Vice President - Legal Counsel

The role will involve advising numerous stakeholders on relevant legal issues, managing a wide array of real estate transactions (disposals, acquisitions and JVs), supporting corporate transactions from a real estate perspective, advising on commercial leasing, day-to-day operational legal issues, mitigating legal risk and supporting the business in achieving its strategic and commercial objectives both within the UAE and internationally.

• Structure, draft and negotiate a broad range of strategic investment and partnership real estate transactions which could include assets such as hotels, schools, malls and office space.

• Ensure all transactions are executed efficiently and aligned with Aldar’s commercial objectives.

• Advise on documentation for leasing transactions across Aldar’s diversified investment portfolio and support the business on all legal aspects of tenant management, renewals, and enforcement.

• Draft, review and negotiate property management agreements, facilities management contracts, licences, permits, and service agreements.

• Support senior legal team members on large-scale or complex strategic projects, acquisitions, divestments, or group-level structuring initiatives.

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders including Commercial, Finance, Treasury, Tax, Insurance, Strategy and Asset Management, coordinating all legal inputs and ensuring smooth execution of transactions.

• Provide proactive advice in relation to legal risk mitigation.

• Contribute to the continuous improvement of legal processes and templates.

• Provide ongoing training to the business as required to ensure efficient use of templates and familiarisation with relevant legal updates.

• Experience with hotel and/or school management agreements and franchise agreements preferred.

• Provide accurate and timely legal advice to end user departments with a commercial slant.

• Appoint external law firms, provide clear legal instructions, manage them throughout transaction negotiations and manage associated external legal spend within budget.

• Comply with relevant internal governance documentation.

• Research and evaluate different risks regarding business decisions and operations.

• Deal with and manage multiple stakeholders (internal and external).

• Maintain current knowledge of relevant legal updates and laws.

• Co-ordinate, follow up and monitor the progress of active matters.

• Prioritise work effectively and efficiently and manage end user Maintain accurate records of advice provided and documents negotiated. expectations.

• Min of 10+ years of related experience ideally gained in international law firm and/or large in-house environment.

• Min of 2+ Years of managerial position preferred.

• Experience in transactional real estate matters and asset management

• In depth knowledge of UAE legal systems and regulatory frameworks (onshore and ADGM preferred)

• Excellent drafting skills & attention to detail

• Systematic organizational capability

• Ability to deal with multiple internal and external stakeholders

• Good time management

• Excellent negotiation skills

• Excellent communication and relationship management skills

• Good team player

• Problem solver

• Law Degree, Bachelors or Post Graduate Diploma in Law

• Common Law Qualified