Senior Legal Counsel

The APAC Legal Team partners closely with domestic and international stakeholders to support our trading activities across the Asia-Pacific region. We play a pivotal role in enabling the firm’s success, providing strategic legal guidance, and ensuring regulatory excellence in a fast-paced, high-performance environment.

As a lead Counsel in Hong Kong, you will establish IMC’s legal presence in one of our most strategically important and fastest-growing offices. Reporting directly to the General Counsel, APAC, you will play a key role in advising on legal matters, supporting trading and technology, and managing corporate governance responsibilities across the region.

You will be part of, and work closely with, IMC’s APAC Legal Team in Sydney, ensuring seamless and consistent legal support across APAC. Beyond the legal team, you will collaborate with Trading, Technology, Finance, HR, Corporate Development, Risk, and Compliance, as well as legal counterparts across the globe, ensuring alignment and best practices across all jurisdictions.

This role offers a unique opportunity to make a direct and lasting impact on IMC’s operations in Hong Kong as the office continues to grow.

Your Core Responsibilities

Legal Advisory

• Act as the primary legal adviser for IMC’s Hong Kong office, delivering timely, commercial advice across financial services, regulatory, corporate, commercial, and technology matters.
• Work with our existing senior lawyers to advise on Hong Kong and broader APAC regulatory developments, with a particular focus on SFO, HKEX, and evolving China-related legal and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor, research, and proactively communicate emerging legal and regulatory issues across financial services, technology, IP, data privacy, and employment law, translating complex issues into clear, actionable advice for non-legal stakeholders.

Transactional & Commercial

• Lead the review, and negotiation of a wide range of financial markets contracts, including exchange-traded and OTC financial agreements, technology arrangements, key vendor contracts, and other business agreements.
• Identify and advise on contractual and operational legal risks and develop practical risk mitigation strategies in partnership with the business.
• Support corporate development activities including M&A, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions as IMC expands its regional footprint.

Regulatory & Compliance

• Partner with the APAC Compliance team to ensure IMC’s trading and business activities adhere to applicable laws and regulations across the region.
• Provide guidance on licensing requirements, regulatory filings, and ongoing obligations under Hong Kong’s financial services regulatory framework.

Governance & Policy

• Assist in managing corporate governance for IMC’s Hong Kong and APAC entities, including preparation for Board and Committee meetings of corporate and charitable organisations in Hong Kong.
• Review existing policies and procedures, identify gaps and opportunities for improvement, and draft or update policies to reflect regulatory changes and business needs.
• Support the development and maintenance of legal playbooks, contract templates, and standard processes to build scalable legal infrastructure for the region.

Team & Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate closely with the Sydney-based Legal team and global legal colleagues to ensure consistency of approach, knowledge-sharing, and best practice across jurisdictions.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across Trading, Technology, Finance, and other business functions, acting as a practical and solutions-oriented legal partner.
• Contribute to the broader APAC Legal team’s culture and capability.
• Be a key contact for our Hong Kong based external advisers.

Your Skills and Experience

• Law degree with strong academic credentials.
• Significant post-qualification experience (15+ years); admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong. PRC experience is highly desirable.
• Business-level fluency in English and Mandarin required.
• Deep knowledge of financial services law; a broad understanding of commercial and corporate law across the region.
• Proven ability to draft and negotiate complex commercial agreements, particularly with financial services or technology contracts.
• Experience working within a top-tier law firm together with in-house exposure providing regulatory advice and transactional work across exchange traded products.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex legal issues clearly and concisely to non-legal audiences.
• Highly organized, self-directed, and able to manage competing priorities under tight deadlines.
• Comfortable operating across different jurisdictions and time zones; willingness to travel occasionally to other IMC offices and trading locations.
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