Chief Counsel, Closure

Chief Counsel, Closure 

• Leadership through values
• Join our global leading business offering outstanding personal development & global career opportunities
• Locations available in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth- Australia; Salt Lake City, USA; London, UK; or Paris, France.

About the Role

We are looking for a Chief Counsel, Closure to work closely with the Closure Business Unit in managing Rio Tinto’s global portfolio of unique closure and near closure assets to realise opportunities and reduce long term closure liability and costs. This person will lead a small team of lawyers to work in partnership with RT Closure, as well as on ad hoc special projects relating to Rio Tinto’s legacy.

Reporting to the General Counsel, Corporate, you will lead a team responsible for the delivery of strategic and solutions-oriented legal advice and collaborative support in a complex and evolving context by:

• Overseeing delivery by your team of regional legal support to the RT Closure regional and technical teams regarding closure assets, partnerships and liabilities.
• Providing strategic, pragmatic legal advice and support to the Head of RT Closure and the RT Closure Leadership team.
• Pro-active contribution and participation in RT Closure working groups and projects, including evolving business needs and external drivers.
• Leveraging a global external network to stay abreast of ESG legal and policy developments affecting closure.
• Engaging with external law firms and others on ESG policy trends, and horizon scanning of legal and regulatory developments and external risks, and working pro-actively with the RT Closure Leadership team to manage these in the long term interests of Rio Tinto.
• Effectively manage external law firm partnerships so as to rationalise external law firm providers and improve their value for money proposition of external legal spend, including by optimising the split between internal and external legal support.
• Driving the RT Closure legal team’s individual and collective performance and development to promote success in meeting business objectives and to enhance employee motivation and engagement.
• Considering the potential legal ramifications for the Rio Tinto parent companies that might arise from stakeholder engagement and asset management to ensure that value leakage, exposures or precedents are not unintentionally created.
• Leading on the collection, curation and sharing of lessons learned and best practices regarding closure or legacy legal matters, including by sharing insights with RT Closure and the broader Legal Governance and Corporate Affairs teams.

What you will bring

You are a trusted contributor and effective leader with the ability to work collaboratively across multiple corporate fields and matters that are significant at the Rio Tinto Group level. You should also bring:

• Proven track record of managing legal issues regarding assets or deals in a complex regulatory and stakeholder context in multiple jurisdictions.
• Leadership ability in motivating and managing a small, high-performing team to achieve goals in a cost-effective manner.
• Excellent understanding, skills and experience of regulatory drivers and legal risks arising in a multinational resources company with worldwide operations, and particularly ones listed in the US and Australia.
• Proven track record of engaging with senior leaders across the business and functions, and working collaboratively with their teams to meet shared business objectives.
• Ability to quickly understand technical issues, to the extent relevant to providing high quality and timely legal advice, prioritising and delegating to internal or external resources where appropriate.
• Adept at thinking strategically, open to ideas and other viewpoints, and with a long term lens in order to work with others to find pragmatic and risk-based solutions to most effectively balance short and long term needs and liability.
• Ability to select and work in partnership with law firms to improve performance and reduce costs, including by leveraging training and other benefits beyond support on particular matters.
• Care, courage and curiosity in everything you do.

About the team

Into this role will report the Corporate Counsel Australia, Corporate Counsel North America, Chief Counsel Europe, Corporate Counsel Special Projects, and a Legal Counsel.

About Rio Tinto 

Every idea, every innovation, every little thing the world calls ‘progress’ begins with a first step, and someone willing to take it: explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs. Pioneers.

For nearly 150 years, Rio Tinto has been a company of pioneers – generations of people spanning the globe, all with the grit and vision to produce materials essential to human progress.

Our iron ore has shaped skylines from Shanghai to Sydney. Our aluminium – the world’s first to be certified “responsible” – helps planes fly and makes cars lighter. Our copper helps wind turbines power cities and our boron helps feed the world, and explore the universe. Our diamonds help us celebrate the best parts of life.

Every Voice Matters 

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.

 We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different. 

Applications close on 27^th January 2023

(Rio Tinto reserve the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date)