Senior Legal Officer

<!–

Description

–>

• Depending upon the specific area of activity/subject-matter, the Senior Legal Officer will report to the Legal Counsel or the Deputy Legal Counsel.

• Public international law, law of international organizations/constitutional law, international administrative law and contract law.

• Leads a wide range of multidisciplinary highly complex, and often sensitive and/or conflicting legal matters involving issues relating to public and private international law to including drafting, interpretation and application of a wide range of legal instruments.
• Supports the Legal Counsel and Deputy Legal Counsel in the day-to-day coordination and supervision of the work of junior legal officers and other LEGA personnel.
• Provides authoritative legal advice on diverse range of highly complex or novel substantive and procedural questions of law, which may include those related to governance, administration and management, and corporate operational matters.
• Provides legal advice on the interpretation and application of the instruments setting out the status and mandate of the Organization.
• Organizes and supervises research studies and the preparation of legal opinions, as well as performs extensive legal research and analysis on highly complex or novel legal issues/questions and prepares legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports and correspondence.
• Advises on and supervises the review, negotiation and drafting of major contracts, agreements, institutional and operational modalities, legal submissions and other legal documents.
• Prepares submissions and other documents in tribunal and administrative proceedings, including disciplinary cases and staff appeals; negotiates settlement of major claims and prepares legal documentation relating to such settlements.
• Provides legal advice to senior officials on the interpretation of personnel policies, regulations and rules, including the review of administrative implications of the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization (ILOAT) judgments.
• Coordinates the preparation of revisions to the Staff Regulations and to all series of the Staff Rules; coordinates the preparation or amendment of administrative issuances and verifies their consistency with the Staff Regulations and amendments of administrative issuances and verifies their consistency with the staff regulations and rules.
• Represents the Organization in formal meetings, negotiations, and/or mediation/problem resolution meetings to reach agreement on various human resources-related issues and/or to resolve difficult or contentious problems.
• Reviews and monitors the provision of legal services to identify trends and problem areas and recommends corrective action or new approaches or develops new legal modalities to meet unique needs/circumstances; contributes to the review and design of new applications of legal instruments, policy, guidelines, systems, etc.
• Performs other duties as required.

• Advanced university degree in law. A first level university degree in Law combined with an additional two (2) years of relevant work experience and with completion of professional qualification to practice law in a national/state jurisdiction may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Ten years of legal experience relevant to the functions set to above, including experience in an international setting (such as a legal unit of an international organization or governmental institution, or in other forms of legal practice involving international dimensions).
• Working knowledge (proficient – level C) of English and limited knowledge (intermediate – level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).

<!—

<!–

–>