Canadian Structured Finance – Legal Counsel, Assistant Vice President/Senior Analyst – Toronto

Morningstar DBRS seeks a highly motivated, team-oriented lawyer with at least three years of experience to join its Canadian Structured Finance team in Toronto as Legal Counsel at the Assistant Vice President or Senior Analyst level.  The individual will work closely with analysts in the Canadian Structured Finance group on a wide variety of securitization transactions, in addition to providing support for drafting, updating and implementing, as necessary, Canadian Structured Finance policies, procedures and methodologies.  In this role, the individual may also assist other teams in the Global Structured Finance Group, including the Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS) team.

The ideal candidate will possess sound experience in secured lending, and general corporate commercial law. Knowledge of bankruptcy and insolvency law and specific experience with structured finance transactions at a recognized law firm while not required would be beneficial.  The ideal candidate combines an ability to identify legal and reputational risk, financial literacy and business sense with an ability to communicate legal and criteria issues clearly to both internal and external stakeholders.

Job Responsibilities

• Review documentation for various issuance types and asset classes with a view to evaluating appropriate Structured Finance credit ratings.
• Advise analysts, team members and rating committee of any potential legal issues or material exceptions to DBRS criteria and methodologies that may have an impact on credit ratings.
• Communicate DBRS’s position on legal, structural and methodology matters to issuers, agents, advisors and other external stakeholders.
• Evaluate and manage legal and reputational risk relating to credit ratings.
• Monitor legislative and case law developments and advise on any relevant changes, as appropriate.

Qualifications

• At least three years of relevant experience at a recognized law firm or as in-house counsel.
• LL.B/J.D. degree and membership in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario.
• Sound knowledge of secured lending transactions and general corporate commercial law.
• Some knowledge of Canadian bankruptcy and insolvency law (beneficial but not required).
• Some knowledge and experience with securitization transactions (ABCP, ABS, RMBS and CMBS) at a recognized law firm (beneficial but not required).
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal and written).
• Solid time management skills and strong attention to detail.
• Self-starter and team player, who works with a sense of urgency in a fast-paced environment.

If you receive and accept an offer from us, we require that personal and any related investments be disclosed confidentiality to our Compliance team (days vary by region). These investments will be reviewed to ensure they meet Code of Ethics requirements. If any conflicts of interest are identified, then you will be required to liquidate those holdings immediately. In addition, dependent on your department and location of work certain employee accounts must be held with an approved broker (for example all, U.S. employee accounts). If this applies and your account(s) are not with an approved broker, you will be required to move your holdings to an approved broker.

Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.