Senior Legal Officer at Universities Fund (UF)

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required:

Academic Qualifications

• Have a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution;
• Post graduate diploma from Kenya School of Law or its equivalent;

Professional Qualifications / Membership to professional bodies

• Admission as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya;
• Valid Practicing Certificate;
• A member in good standing of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK);
• Relevant management programme lasting not less than two (2) weeks from a recognized institution;

Previous relevant work experience required

• At least four (4) years relevant work experience in public service or private sector

Functional Skills:

1. Good communication skills
2. Proposal development skills
3. Proficiency in computer applications

Behavioral Competencies/ Attributes:

1. Proactive
2. Transformative
3. Active listening
4. Trustworthiness
5. Emotional Intelligence
6. Meet the requirements of Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010

Responsibilities:

• An officer at this level will answer to the Principal Secretary and will be responsible for litigation and prosecution services, contractual services and Board services.

Managerial / Supervisory Responsibilities

• Litigation and Prosecutions
• Formulating legal policies, standards, guidelines and procedures on litigation, delegated criminal prosecution and Alternative Dispute Resolution for efficient prosecutions;
• Strengthening policy and law frameworks for prosecution and litigation for efficient service delivery;
• Formulating litigation, prosecution and ADR strategies for systematic approach to prosecutions, litigation and ADR;
• Coordinating investigations and supervising civil investigations for efficient evidence gathering;
• Coordinating administration and supervision of delegated prosecutorial powers
• Coordinating instituting and undertaking prosecution of criminal and civil matters;
• Monitoring compliance with policies, standards and procedures to avoid sanctions and litigations;
• Formulating mitigation strategies to contain identified legal risks to forestall possible instituting of criminal or civil cases against the Institutions;
• Providing statutory interpretation briefs and legal opinions on litigation, prosecution and ADR matters for clarity and ease of implementation;
• Overseeing adherence to departmental Quality Management System (QMS) for efficient operations and service delivery;
• Providing legal education and awareness programmes/clinics to staff on relevant legal frameworks for understanding, compliance and containment of misinformation and legal risks;
• Monitoring compliance to legal, statutory, administrative and regulatory frameworks to minimize legal risks exposure;
• Managing risks in line with Enterprise Risk Management Framework for efficient risk management for informed decision making;
• Participating in the implementation of the performance management system enhanced productivity.
• Developing the legal universe for structured reference on legal compliance;

Contractual Responsibilities

• Formulating policies, standards and guidelines on and contracts for systematic discharge of contractual obligations;
• Monitoring and executing contractual obligation for compliance and protection of institutional reputation;
• Managing the legal and contracts management module within the ICT System for integrated, faster and efficient delivery of service;
• Managing insurance placement, claims and sensitization of staff on their obligations; (preparing terms, liaising with underwriters   on insurance matters).

Board Services Responsibilities

• Formulating and reviewing Board policies, standards and guidelines for efficient governance
• Formulating and reviewing Board charter, committees’ terms of reference and other tools of the Board (Code of conduct and ethics, work plans, capacity development plans)
• Ensuring that principles of good corporate governance are adhered to for accountability and efficient service delivery;
• Supervising preparation of Board Papers to attain the required quality;
• Ensuring that Board Papers are released to Board Members within the stipulated timelines;

Operational Responsibilities / Tasks

• Litigation and Prosecutions
• Managing Litigation/other quasi-judicial processes for efficient dispute resolution;
• Undertaking Legal Research for alignment of litigation, prosecution and ADR functions to emerging issues;
• Conducting negotiations as appropriate for amicable understanding and resolution of contentious litigation and prosecution matters;
• Representing the institution in courts and quasi- judicial bodies to exact business know position and cost management;
• Preparing written and oral submissions for filing and presentation in court to highlight the key legal principles involved in the case;
• Monitoring compliance with court decisions to avoid contempt of court proceedings and sanctions;
• Conducting overall review and implementation of legal policies to keep abreast with emerging issues;
• Briefing and debriefing external lawyers to provide strategies for management of the cases and cost containment;
• Carrying out legal surveys on identified subject matters for in- depth analysis and for decision making.
• Coordinating preparation of legal advisories to various departments for informed decision making;
• Planning and developing departmental annual budget for structured financial management.
• Planning and budgeting for the Department’s annual financial requirements;
• Mentoring and coaching direct reports for succession planning and knowledge management;

Contractual Obligation Responsibilities

• Executing contract management processes and procedures (drafting, amending/reviewing, vetting and enforcing all contracts, MoUs and Service Level agreements).
• Developing and maintaining contract register for ease of reference and proactive ascertaining of expiry dates for initiation of prompt procurement process;
• Carrying out contractual negotiations to achieve amicable understanding and seamless execution;
• Preparing reports on the status of contract processes and procedures to inform respective departments on the status of implementation;
• Monitoring contract performance to ascertain conformity and compliance with parties’ obligations;
• Liaising with external lawyers on matters relating to contracts for proactive service delivery;
• Liaising with departments for technical details on the contract to ensure that the departmental input is provided for;
• Preparing and maintaining insurance placement and claims registers for ascertaining efficiency on timelines in settlement, trends in   loss or destruction of assets for decision making;
• Implementing realization of securities and collateral for protection of the fund;
• Providing legal opinions on legal issues for guidance and understanding/ management of legal risks;
• Executing staff loans legal processes (advising on conveyancing processes in liaison with financial institutions);

Board Services Responsibilities

• Liaising with relevant bodies dealing with governance issues to create harmony in execution of governance guidelines and processes;
• Sensitizing liaison persons in departments on governance audit implementation requirements
• Monitoring implementation of governance and legal audits findings and recommendations;
• Implementation of Board policies for seamless Board functioning;
• Preparing and coordinating release of meeting notices and agenda for sufficient notice giving;
• Supervising preparation and dispatch of Board papers for pre- reading for informed decision making;
• Ensuring that the conflict-of-interest register is fully updated.
• Preparing and updating matrices on release of notices and agenda and status of Board decisions implementations for reference and decision making;
• Managing all logistics relating to Board services for effective Board facilitation;

Financial Responsibility:

1. Developing departmental budgets
2. Monitoring implementation of the budget;

Responsibility for physical assets around the area of work:

Responsible for maintenance of assets assigned to the department

Problem Solving:

 The job holder will be required to solve the following type of problems:

1. Complex and open ended
2. legal and policy problems in the Universities Fund and its external operations;
3. Problems are broad and complex, involving more than one area of the Government. Solutions will often
4. be arrived at through the stakeholder involvement, involve significant legal
5. risk and require Board approval.
6. Problems are strategic,
7. affecting more than one area of the Government. Consultations will be required.
8. Solutions will involve significant strategic and legal risk, and be decided by
9. the Board Problems are highly complex, requiring significant research and creative thinking. Consultations will be required. Solutions could contribute to the body of research / knowledge in this area.

Communication

The job holder will need to understand the following information to discharge his/her mandate:

1. Detailed verbal instructions or requests from universities, students, the Ministry of Education on matters of university education financing;
2. Participating in the
3. development of Laws, regulations and Universities Fund internal policy
4. documents as well as external policies that affect the operations of the Fund;
5. In depth legal reports,
6. proposals or briefs affecting the universities, the Ministry of Education and
7. the Auditor General’s Office; 
8. Reports and briefs on legal proceedings that involve the Universities Fund.

Decision Making/ Job Influence:

• Makes operational decisions on court cases and ADR management
• Planning and assigning work to direct reports;
• Makes decisions on which evidence to admit for presentation to court;
• Monitoring and evaluating work performance of direct reports;