Assistant Director, Legal Services at The Open University of Kenya

Duties & Responsibilities

Duties

• Providing legal advice on contractual, statutory, and regulatory obligations binding on the University, and advising the Council on its legal duties and governance responsibilities.
• Drafting, reviewing, and managing all University contracts, conveyancing matters, and litigation, and ensuring representation of the University before courts and other legal fora.
• Leading the development, review, harmonization, and implementation of University laws, policies, regulations, codes, rules, guidelines, and .agreements to ensure consistency with the University mandate and applicable laws.
• Managing and monitoring all litigation matters, including liaising with external advocates to ensure effective legal representation and timely resolution of cases.
• Establishing and maintaining systems for documenting enforcement and compliance activities, and developing legal accountability frameworks for University personnel.
• Providing legal opinions, interpretation of laws, and legal training to staff, and disseminating relevant legal requirements across the University.
• Coordinating the formulation and implementation of legal services policies, strategies, procedures, and guidelines.
• Reviewing internal and external requests requiring legal approval to ensure legal soundness, advising accordingly, and overseeing proper implementation.
• Managing the University’s Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms.
• Maintaining and updating the University’s conflict of interest and gifts registers, and ensuring timely filing of statutory and annual returns with relevant authorities.
• Overseeing authentication of documents issued to or held by the University as collateral, securities, or loan support documents, and handling related conveyancing matters.
• Coordinating legal research, investigations, preparation of witnesses, and other pre-trial and hearing activities.
• Maintaining up-to-date records of gazetted matters and legal notices affecting the University.
• Ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements through periodic legal and compliance audits.
• Spearheading the development and implementation of departmental work plans, budgets, performance contracts, quality management systems, and performance contracting processes.
• Coordinating legal audits and ensuring institutional compliance with governance standards, ethical requirements, and best practices.

Required Qualifications and Competencies

For appointment to this grade, one MUST have:

Must Have

• Master’s Degree in any of the following disciplines: Law, Business Administration, Public Administration, or equivalent qualifications from a recognized institution.
• Be a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from an accredited and recognized university.
• At least six (6) years of relevant work experience with at least three (3) years in grade 12 or equivalent. 
• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies from the Kenya School of Law. 
• Admitted as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya. 
• Must have a valid practicing license. 
• Supervisory course lasting for at least two (2) weeks cumulatively. 
• Registered as a member of the Law Society of Kenya in good standing; and
• Proficiency in computer applications.