Legal Associate – Commercial Contracts & Operations

About the role

Yoco is a fast‑growing fintech company in Cape Town looking for a Legal Associate to join its legal team. You will provide practical, commercially‑minded legal support across the business, handling routine matters independently while escalating high‑risk issues to senior stakeholders.

Key responsibilities

• Draft, review and negotiate routine commercial agreements such as supplier, partnership, service, vendor, SaaS and reseller contracts.
• Provide first‑line guidance on standard commercial terms and web‑service agreements.
• Maintain and update contract templates, clause libraries and negotiation playbooks.
• Administer the contract lifecycle management platform, including user access, permissions, contract uploads and tracking.
• Allocate incoming legal matters through the Legal Ticketing System and ensure timely handling.
• Maintain Legal Notion pages and other knowledge resources to support self‑service.
• Identify and implement process improvements to reduce turnaround times and increase efficiency.
• Support intellectual‑property protection, litigation, disputes, fraud‑related matters and regulatory requests.

Required profile

• Qualified lawyer with approximately 3–5 years post‑qualification experience.
• Ability to work autonomously on routine matters and to prioritize workload effectively.
• Strong commercial awareness and ability to translate legal complexity into business‑friendly solutions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for non‑legal stakeholders.

Required skills

• Proficiency in drafting and negotiating commercial contracts.
• Experience with contract lifecycle management tools and legal ticketing systems.
• Knowledge of intellectual‑property, litigation and regulatory processes.