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The Head of Legal, Client Services Agreements is a senior leadership role within the Alter Domus Group Legal team, reporting directly to the Group Head of Legal. This role owns the legal lifecycle of client service agreements across the group's Fund Administration and Debt Capital Markets Services business lines, and leads a small team of lawyers and legal support staff responsible for delivering that remit.
This is a commercially focused, client-facing legal leadership role that sits at the heart of Alter Domus's service delivery model. The successful candidate will combine strong contracts expertise and commercial awareness with the ability to lead, develop and manage a team — setting standards, allocating work, building capability and ensuring consistent, high-quality legal output across a high-volume, multi-jurisdictional client portfolio.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
Team Leadership and Management
Lead, manage and develop a team of lawyers responsible for client service agreement work across Fund Administration and DCM business lines
Set clear objectives, priorities and quality standards for the team, ensuring work is allocated appropriately and delivered to a consistently high standard
Provide day-to-day supervision and guidance to team members on complex negotiations, novel issues and escalated matters — acting as the senior review point before matters are escalated to the Group Head of Legal
Foster a collaborative, commercially-minded team culture that is responsive to the business, consistent in its legal positions and continuously improving in its processes
Ensure the team operates in accordance with the group's legal quality standards — including appropriate use of templates, playbooks, escalation protocols and privilege disciplines
Client Service Agreements — Core Remit
Own the end-to-end legal management of client service agreements across both Fund Administration and DCM business lines, from first draft through negotiation, execution, amendment and renewal
Lead or supervise the drafting, review and negotiation of complex, bespoke client agreements including:
Fund administration agreements
Transfer agency agreements
Depositary services agreements
SPV administration agreements
Sub-administration arrangements
Side letters and ancillary service documentation
Maintain and develop the group's CSA template library and negotiation playbooks, ensuring standard positions are current, commercially calibrated and consistently applied across the business
Define and maintain a clear approved deviations framework — enabling the team and the business to move quickly on routine positions while escalating genuinely novel or high-risk points appropriately
Advise the Sales and Relationship Management teams on key commercial risk positions — liability caps, indemnities, service levels, termination rights, confidentiality and governing law — providing clear, practical guidance that supports deal execution
Ensure contract terms are operationally deliverable, working with Operations and Technology teams to sense-check service commitments and flag terms that create delivery risk
Manage the contract amendment and variation process — advising on and documenting changes to service…