Legal Projects Manager, Africa, TrustLaw at Thomson Reuters

About The Role

The Thomson Reuters Foundation is recruiting a dynamic Legal Projects Manager, Africa to drive and deliver the legal and programmatic activities for key donor-funded projects in the region and serve as the point person and lead for TrustLaw on these projects.

You will report into the Head of Special Projects, and work closely with other regional TrustLaw team members. The Legal Projects Manager will be based in our Nairobi office.

The person in this role will:

• Manage and drive the delivery of legal activities on donor-funded projects in the region, including:
• Setting out project plans for delivery of legal activities
• Ensuring work is done on time, within budget, to the agreed scope and to a high quality
• Escalating delivery issues or changes in scope to the relevant TrustLaw Head
• Reporting internally and externally on progress, including to donors
• Working closely with members of the project team across TRF and inputting into project-wide work plans, results frameworks, etc.
• Serving as the TrustLaw point person on the project, ensuring the project aligns with TrustLaw’s and TRF’s processes, approach and priorities
• Deliver key activities and work products, including:
• Scoping and drafting pro bono legal requests from project beneficiaries
• Managing pro bono requests, including connecting the pro bono client with lawyers
• Designing and managing cross-border legal research projects
• Managing the development of legal resources (e.g., trainings, guides, etc.)
• Facilitating the provision of advisory legal support to project beneficiaries
• Leading workshops, legal health checks, presentations and events
• Conducting outreach to TrustLaw members or partners
• Building processes, systems and tools to support the provision of legal support
• Coordinating the design and dissemination of legal resources
• Updating Salesforce and internal record-keeping systems
• Reviewing the project’s legal outputs for clarity, accuracy and alignment with TrustLaw standards
• Manage a team of one Senior Legal Officer and one Legal Officer, supporting their growth and performance in a fast-paced environment
• Support other projects and tasks as needed
• Work hours that overlap with global team availability, including some evening meetings each week

This is a fixed-term contract for 3 years starting in December 2022/January 2023.

The successful candidate will likely:

• Be an experienced lawyer (5+ years) with strong legal skills and experience with pro bono, international development or social change. Experience working in a law firm, NGO, media hous or in-house is a plus
• Have prior experience working in or demonstrated understanding of one of the following themes: media freedom, inclusive economies or human rights
• A good understanding of the legal and non-profit sectors in Africa and an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that pro bono opportunities bring to law firms and legal teams
• Have excellent research, drafting and analytical skills, including experience both developing and reviewing legal outputs and resources
• Bring experience managing the delivery of legal programming, resources and activities, ideally in a programme or project that is donor funded
• Have experience engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders, from senior corporate executives and partners of top law firms to social entrepreneurs, NGOs and donors
• Be a strong team player with experience managing and supporting a team to achieve results
• Have strong organisational abilities, experience using databases and an ability to support a team to use systems and processes
• Bring experience delivering trainings, workshops and events on legal topics
• Thrive in a fast-paced environment and be able to manage multiple priorities at once, with a high degree of creative and flexible thinking
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Experience inputting into a results framework and reporting on project results would be a plus