Senior Legal Advisor, Commercial

Summary of key results expected:

1. Legal Advice

2. Strategic Advisory Services

3. Team Leadership

4. Knowledge Management and Capacity Building

• Supervise and oversee the provision of advice on commercial law matters under LG’s purview, including assuming direct responsibility for sensitive and high-risk matters, and high-level contract negotiations.

• Provide guidance on, and authoritative interpretation of, the UNOPS legal framework.  Maintain and lead in the development of the legal framework, including policies, procedures, guidelines and other internal documents to promote operational effectiveness and efficiency.

• Ensure that outputs produced by the commercial law team are aligned and of a high-quality standard, and that advice is responsive, clear, objective and based on comprehensive data.  

• Interface with key stakeholders, develop, implement and evaluate controls to ensure compliance with contractual obligations and requirements. 

• Ensure that the GC is informed of sensitive or high-risk matters that have significant financial and reputational implications, or are of strategic importance for UNOPS.

2. Strategic Advisory Services

• With input from the GC, take responsibility for translating the functional (LG) workplan into priorities for the commercial law team, and directly provide inputs to developing the commercial law team’s workplan.

• Develop and implement innovative approaches to legal services provided by the commercial law team, including development and deployment of standards, processes, contracting mechanisms and templates, ensuring effective quality control.

• Drive ongoing analyses of LG-related data to identify and assess risks, opportunities and trends within the commercial law area.  Provide the GC with timely and accurate reports containing strategic advice and proposals on the implications of the risks, opportunities and trends, aligned with UNOPS’ strategic plan. 

• As delegated by the GC, represent UNOPS internally and externally on issues related to commercial law matters.

• As directed by the GC, represent LG on UNOPS committees.

• Perform other strategic legal advisory services as directed by the GC.

3. Team Leadership

• Provide authoritative legal advice, support and recommendations to senior managers.

• Lead the commercial law team in the delivery against its workplan and objectives, reporting on progress to the GC. 

• Work with data analytics and evolve the risk approach to keep track of workload and trends of the commercial law team’s activities and tasks, in order to efficiently manage the team and workload.

• Ensure effective planning, recruitment and development of a flexible workforce across the commercial law team, with the skills and competencies needed to ensure optimum performance.

4. Knowledge Management and Capacity Building

• Ensure that knowledge and information on commercial legal matters are maintained and actively shared within LG.

• Enable collaboration and continuous feedback through different channels and prepare advice and training for the commercial law team and relevant stakeholders in easily disseminated formats, with emphasis on areas identified as recurring issues.

• Drive awareness across UNOPS on contractual obligations and impact of non-compliance on the organization’s image/ reputation.

• Contribute to enabling the culture of ongoing research, keep abreast of internal and external developments, and coordinate productive partnerships with other legal offices across the UN system, to develop best practices to ensure the provision of comprehensive legal services. 

• Supervise and coordinate a team of professional staff, to ensure appropriate capacity development and that technical advice and assistance are consistently high quality, client focused and within the established legal framework.

Impact of Results Achievement of results by the Senior Legal Advisor, Commercial supports UNOPS entities in delivering the organization’s long-term strategic plan and reinforcing UNOPS reputation as an effective partner of choice in sustainable development and project services in the countries served.