Legal Officer

SPC - Secretariat of the Pacific Community

Suva, Fiji

The role – the Legal Officer will manage the flow of requests to the Legal and Governance Team, review procurement contracts and grant agreements, funding arrangements, letters of agreement, memorandums of understanding and other legal documents as required, and provide legal advice on these matters to SPC.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

Manage the daily flow of legal assistance requests received. This includes recording requests, filing emails and documents in dedicated folders, acknowledging receipt, allocating requests within the team according to complexity and rigorously managing a response timetable in line with the team's priorities.
Draft and review procurement, grants and other contracts, as well as letters of agreement, memorandums of understanding and templates to protect SPC and minimize risk while adhering to the principles of international administrative law and taking into account the domestic law as it impacts SPC’s operations. Provide legal advice to divisions on legal issues that arise in the preparation of the contracts.
Build strong collaborative relationships internally throughout SPC and with external stakeholders.
Contribute to governance and corporate services improvements, especially procurement and grant reforms.
Provide outreach, education and training and raise awareness of SPC’s governance framework, legal obligations and responsibilities to SPC staff.
For a more detailed account of the key responsibilities, please refer to the online job description.

Key selection criteria:

Qualifications:

Advanced university degree in international law or related area.
Meets the professional requirements to practice law in one or more jurisdictions of an SPC member country.

Technical expertise:

At least 2 years PQE in providing legal advice on governance, organizational or international law issues or contracts.
Excellent legal analytical skills.