Senior Legal Officer, P5 at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

This position is located in UNEP’s Law Division, at its Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The incumbent will report to the Head of the Law Branch. Within delegated authority, the Senior Legal Officer will be responsible for the following duties:

Responsibilities

• Serve as a recognized expert and direct programme / projects in national environmental law, including MEAs implementation, environmental rule of law and the law of natural transboundary resources.
• Handle a wide range of multi-disciplinary, highly complex, and often sensitive and/or conflicting legal matters involving issues relating to regional and national environmental law, including the interpretation and application of legal instruments.
• Coordinate and direct teams of other legal officers, guide and supervise the work of junior officers; assist the Head of the Law Branch in general management and administration of the Branch, organizing and prioritizing the workload and providing general coordination and supervision of assignments as regards the legal work.
• Make various types of recommendations to senior officials of substantive units with respect to actions.
• Provide authoritative legal advice on diverse range of highly complex or novel substantive and procedural questions of law.
• Organize and supervise research studies and the preparation of legal opinions, as well as perform extensive legal research and analysis on highly complex or novel legal issues/questions and prepare legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports, and correspondence.
• Advise on and supervise the review, negotiation and drafting of legal documents; develop new legal modalities to meet unique needs/circumstances.
• Direct services for relevant international meetings, workshops and training programmes in the field of national environmental law, including preparation of background materials, summaries of issues and views of delegations, meeting reports.
• Provide and direct other legal/programme officers to provide legal advice and other technical assistance in the field of national environmental law.
• Promote the work of UNEP and represent the organization at meetings, conferences and seminars.
• Plan, manage and review the development and implementation of projects in the field of national environmental law.
• Supervise and participate in preparing legal publications of the Division.
• Provide advice on legal issues concerning a range of institutional, political and procedural matters.
• Leads team members efforts to collect and analyze data and provides insight to identify trends or patterns for data-driven planning, decision-making, presentation and reporting. Ensures that everyone can discover, access, integrate and share the data they need.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Competencies

• PROFFESSIONALISM: Knowledge of environmental law, legal procedures and instruments, including multilateral environmental agreements . Ability to apply legal expertise to analyzing a diverse range of complex legal issues in the field of the environment and in developing innovative and creative legal response in addressing environmental issues. Strong analytical skills and ability to conduct comprehensive legal research on a range of issues, including those of a unique and/or complex nature; proficiency in legal writing and expression and ability to prepare legal briefs, opinions, and a variety of legal instruments and related documents. Discretion and sound judgment in applying legal expertise to sensitive, complex legal issues. Ability to work to tight deadlines and handle multiple concurrent projects/cases. Knowledge of diverse national legal systems in different countries, contemporary international relations and of UN system, organization and interrelationships. The ability to analyze and interpret data in support of decision-making and convey resulting information to management. Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations.
• COMMUNICATION: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; asks questions to clarify, and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; tailors language, tone, style and format to match audience; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed.
• PLANNING & ORGANIZING: Develops clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies; identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required; allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work; foresees risks and allows for contingencies when planning; monitors and adjusts plans and actions as necessary; uses time efficiently.
• LEADERSHIP: Serves as a role model that other people want to follow: empowers others to translate vision into results; is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives; establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions; drives for change and improvements; does not accept the status quo; shows the courage to take unpopular stands. Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work; demonstrates knowledge of strategies and commitment to the goal of gender balance in staffing.
• JUDGEMENT/DECISION-MAKING: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; gathers relevant information before making a decision; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; checks assumptions against facts; determines the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; makes tough decisions when necessary.

Education

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in law, environmental law or related fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in law in combination with two (2) additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Successful completion of both degree and non-degree programs in data analytics, business analytics or data science programs is desirable.

Work Experience

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in the field of environmental law, including legal analysis, research and writing is required.
• Experience in managing a multicultural team is desirable.
• Experience in data analytics or related area is desirable.