Senior Legal Counsel

📋 Description

• • RightCard Payments Limited, operating as LemFi, is at the forefront of revolutionizing financial services for the Global South, driven by a mission to empower immigrants and diasporic communities. As a Series B funded company with over 400 employees across 20+ countries, LemFi is building a comprehensive financial ecosystem designed to help individuals maintain connections to their home countries, achieve financial stability, and cultivate wealth, irrespective of their origin or current location. What began as a service for fast and affordable remittances has rapidly expanded into a full-fledged platform offering multi-currency accounts, seamless payment solutions, accessible credit, and tools for long-term financial growth. With millions of users worldwide and processing over $1 billion in monthly transactions to more than 30 countries, LemFi is demonstrably breaking down financial barriers and proving that geographical borders should not impede financial opportunity.
• • This pivotal role of Senior Legal Counsel is designed for an individual who will serve as the strategic engine behind LemFi’s global legal, regulatory, and expansion initiatives. The primary responsibility will be to provide high-impact legal counsel across key European and African markets, ensuring the company can operate with unwavering safety and confidence as it undergoes significant scaling. This is far from a conventional, passive legal position; instead, it is a dynamic role where you will be a central driver of inorganic growth through Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), the vigilant guardian of complex regulatory frameworks in emerging markets, and the indispensable legal partner for Product teams during the critical phases of new product launches. Your contribution will extend beyond mere contract reviews; you will be instrumental in shaping the very legal infrastructure that empowers LemFi to enter new territories and deploy innovative financial products at an accelerated pace.
• • Your contributions will be multifaceted and critical to LemFi's ambitious growth trajectory. You will be tasked with leading M&A and strategic transactions, which involves spearheading comprehensive legal due diligence, meticulous structuring, and the successful execution of international acquisitions and joint ventures. A key aspect of this will be ensuring the seamless post-merger integration of all legal and regulatory licenses, a complex but vital undertaking. Furthermore, you will act as the legal architect for licensing applications, collaborating closely with general managers and providing essential support for all documentation and interactions with government officials. A significant part of your role will involve navigating and managing intricate regulatory frameworks, including Electronic Money Institution (EMI), Payment Institution (PI), and Banking licenses, across a diverse range of jurisdictions. Proactively mapping out these requirements and ensuring our license portfolio aligns with and supports our long-term strategic roadmap will be paramount. You will provide expert counsel on a broad spectrum of FinTech operations, including crucial privacy laws such as GDPR and NDPR, as well as international corporate matters, effectively acting as a vital bridge between the technical requirements of our product teams and the necessary legal constraints. Strengthening our commitment to privacy and data protection will involve enforcing robust strategies for cross-border data transfers and consent mechanisms, ensuring the utmost security of user data as we expand across continents. You will also lead negotiations for high-stakes contracts, including critical partnership agreements and vendor contracts that form the backbone of our product infrastructure and global expansion efforts. Finally, a proactive approach to risk identification and mitigation will be essential, involving comprehensive risk assessments for new market entries and a thorough evaluation of the political and regulatory stability of target regions.
• • We are seeking a legal professional who embodies a growth-oriented mindset, viewing legal as an enabler rather than a barrier, and who consistently seeks creative, compliant pathways to facilitate business opportunities. You should possess a strong transactional mindset, capable of managing the intense pace and demands of M&A deals and high-pressure product launches. The ideal candidate will be both strategic and exceptionally detail-oriented, able to articulate a five-year global strategy while simultaneously identifying compliance nuances within extensive regulatory filings. Crucially, you must excel as a cross-functional partner, fluent in communicating effectively with Product Managers, Engineers, and Regulators alike. This role demands a proactive, solutions-driven individual ready to make a significant impact in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.