Associate Director, Legal Strategies, Innovation and Research at International Center for Reproductive Rights

Primary Responsibilities

Working closely with the Senior Director of Global Legal Strategies, this person will:

• Provide technical support to regional teams in the development of legal strategies and new legal theories for defensive and proactive litigation.
• Scope potential new innovations in how the Center enhances legal accountability for reproductive rights violations, including the exploration of legal mechanisms beyond UN and regional human rights systems.
• Facilitate the development, dissemination, and integration/alignment with Center-wide positions on key and emerging legal issues through collaborative and participatory processes involving staff from across the globe.
• Stay up to date with reproductive rights litigation and human rights litigation with high impact in the field of reproductive rights, as well as relevant emerging reproductive rights issues; identify opportunities for the Center to contribute to the development of emerging legal norms.
• Identify opportunities to enhance internal knowledge and skills on litigation and facilitate opportunities for staff to share best practices and lessons learned.
• Represent the Center externally, including with key partners, donors, media, academic and professional audiences. 

Qualifications

• A degree in law
• At least 12 years of relevant work experience, including extensive litigation experience particularly before international and/or regional human rights bodies and within or across several legal systems.
• Demonstrated senior level expertise working globally with international organisations across multiple legal systems; developing impact litigation, including conceptualizing cases, developing strong evidence bases, working directly with clients, drafting legal filings, and implementing impact litigation decisions/outcomes.
• Experience working on human rights/women’s rights, reproductive rights and/or in the social justice sector
• A track record of working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to achieve common goals
• A demonstrated ability to adapt to change and manage and prioritize a diverse workload;
• Solutions-oriented approach with strong analytical/reasoning skills.

Leadership Competencies:

• Leading the Work (Strategy & Implementation): Generates new ideas, develops long-term objectives and strategies that align with institutional priorities, and translates them into actionable plans.
• Leading Others: Inspires commitment; develops and empowers staff; identifies and mentors the next generation of organization leaders; establishes results-oriented culture in teams.
• Leading by Personal Example: Models organizational values; takes action and is courageous; projects confidence and steadiness; learns from experience and is self-aware.
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: Attracts, develops and retains a diverse team; recognizes the many dimensions of diversity and the particular harms of anti-Black racism and colonialism; considers equity in decisions and processes internally and externally; demonstrates inclusive leadership behaviors.