Senior Legal Programme Manager, Africa, TrustLaw at Thomson Reuters

The Senior Legal Programme Manager, Africa will coordinate TrustLaw’s activities across the sub-Saharan Africa region and work with the team to set and monitor the strategy, plans and service for the region. The Senior Legal Programme Manager will manage a team of three to five, with two or three direct reports. They will play a key role in managing the team and supporting their growth, development, and performance

About the Role:

As a Senior Legal Programme Manager at Thomson Reuters Foundation, you will:

• Provide strategic direction and oversight to the Africa region, identifying key strategic opportunities and relationships in Africa and supporting the team to deepen work around the TRF focus areas in the region. Coordinate the development of the annual strategy, plan and targets for Africa in close collaboration with the regional team.
• Ensure that resources in the region are used wisely and in line with TRF/TrustLaw strategic objectives. Manage the service in the region, including by setting and maintaining yearly operational/project plans, outlining regional deliverables, reporting on progress, setting up and testing Salesforce reports for the region, undertaking operational projects for the region and ensuring systems and information are up to date and accurate.
• Track and report on progress against Africa’s annual targets, deliverables and activities, including by working with the Africa team to coordinate updates to the board, quarterly reports, etc.
• Line manage the Africa Managers and Officers, supporting the growth, development, and performance of the whole Africa team.
• Oversee and manage, as appropriate, the delivery of donor funded TrustLaw projects in the region, in coordination with the Africa team, the TrustLaw Heads and Director and the TRF Programmes team.
• Support the Director, Heads and Business Development with input on pitches, proposals, partner and donor stewardship plans, etc.
• Oversee a large TrustLaw regional portfolio of law firms, corporations, referral partners, NGOs, social enterprises and other key stakeholders, with a responsibility for stewarding strong relationships, tracking partner progress, and building an active, engagement membership in the region. Design and implement strategies to expand and strengthen the TrustLaw service, ensuring we serve the best NGOs, social enterprises and legal teams and we deepen TrustLaw’s work across the focus areas of media freedom, inclusive economies and human rights.
• Manage multiple cross-border research and other projects that address the most critical needs facing our NGO and social enterprise members and contributing towards achieving impact through a high-quality end product.
• Scope legal pro bono requests from our community of NGOs and social enterprises so that the requests clearly explain the legal needs. Oversee and, where appropriate, carry out TrustLaw core service tasks (e.g., vetting, chasing, feedback, reactivation), ensuring excellent quality of service.
• Maintain in-depth knowledge of TrustLaw processes and systems, serving as the first point of call for any questions from officers and managers in their region and ensuring guidance and best practices are followed. Support the global growth of TrustLaw team by providing training to all TrustLaw staff on core skills (such as effective recruitment and relationship management techniques or legal matter management).
• Oversee the creation and execution of a robust Africa regional communications strategy that includes events, promotion of TrustLaw publications, managing website content and TrustLaw member communications. Ensure regional communications outputs and plans align with global standards and plans.
• Maintain a high profile in the region by representing TrustLaw and the Thomson Reuters Foundation by speaking publicly on our work at panels, conferences, or other speaking engagements.

About You

As our Senior Legal Programme Manager, you will likely have/be:

• An exceptional qualified legal professional with 7+ years of relevant work experience and a demonstrated passion for social change.
• Post-graduate background in the field of law, development, social change or management.
• Significant demonstrable experience and success with line management, including of team members at a managerial level.
• Strong experience managing programmes, projects and/or networks in the charity, non-profit, or pro bono sectors.
• Experience working on donor-funded projects, including contributing to bid- and report-writing, project management in the context of donor-funded projects, and monitoring and evaluation is highly desirable.
• Strong experience working with a diverse range of stakeholders, from senior corporate executives and partners of top law firms to social entrepreneurs, NGOs, and any other beneficiaries of our services.
• Experience designing tailored pitches and presentations to a variety of senior commercial stakeholders and articulating social impact in a commercial context.
• Expertise or thought leadership in one or more of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s focus areas.
• A leader who understands and can do the day-to-day work, while also being able to direct regional strategy and manage multiple high-level projects consecutively. Proven organisational abilities and experience of managing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• An exceptional communicator with strong writing skills and extensive public speaking experience.
• Experience in Salesforce would be favourable.  Experience using and managing information in databases required.
• Strong understanding and ability to use a range of software tools, including Microsoft Office, CMS, Eventbrite, etc.
• Fluent in English, other languages favourable.
• Willingness to travel internationally.