Senior Legal Officer (Head, Development Law Service)

The Senior Legal Officer (Head, Development Law Service) leads the Development Law Service within the Legal Office at FAO headquarters in Rome. The role involves managing the service, providing high-level legal advice on development law related to food and agriculture, and representing FAO in multilateral fora.

Responsibilities

• Manages the Development Law Service, setting goals and objectives aligned with the Strategic Framework of the Organization and the priorities of the Members, monitoring efficiency and outcomes/results, and providing guidance, supervision and quality control of work outputs and clearance of the development law work of the Organization.
• Manages the resources of the Service in close collaboration with the Legal Counsel and Deputy Legal Counsel, including by appropriately managing financial resources allocated to the Service, leading resource mobilization efforts, and providing leadership to its personnel in managing and implementing the work programme of the Service, ensuring the application of an appropriate framework for impact assessment of its work.
• Ensures that the Service delivers high-quality outputs which are clear, objective, and based on sound technical legal analysis in a timely and efficient manner.
• Coordinates and fosters exchange of experience and knowledge on development law issues and on modalities for delivery of the work programme within the Service.
• Fosters innovation and the use of new technologies to enhance the work of the Service and its efficiency.
• Fosters innovation and identifies legislative and other solutions to assist Members to address new and emerging challenges in the fields of food, agriculture and nutrition.
• Oversees the preparation of policy and position papers and reports on development law in general, and on the results of the Service in particular for internal use and, as appropriate, for the Governing Bodies.
• Provides high-level advice and consultancy services to managers and staff in FAO, as well as to Members on development law and international law issues as required, and supervises development law work undertaken by other units of FAO.
• Contributes as part of the management team of LEG in planning and evaluating the work programme of the Legal Office.
• Represents the Organization in multilateral fora dealing with development law and other issues of relevance to FAO and its mandate.
• Fosters teamwork and communication among personnel in the Service and across organizational boundaries.
• Performs other related duties, as required.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in law.
• Ten years of legal experience relevant to the functions set to above with specialization in natural resources and development law 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 (proficiency - level C) of English and intermediate knowledge (intermediate proficiency - level B) of another official FAO language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish).
• Work experience in more than one location or area of work, particularly in field positions, is essential.
• Relevance of knowledge and experience of agricultural and other renewable natural resources legislation.
• Extent of knowledge of both civil and common-law systems.
• Extent of communication skills, both orally and in writing.
• Extent and relevance of experience in planning and delivering training and technical assistance.
• Demonstrated ability to manage legal services, in particular to guide, motivate and train legal professionals, to direct advisory and research projects, to lead and facilitate the work of multidisciplinary teams of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability to plan, implement, monitor and report against corporate strategic frameworks and related outcomes, indicators and impacts, including by implementing impact assessments frameworks for legal and regulatory work.
• Demonstrated ability to manage budgets and perform programme or project budget holder responsibilities.
• Demonstrated ability to carry out legal research and analysis, to review legal texts of considerable difficulty, to develop and maintain effective working relationships with government officials and representatives of other partner organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to innovate, and to rely on new technologies in the legal domain.
• Admission to practice law in a national jurisdiction is considered a strong asset.
• Extent of experience in drafting agricultural and other renewable natural resources legislation.
• Field experience in the provision of legal advisory assistance in agricultural and other renewable natural resources legislation.

Skills

• Natural Resources Law
• Development Law
• International Law Practice
• Agricultural Legislation
• Renewable Natural Resources Legislation
• Civil Law Systems
• Common Law Systems
• Legal Research
• Legal Analysis
• Legal Drafting
• Legal Advisory Assistance
• Training Delivery
• Technical Assistance
• Legal Services Management
• Multi-disciplinary Team Leadership
• Strategic Framework Implementation
• Impact Assessment Design
• Budget Management
• Legal Technology
• Admission to Practice Law

Languages

English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish