Legal Advisor/ Senior Legal Advisor - Institutional and Administrative Law
Reports to: Practice Lead, Legal Affairs and General Counsel
Location: This position will be based in a CGIAR Center in the Global South (LMIC) in a duty station to be determined or in Montpellier, France. Montpellier, shown above, is a default system setting and not the confirmed duty station.
Grade: SO 5-6 / CG 10-11 (the final grade will be determined based on the selected candidate’s level of experience.)Date Published: 15 January 2025
Closing Date for Applications: 6 February 2025 at 9am CET
About CGIAR
CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services. Its research is conducted closely with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations, and the private sector.
About the position
The Legal Affairs unit provides comprehensive legal advice and delivers effective legal solutions to advance the organization’s mission and scientific research agenda, in a manner that minimizes legal risk and ensures compliance with relevant legal frameworks.It delivers legal services on a broad range of strategic, operational and institutional matters including innovative funding mechanisms, grants, partnerships, compliance, sanctions, procurement, intellectual property, data protection, tax, employment, privileges and immunities, corporate governance, ethics, and policies.
These services are essential to uphold the legal integrity of CGIAR’s multi-faceted operations and governance structure.
As Legal Adviser/ Senior Legal Adviser, Institutional and Administrative Law, you will work within the Legal Affairs unit and with colleagues across CGIAR, and provide a wide range of legal services, tailoring approaches to ensure responsiveness to business needs and contexts.Your primary focus will be on institutional and administrative law matters. However, to encourage cross-team collation, you may be assigned work in other areas.
Duties and Responsibilities- Address matters pertaining to the status and immunities of the organization and other questions of public international law related to the institutional framework of the organization and CGIAR.
- Review, adapt and draft policies and other internal rules for the organization and CGIAR ensuring they are legally sound and represent fit-for purpose solutions.
- Review, draft and negotiate agreements, including with vendors and consultants.
- Provide legal advice and support on corporate governance matters, including interpretation and drafting of decisions, policies, and procedures.
- Provide legal advice and support on employment and ethics-related matters, including advice on the interpretation and application of internal rules, grievances, disciplinary procedures, dispute resolution, and managing matters before the International Labour Organization’s Administrative Tribunal.
- Provide legal advice and support on data protection matters to ensure that the organization has appropriate standards in place and that its data processing activities comply with such standards.
- Promote engagement and collaboration mechanisms within CGIAR’s Global Legal Team to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of legal services across CGIAR.
- Optimize approaches and build consistency in legal services and outputs, sustaining delivery against established timelines while addressing evolving client needs, aligning to new legal frameworks, and procedures.
- Monitor the effectiveness of policies, guidelines, tools, processes and systems to ensure they remain relevant in mitigating legal risks and promoting compliance with applicable treaties, laws, contractual agreements and standards.
Requirements
Education and Experience- Advanced University Degree in Law (Masters or Master's equivalent).
- Specialized experience at a top-tier law firm and/or in an in-house legal department within a complex international facing corporation or not-for-profit organization
- Specialized experience in providing legal support on corporate governance and institutional matters, administrative law and ethics-related matters, public international law including privileges and immunities, drafting agreements and policies.
- Substantive knowledge: Demonstrated capacity gained through education and experience in public international law, privileges & immunities, administrative law, dispute settlement, corporate governance, contract law, legal risk management, data protection law and intellectual property law, reflecting conceptual understanding in an operational setting.
- Communication skills: Demonstrated skill gained through exposure/experience in relationship management.
- Execution skills: Demonstrated achievement in the consistent delivery of advisory services and outputs through adaptation.
Languages
Fluency in English essential to communicate in writing and speaking. Knowledge of a second language desirable.
Benefits
The selected staff member will be offered terms and conditions commensurate with the grade of the position.
Submitting Your Application
If you face challenges in submitting your application, please email recruitment@cgiar.org with the position title in the subject line.