Senior Legal Specialist
Job Closing date: 29 Feb 2024
Location: Vienna, Austria
Background about SEforALL
Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is an international organization working with leaders in government, the private sector and civil society to drive further, faster action toward achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7), which calls for universal access to sustainable energy by 2030, and the Paris Agreement, which calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate warming to well below 2° Celsius (and striving for 1.5° Celsius).
Achieving these goals will require a radical rethink of the way we produce, distribute and consume energy. SEforALL is at the heart of this foundational shift to ensure no one is left behind. Drawing on data and evidence, we identify a critical path to success in achieving SDG7.
The 8th UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the Sustainable Energy for All initiative in 2011. Now an independent organization, we maintain close links with the UN, including through a relationship agreement, partnerships with UN agencies and with SEforALL’s CEO acting as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative (SRSG) for Sustainable Energy for All and Co-Chair of UN-Energy.
Objectives of Executive Office
The main objective of the Executive Office is to provide support to the CEO/SRSG, the leadership team, the Governance Board, and the General Assembly to ensure the provision of legal advice within the organization as well as to promote the institutionalization of corporate governance best practices.
The Senior Legal Specialist is expected to be a highly motivated professional who provides legal advice on a wide range of legal issues affecting the SEforALL’s mandate and activities, including public international, private and administrative law matters, as well as issues of constitutional and other national law as they affect SEforALL or its mandate. The focus will be laws that are pertinent to SEforALL within its host country – Austria as well as those related to its Quasi-International Organization/International NGO status.
Under the supervision from the Chief of Staff and in collaboration with the Executive Office Manager, the Senior Legal Specialist will interact with a wide range of staff internally and provide legal and administrative support to the CEO/SRSG and relevant organizational units. The Senior Legal Specialist role requires handling confidential information on a regular basis and with great discretion.
Purpose/Objective of the Senior Legal Specialist Role
The main objectives of the Senior Legal Specialist role include:
- Provide legal advice on aspects of SEforALL’s mandate, legal framework and matters related to its corporate and institutional structure.
- Provide legal advice on aspects and issues arising from partnerships, including financing arrangements with donors, contracts, including partnership agreements, grant agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and support to the procurement specialist regarding vendor contracts.
- Provide advice on legal arrangements for and issues arising from the special relationship agreement with the United Nations, especially with relation to SEforALL’s administrative services arrangement with UNOPS.
- Lead on the design and conception of the SEforALL Legal Framework.
Main Duties and Tasks of the Senior Legal Specialist Role
The main duties and tasks of the role include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Provide legal advice, guidance and counsel on partnership arrangements and donor financing agreements between various partners and donors, and SEforALL, including:
- Drafting, reviewing, and clearing deviations to standard, donor financing agreements and partnership instruments.
- Reviewing and, as required, negotiating, and revising corporate agreements with partners, including donors, which govern their overall relationship with SEforALL in close consultation with the respective internal focal point.
- Performs legal research and analysis on highly complex or novel legal issues/questions and prepares legal opinions, studies, briefs.
- Provide legal advice, guidance and counsel on corporate and institutional issues, and matters related to administration and management, governance, procurement and contracts and other operational areas including those arising from the Organization’s status, mandate, and legal structure:
- Support in providing legal advice on the interpretation and application of the Organization’s mandate and legal framework including with respect to relevant Austrian laws, regulations the financial regulations, and rules, prescriptive content (policies and procedures) and questions and matters involving privileges and immunities of the Organization (the latter in coordination with the Governance bodies).
- Performs extensive legal research and analysis and prepares legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports, and correspondence.
- Participates on internal task forces, expert groups, and other bodies, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues, meeting reports, etc.
- Lead on the design and conception of an SEforALL Legal Framework:
- Contributes to review and design of new, or new applications of, legal instruments, policy, guidelines, etc.
- Manage the creation and maintenance of a robust institutional and corporate legal system, training activities and knowledge management.
- Manage the development and updating of agreements and templates, reviews non-standard agreements and provides advice on the creation and interpretation of policies and procedures.
- Develops new legal modalities to meet unique needs/circumstances.
- Regularly updates line manager on legal issues in the matters assigned, and identifies recurring issues based on experience gained from addressing issues related to any of the above-mentioned functions.
- Advice on legal arrangements for and issues arising from the special relationship agreement with the United Nations, especially with relation to SEforALL’s administrative services arrangement with UNOPS.
- Prepares legal documentation and participates as advised, in the negotiation and settlement of claims and disputes.
Specific Competencies for the Senior Legal Specialist Role
- An advanced degree (Master’s Degree) in law from a recognized university.
- Legally able to practice law in Austria, Including having passed the bar examination.
- A minimum of 7 years of progressive practical experience in the practice of law with a law firm, a government and/or international organization’s legal office is required.
- Practical and progressive experience in international development and effective contractual dispute prevention, and contractual dispute resolution, including litigation before courts, arbitration, or other forms of dispute resolution required.
- Experience with the privileges and immunities of international organizations is a must.
- Experience with Austrian law, particularly in relation to Quasi-International Organizations/International NGOs and international organizations is a must.
- Experience with UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules highly desirable.
- Understanding of, and experience with, the United Nations system, including its Legal Framework and the legal institutional arrangements of United Nations organizations, is an asset.
- Good understanding of SEforALL and its mandate and goals.
- Excellent research, legal writing, and drafting skills.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and client focus.
- Ability and desire to operate in a fast-paced environment that requires high flexibility and responsiveness.
- Strong ability to multi-task and keep track of multiple streams of work and activities.
- Experience in operating across multiple time zones and with distributed teams.
- Experience in working with the UN and high-level government officials highly advantageous.
General Competences for the Senior Legal Specialist Role
- Innovation and Adaptability: Has expert skills and commitment to search for and produce innovative and creative approaches to activities. Is flexible to evolving circumstances, as well as helps others in doing so.
- Resilience and Emotional Intelligence: Has expert knowledge in the concepts of resilience and emotional intelligence. Is able to remain calm in challenging situations, to cope with setbacks, is responsive to the emotions of others and maintains a high level of performance
- Analytical and Strategic Thinking: Has an expert level of analytical and strategic thinking skills. Gathers and processes demanding information, develops innovative solutions and contributes by representing topics/approaches in internal and cross-functional working groups/teams.
- Collaboration and Partnership: Demonstrates expert initiative and abilities to collaborate and form partnerships in own area of responsibility, across teams and externally. Builds and maintains effective relationships at all levels inside and outside the organisation. Displays team-oriented attitude contributing to creating a positive team spirit.
- Lead and Empower: Demonstrates initiative and role model behaviour in leading and empowering others. Takes responsibility for own work activities and personal actions and carries out the commitments agreed upon.
- Political and diplomatic understanding: Has an expert level of political and diplomatic understanding.
Communicating information: Has expert skills in communicating information and uses the skills effectively in own scope of work and in others’ work. - Research and Analytics: Has expert skills in research and analytics. Promotes the use of data within the team and to contribute to wider decision making.
- Project Management: Has expert skills in project management. Plans and organises their own work using project management tools in support of achieving the team’s objectives.
- Client Orientation / Striving for Excellence: Has expert skills in client orientation and achieving excellency in work delivery
Salary information: SEforALL has adopted its own salary scales corresponding to the SEforALL grading system. The minimum yearly salary for this position is EUR 64,432. The actual salary offer will be determined within the scale depending on the successful candidate’s qualification and experience, and applying the principle of internal equity. In addition to the base salary, SEforALL staff receive a benefits package that includes contribution to pension, contribution to health insurance & homeworking allowance.
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