and record maintenance of employee vacation, remote work and absences, BCP contact lists and learning development.
• Supports the planning and execution of department events including team meetings, town halls, strategy sessions, conferences, and celebrations. 
• Supports the onboarding and offboarding activities of employees within the department, which includes requesting equipment set-up and system access.
• Provides the Board Services team with administrative and corporate secretarial support relating to Board and committee matters including, but not limited to, calendaring related to meeting notices/invitations and tracking attendance, preparing Board and committee attendance sheets and seating plans, maintaining the Master Board Services Checklist, supporting board postings as well as any other tasks that may be assigned.
• Other duties as assigned.

Records Management

• Executes information management and disposition processes, both paper and digital, in compliance with Bank’s records management policies and procedures and considering department requirements, including the creation, organization, maintenance, classification and disposition of records.
• Provides support and assists the department with records management initiatives and provides guidance and training on the Bank’s records management requirements.

Other

• Assists with various regulatory, internal and external audit requests supporting the Board services team, as required.
• Supports year-end by compiling data/information regarding director fees, attendance, share ownership requirements primarily for disclosure in the AIF and Management Proxy Circular as well as assisting with data verification and proofreading.
• Supports year-end by updating and tracking numerous shareholder forms, specifically the Notice of Availability and all annual meeting voting forms, including handling the French and Spanish translation as applicable.
• Supports the maintenance of the Bank’s website, as it relates to corporate governance documents, by liaising with the WorkFront team to ensure updates are made with integrity and within deadlines; this includes coordinating translation of documents.
• Supports the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) planner by assisting with testing (e.g., Call tree, VPN, walk-through) and collecting, reviewing, and updating information as required.
• Handles the processing of all documents received for execution under the Bank’s corporate seal, coordinates execution of international documentation with law clerks/legal counsel and attends to certification requirements as necessary.
• Support various governance initiatives/projects of the department.

General

• Understand how the Bank’s risk appetite and risk culture should be considered in day-to-day activities and decisions.
• Actively pursues effective and efficient operations of his/her respective areas, while ensuring the adequacy, adherence to and effectiveness of day-to-day business controls to meet obligations with respect to operational risk, regulatory compliance risk, AML/ATF risk and conduct risk, including but not limited to responsibilities under the Operational Risk Management Framework, Regulatory Compliance Risk Management Framework, AML/ATF Global Handbook and the Guidelines for Business Conduct.
• Champions a high-performance environment and contributes to an inclusive work environment.

Do you have the skills that will enable you to succeed in this role? - We'd love to work with you if you have:

This position deals with numerous sensitive issues, requiring strict confidentiality and accuracy.  The incumbent is expected to troubleshoot and make independent decisions within defined parameters on day to day assignments and seek guidance/clarity on policy and objectives. 

• 3-5 years’ experience as a law clerk/paralegal/legal assistant and/or administration with similar experience in a legal, regulatory or corporate secretarial function of a public company.
• Post-secondary education or equivalent; Member of The Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario or post-secondary Diploma in Legal Administration would be considered an asset. Financial services experience would also be considered an asset.
• Excellent written/verbal communications skills. Ability to use judgment in anticipating and initiating appropriate action.
• Highly organized and ability to multi-task.
• Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• Proven experience interacting with senior management.
• Ability to handle sensitive or private information with tact and discretion.
• Self-starter with ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work in a collaborative manner within the department and with staff in other departments.
• Advanced knowledge of MS Office and software tools as applied to the position including, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Adobe Acrobat.
• Knowledge of the business and regulatory environment in which the Bank operates would be considered an asset. 
• Ability to speak in French or Spanish would be considered an asset.

Location(s):  Canada : Ontario : Toronto 

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.  

At Scotiabank, we value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank, and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our Recruitment team know. If you require technical assistance, please click here. Candidates must apply directly online to be considered for this role. We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.