Deputy Director, Legal

Deputy Director, Legal

Gates Foundation

Nairobi, Kenya

Your Role

We seek a Deputy Director, Legal to provide legal advice in support of the Foundation’s programmatic activities, while also supporting its operational needs as appropriate. This position requires a commitment to the Foundation’s mission and a strong understanding of the legal and regulatory landscapes in Kenya and across the rest of Africa, and the ability to navigate diverse legal systems and cross-cultural settings. The successful candidate will work closely with internal teams and external partners across multiple jurisdictions to help structure legally sound, mission-aligned work in dynamic and evolving environments. This is an exciting opportunity to apply your legal skills to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. You will be part of a dynamic legal team supporting high-impact work that improves lives across the globe.

The postholder will serve as a member of the Foundation’s Legal Team and collaborate with other team members to represent the entire Foundation and ensure effective coverage, work allocation and communication regarding legal issues across the Foundation, all from a “one legal team” and “one Foundation” perspective.

The role will be based at the Foundation’s office in Nairobi, and report to a Director on the Legal Team (based in Seattle).

What You’ll Do

• Understand and provide legal support for the programmatic and business objectives of internal client groups, notably the Foundation’s Africa Team, develop creative solutions, mitigate legal risks and resolve issues using the appropriate legal framework in consideration of the Foundation’s values and consistent with Foundation practices and policies.
• Structure, negotiate, and draft legal documents related to the Foundation’s investments, including grants, contracts, and complex transactions and collaborations, and other Foundation activities in furtherance of the Foundation’s charitable objectives (collectively, “Investments”).
• Understand legal compliance best practices for, and help ensure Foundation-wide consistency regarding Investments, including with respect to applicable laws, Global Access, data/privacy matters, charitability, intellectual property, for-profit engagement and advocacy.
• Demonstrate broad generalist expertise to proactively identify legal issues and collaborate, where appropriate, with other Legal Team members to lead the resolution of complex and strategic legal issues across Africa, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Establish a partnership of trust with key internal stakeholders and participate as a strategic and day-to-day advisor. Serve as an active and key contributor to the Foundation’s Africa Leadership Team.
• Serve as the Legal Team’s relationship manager for the Foundation’s office in Kenya (and other country offices as required) and support the Foundation’s activities across the African continent, working closely with the leadership and staff of the Foundation’s Africa Team and providing guidance and helping to coordinate legal team resources where appropriate.
• Facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements applicable to the Foundation’s offices in Africa and other Africa-based activities as well as help ensure Foundation-wide consistency, including developing generalist familiarity and, where appropriate, collaborating with other Legal Team members on operational matters (including requirements related to employment/labor, tax, office registration, cybersecurity, insurance, records retention, and workplace health and safety).
• Partner with other Foundation operations teams to support Foundation goals and policies as appropriate.
• Build relationships with and manage outside counsel, as applicable.
• Support training and education of Foundation personnel on legal issues, as well as grantees and partners as appropriate.
• Keep current on and track relevant applicable new and emerging laws, policy developments and best practices, including those relating to tax-exempt organizations, private foundations, cross-border giving and operational compliance in Kenya and the wider African continent.
• Travel to the Foundation’s other Africa offices and its offices in the U.S. on a consistent basis required; travel to other Foundation offices as appropriate; and other travel as required.

Your experience

• Academic: Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from a recognized university required; Masters of Law preferred.
• Professional: Admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with a current practicing certificate. Member in good standing of the Law Society of Kenya.
• Minimum of 12 years’ experience in the practice of law, of which at least seven years must have been in Kenya.
• Combination of law firm and in-house counsel experience strongly preferred.
• History of effectively supporting a demanding client base, serving as counselor on ground-breaking, emerging legal issues in a complex, fast-paced and evolving legal and policy environment.
• Direct experience guiding and generally advising clients on broad and multi-jurisdictional commercial legal and business matters in cross-cultural, multilingual, and often politically sensitive environments on the African continent is a plus.
• Experience with supporting grant making and other investment vehicles within philanthropy or representing an international non-governmental agency or a U.S. based not-for-profit is a plus.
• Expertise in leading, drafting and negotiating complex transactions and collaborative relationships.
• Ability to identify potential business and/or operational issues that could impact business objectives of internal clients.
• Ability to collaborate across a legal team and with clients and/or business partners as well as the ability to build relationships to gain the respect and trust of others.
• Ability to communicate complex legal concepts clearly and non-legalistically to clients in both writing and orally.
• Ability to work with diplomacy, flexibility, efficiency, intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm both individually and collaboratively as part of a team effort in a highly matrixed organization.
• Ability to prioritize work in the context of an organization’s risk tolerance framework, priorities and objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and apply new areas of law applicable to nascent and evolving technologies, business models, regulatory systems, and investment models, demonstrating intellectual curiosity and excitement to engage proactively and confidently with unfamiliar topics.
• Highest standards of ethics and integrity.
• Sense of balance, humor and perspective.

Other Attributes

• Demonstrated passion for the Foundation’s mission and values and Legal Team purpose statement.
• Comfortable in a wide range of cultural, geographic and operational settings, demonstrating culturally sensitive behavior with a diverse range of people.
• Ability to travel up to 30% internationally.