Finance Senior Associate/Of Counsel (7+PQE) - Singapore

CMS Singapore is looking to establish a practice to handle regulatory and specialist commercial matters for a wide range of financial services institutions, including banks, finance providers, payment institutions, platforms, markets and trading facilities, funds and fund managers, investment managers, insurers and insurance intermediaries. Our clients range from well-established domestic and global financial institutions to innovative new Fintech and Techfin start-ups.
 
We are seeking a self-motivated, keen and entrepreneurial lawyer to grow this practice.  

About CMS

CMS is a Future Facing firm with more than 70 offices in over 40 countries and 5,000+ lawyers worldwide. We combine deep local market understanding with a global perspective. We are passionate about building strong relationships with our clients, our people, and the communities we work in.

We take a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to ensure our clients are able to face the future with confidence. We are driven by technology and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of working.  Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximize their potential and thrive.

About the Role

The Financial Services practice in CMS Singapore will sit within the Finance Practice group. Intended to complement our existing finance, technology and corporate practices, the practice will help our clients with development of new products and services and assist them with significant regulatory, transactional and/or operational change projects. We envisage a significant volume of work for this practice as the Singapore regulatory landscape continues to evolve and new, innovative products and services are launched. For example, the emergence of new Fintech solutions is changing how financial institutions and their clients and service providers operate, and challenging regulators in how to ensure that they supervise those institutions appropriately. Specialist transactional work will be driven by changes in regulatory capital requirements and outsourcing and operational risk requirements, as well as continued market consolidation and rationalisation. With CMS’s specialist international regulatory expertise and multi-jurisdictional footprint, we are well placed to help our clients deal with whatever the future holds.
 
Globally, CMS works closely with a broad range of clients in the Crypto space, such as DeFi, NFT, metaverse, Web3 and general digital assets. We act for most of the biggest institutions in the industry as well as numerous start-ups in the space, meaning that we engage in very specialist work advising on crypto products and business models.
 
As a result, we are now looking to establish a specialist practice in our Singapore office and are looking for a driven, commercially aware lawyer at the Counsel or Senior Associate level who wants to specialise in non-contentious regulatory and/or specialist commercial work for our clients.
 
This role promises a rich variety of work, with opportunities to work across the asset management, funds, insurance, banking, alternative finance, crypto, consumer and consumer credit sectors. 
 
You will have the opportunity to work closely with CMS’s global financial services, regulatory and crypto teams. We expect that there will be close collaborations with our international colleagues in a close-knit, supportive and enjoyable place to work.

About You

If you have 6-11 years of relevant work experience (gained from a top law firm, a recognised financial institution or an industry participant), we would love to hear from you.  To be successful in this role, candidates will have solid experience of carrying out financial services regulatory and/or commercial / transactional work for financial institutions.  In addition, familiarity with Singapore financial regulations (including the Payment Services Act, the Securities and Futures Act and related MAS regulations) would be a necessary attribute.  You will flourish in this role if you come equipped with a self-motivated, team player mindset.

It is essential that you are Singapore qualified.  

It would also be a bonus (although not essential) for you to have:
 
1.    knowledge of and interest in crypto, NFT, Web3, metaverse, etc.
2.    some understanding of tokenomics and crypto business models
3.    experience of cryptoasset regulation e.g. token opinions, business structuring, incl. offshoring
 
CMS is known for its particularly supportive and collaborative team approach with ambitious plans for growth and excellent long-term career prospects.

Equal Opportunities

At CMS, a next-generation mindset is woven into all we do. We're diverse, supportive and inclusive, embracing our corporate social responsibility and creating a culture of sustainability in which every one of our people, whatever their background, can maximise their potential and thrive. For further information about CMS' diversity initiatives and programmes, please view the Diversity & Inclusion pages on our website.

Please apply online or contact a member of the Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions.

Please note that CMS have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

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