Legal Counsel, Office of the General Counsel

Alberta Securities Commission•Calgary, AB

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) is the industry-funded regulator responsible for administering the province's securities laws. It is entrusted with fostering a fair and efficient capital market in Alberta and with protecting investors. As a member of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), the ASC works to improve, coordinate and harmonize the regulation of Canada's capital markets. The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) is the in-house legal, policy, strategy and risk management resource for the ASC. The OGC provides legal advice to the Chair and CEO, Commission Members, Executive Director and employees on a wide range of issues, including statutory interpretation, administrative law, securities regulation, corporate/commercial law, information technology/intellectual property law, procurement law and privacy law. In addition, the OGC is responsible for the corporate secretarial and legislative functions at the ASC and provides advice on internal corporate governance matters and the application of the Access to Information Act (Alberta) (“ATIA”) and the Protection of Privacy Act (Alberta) (“POPA”) to the ASC. Reporting to the General Counsel, the successful candidate will be part of the OGC team providing legal advice to ASC Executive Management, Commission Members and employees on a wide range of issues and regulatory matters, including in respect of privacy law and ASC procurements, and providing general corporate / commercial legal services support to the ASC.

Requirements

A law degree and approximately five to eight years of relevant legal experience.
Membership in good standing (or be eligible for membership) with the Law Society of Alberta.
Experience in privacy and access to information legal requirements in Alberta, including understanding and translating legislated obligations into practical operational programs.
Working understanding of securities laws.
Experience in a combination (or at least more than one) of the following areas: corporate/commercial law, privacy law, technology law, administrative law, securities law.
The ability to negotiate and advocate a position while working collaboratively with others.
The ability to provide advice and support to operational / business teams in a commercial manner.
The ability to manage competing priorities in a dynamic environment while meeting strict deadlines, and the ability to oversee the execution of tasks in the same situations.
Strong, up-to-date research skills, and highly developed analytical problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Excellent verbal and written presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience working on an in-house legal team would be beneficial.
Experience in organizational digital transformation projects and internal data management would be beneficial.
Experience in a regulatory environment would be beneficial.

Responsibilities

Supporting the ASC’s Privacy Office under the Privacy & Access Officer in accordance with ASC obligations under POPA, including providing ongoing advice and support to divisional staff and ASC executives on privacy matters; preparing and facilitating Privacy Impact Assessments in support of ASC initiatives and programs; liaising with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (Alberta), as required; addressing privacy-related complaints or requests; and supporting privacy-related incident response collaboratively with IT.
Supporting the ASC’s responsibilities under ATIA, including supporting the ASC’s Records and Information Management team in responding to access to information requests; reviewing responses and redactions for compliance with ATIA; and working with provincial counterparts on national access to information requests.
Supporting the ASC’s Privacy Management Program, including maintaining appropriate policies and practices to meet legal requirements under POPA, and advising on ASC records management obligations, vendor management obligations and data governance.
Supporting the procurement and contracting needs of the ASC, including advising operational divisions on open tendering requirements and facilitating ASC open tenders to ensure compliance with applicable trade agreement requirements, and reviewing/negotiating ASC vendor agreements. Particularly, drafting and reviewing IT service agreements, including but not limited to, software licensing, SAAS agreements, cloud computing, and IT managed professional services agreements, as well as data usage and cyber security arrangements.
Advising on and negotiating IT vendor agreements in support of key organizational initiatives to mature ASC IT infrastructure.
Updating ASC standard form agreements and templates, as well as internal guidelines respecting data governance, cyber security and vendor management risk mitigation.
Providing legal advice and drafting in respect of various third-party commercial contracts, intergovernmental agreements, memoranda of understanding, and business correspondence of a legal nature in support of the ASC’s operational divisions.
Providing legal services regarding any of the matters for which the OGC is responsible.

Benefits

100 per cent employer-paid benefits
comprehensive health and dental
employee life insurance
short-term and long-term disability
retirement benefits
travel insurance
paid vacation time
flex and sick days
an employee family assistance program
transportation allowance
generous flexible spending account
professional development through subsidized courses, conference, workshops, seminars and in-house training