(Junior) Legal Counsel (m/f/d)

TF Bank is a fast-growing digital bank and a pan-European card and payment platform, developing simple and flexible payment and financing solutions through a proprietary IT infrastructure with a high degree of automation. The Bank is seeking a Legal Counsel (m/f/d) to join our team in Berlin. In this role, you will lead the management of legal disputes in Germany – ranging from customer complaints and pre-litigation matters to litigation and regulatory disputes – while partnering closely with internal stakeholders to reduce dispute risk and strengthen customer outcomes. You will coordinate with external counsels and relevant authorities, provide pragmatic legal advice across the dispute lifecycle, and help ensure the Bank’s dispute handling remains fully compliant with applicable German and EU banking, consumer protection, and data protection requirements, while strengthening dispute prevention and governance in a customer-centric, high-velocity environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead dispute resolution in Germany (end-to-end) : Manage pre-litigation claims, litigation, and regulatory disputes – driving timely, fair, and commercially sound outcomes.

• Set strategy, steer escalations, and manage external counsels : Assess risk/exposure, define resolution paths (settlement/remediation/defense), and oversee external counsels, proceedings, budgets, and documentation quality.

• Authorities and dispute bodies : Coordinate dispute-related communications and responses to supervisory inquiries, ensuring robust governance and an auditable record.

• Dispute prevention : Identify root causes and trends and partner with Operations/Product to reduce recurrence and improve customer outcomes.

• Regulatory & governance support : Advise on German/EU banking, consumer protection, and conduct requirements; contribute to policies and controls.

• Contracts & outsourcing : Draft/review key vendor and outsourcing agreements with appropriate risk allocation and compliance standards.

• Customer documentation : Review and improve customer-facing terms, disclosures, and complaint processes.

• Data protection (GDPR) : Support dispute-related data handling and rights requests in coordination with privacy stakeholders.

• Training & enablement: Deliver practical guidance and short trainings for product and customer support teams.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: Law degree from a recognized university; qualified lawyer in Germany (Volljurist/in (m/w/d)) or business lawyer (Wirtschaftsjurist/in, LL.B./LL.M. (m/w/d)) preferred. Alternatively, highly qualified legal professionals (Rechtsanwaltsfachangestellte/r, Rechtsfachwirt/in (m/w/d)) will be considered when having extensive, proven hands-on experience managing disputes and litigation independently, preferably in a regulated/financial services environment.

• Experience: 3+ years’ relevant experience in an in-house and/or law firm role, ideally within dispute resolution, litigation, financial services, consumer law, or regulated environments.

• Legal knowledge: Familiarity with German civil procedure and dispute handling; strong understanding of consumer protection principles and regulatory expectations relevant to banking/financial services; working knowledge of GDPR.

• Skills: Strong legal analysis, clear drafting, confident stakeholder management, and pragmatic risk-based decision-making; ability to prioritize under time pressure and manage multiple active matters.

• Communication: Able to translate legal risk into actionable guidance for non-legal teams; calm and constructive approach in contentious situations.

• Languages: German and English language skills at professional working proficiency.

• Nice to have: Experience liaising with regulators/ombuds bodies; exposure to payments/chargebacks, lending products, or outsourcing/vendor risk; experience building dispute playbooks, templates, or complaint governance.

What we Offer

• Pan-European Legal team : The opportunity to join our Berlin legal team be part of the Group's legal department of lawyers based across Europe.

• Hybrid working model : A flexible setup combining time in our modern Berlin office with working from home.

• Benefits : Subsidies for public transport and sports programs.

• People & culture in Berlin: Be part of a collaborative, hands-on Berlin team with short decision paths and a strong ownership culture.

• Modern ways of working : A pragmatic, fast-paced environment with efficient processes and a strong focus on automation and scalable solutions.

• Growth and development : Exposure to a broad range of banking/legal topics with room to expand your in-house toolkit.

• Scale-up opportunity for your career: Join a fast-growing bank where the legal function is evolving alongside the business – offering clear opportunities to take on broader responsibilities, lead initiatives, and grow your scope as we expand across products and European markets.

If you are a proactive lawyer who enjoys resolving complex disputes while improving how a customer-centric bank manages legal risks, we’d love to hear from you.