Assistant Directors

EL 1 - $115,663 - $124,403
- Chief Counsel
- Canberra - ACT

This is a leadership role in managing an exciting and growing Commonwealth legal practice.

**Who we are**
The Chief Counsel Division is managed by the Chief Counsel and is comprised of both lawyers and non-lawyers. Together we are responsible for all legal services required by the department. We partner with the business areas of the department, the Executive, and the Secretary to identify and manage legal risk across the department and facilitate excellent legal outcomes for our clients. As a member of the Division you will be part of growing our legal practice and will be involved in interesting and important work which may span environment protection, energy, climate change and heritage, and on-ground operations in Commonwealth national parks and Antarctica.

Work we do includes:

- providing legal advice on a broad range of issues including statutory interpretation and administrative law, regulatory actions and investigations and commercial work and funding activities
- managing the department’s litigation across a broad range of matters including merits review, judicial review, regulatory enforcement, commercial disputes, and Work Health and Safety matters, in a range of Courts and Tribunals
- developing legal risk and mitigation strategies, particularly in areas of novel or complex work
- developing and coordinating legislation bids and processes, including drafting instructions for the department’s ambitious legislative reform agenda
- developing legal guidance resources and delivering training to the department
- coordinating freedom of information requests and privacy advice
- providing administrative and financial support services to the Division.

The Chief Counsel Division operates in a fast paced, exciting environment. We focus on ensuring our staff are supported and developed so that they are in the best position to take on and enjoy the challenges of the work. We provide competitive conditions and remuneration and provide opportunities for lawyers to either specialise or diversify their skills, while learning from and being supported by highly skilled senior lawyers.

The Legal Strategy and Coordination team provides strategic and administrative support to the legal branches within the Chief Counsel Division. The team has a broad range of responsibilities including regular reporting and coordination, managing staffing levels and budget, procuring all external legal services for the department, and managing recruitment for the legal branches.

**The Job**
Assistant Directors provide practice management leadership in the Legal Strategy and Coordination team. Assistant Directors support the Principal Legal Officer and manage a small team. They will lead with energy and resilience and have a proactive approach to professional and organisational development with the ability to engender enthusiasm and professionalism in others. Assistant Directors will be required to either manage a small team responsible for the procurement of legal services for the department, payment of invoices and monthly accruals or manage a small team responsible for recruitment, onboarding, and general administrative support.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to:

- managing workflow and allocating matters to members of the team
- supporting the Principal Legal Officer and the Division’s Executive team in the management of the Division’s staffing profile
- leading the Division’s recruitment activities, including oversight of job ads in Acendre/eRecruit and onboarding of new starters
- supporting the Principal Legal Officer and the Division’s Executive team in the management of the Division’s budget and financial resources
- ensuring all legal services procurements are compliant with Commonwealth policies and requirements
- managing the Division’s finances and ensuring invoices are paid on time and accruals are completed each month
- responding to complex internal and external queries
- preparing internal guidance material to support the Division
- preparing annual compliance reporting
- managing access to internal information management systems.

**What we are looking for**

**Knowledge and experience**

Skills and capabilities
- have a proven ability to deliver outcomes in a senior administrative, finance or HR role
- have a high standard of attention to detail, meet deadlines and manage their workload efficiently and effectively
- have the ability to identify priorities and resolve issues proactively
- have resilience, flexibility and a steady personal presence in dynamic and quickly changing environments
- be able to inspire confidence and grow a team
- communicate effectively and build and maintain effective relationships and networks with both internal and external stakeholders.

**For additional information, please read the Job Description below.