APPLICATIONS ARE INVITED FROM SUITABLY QUALIFIED LOCAL CANDIDATES FOR THE FOLLOWING VACANT POSITIONS TENABLE IN THE JUDICIARY:
DEPARTMENT : HIGH COURT
LOCATION : MASERU
JOB TITLE : DIRECTOR LEGAL AFFAIRS
GRADE : J
MAIN PURPOSE OF THE JOB
To oversee the provision of legal advice on matters pertaining to administrative issues, advice Heads of the Courts on matters bearing juristic nature and requiring legal opinion and drafting of legal documents and laws governing the institution.
MAIN DUTIES
- Renders legal advice to the Registrar and heads of the Courts.
1.1 Provides appropriate legal advice on a diverse range of substantive and procedural questions of law arising in administrative functioning of the Judiciary as required by the operational departments
1.2 Advises on vigilance matters as referred to Legal division,
1.3 Assists the operational departments in preparing of reply to legal notices received.
1.4 Identifies potential areas of compliance vulnerability and risk avoidance and mitigation.
1.5 Develops and implements legal strategies and solutions of problematic issues in consultation with upper management.
1.6 Helps in establishing and maintaining an effective and fully compliant internal control system with the local statutes and regulations.
Provides legal opinion to departments of legal issues
2,1 Reviews, researches, interprets, and prepares both written and oral opinions on a wide variety of legal issues.
2,2 Renders effective legal assistance in the preparation of legal opinions, studies, reports and correspondence, as required from time to time by various Heads of Departments.
2.3 Serves on various Standing Boards, Committees, ad-hoc working groups and task force, as required, to take care of legal niceties in framing of policies.
- Conduct and coordinate research into a variety of legal issues.
3.1 Conduct legal research and analysis to identify important emerging legal issues.
3.2 Apprises the operational departments of emerging legal trends from court decision and tender advice to avoid unnecessary litigation.
3.3 Identify, analyze and report on important legislative and regulatory developments.
3.4 Coordinates reviews of contracts, laws, and other legal documents; researches legal issues and recommends revisions as necessary.
- Drafts Legislations.
3.1 Coordinates consultation with all relevant ministries/departments.
3.2 Identifies, analyses and report on important legislative and regulatory developments.
3.2 Provides drafting instructions to the Law Office.
3.3 Follow —ups on the drafting of the Bill.
3.4 Drafts a letter of concurrence from relevant ministries.
3.5 Checks and approves Cabinet Memoranda.
4, Coordinates drafting of contracts and agreements between the Judiciary and other parties.
4.1_ Supervises and oversees the review, negotiation and drafting of major contracts, tender documents and other legal documents, as required by the operational departments.
4.2 Participates in contract/agreement discussion fora.
4.3 Checks and approves contracts/agreement drafts.
- Coordinates representation of the Judiciary in iitigation
5,1 Analyses the nature of the case.
5.2 Provide Legal counsel on issues arising from actual or anticipated lawsuits, and to prevent future ones.
5.3 Manage external counsel and general litigation; provide input on the decision whether to send matters to outside counsel and assist in the oversight of outside counsel as necessary.
5.4 Monitors the contesting of the cases in various courts of law and to interact with Lawyers, and other Law Officers of Government.
5.5 Advises in the matter of preferring of appeals in superior courts and in the matter of taking recourse to other legal remedies.
- Oversees compliance to Court judgements that affects the Judkiary.
6.1 Advises management or direct the relevant department to comply.
6.2 Makes foilow-ups to ensure that the affected department complies.
7. Participates projects agreement negotiations at both local and international levels
7.1 Participate in meetings for the discussion of projects agreements
7.2 Provides legal advice thereupon.
7.3 Represents the Judiciary, as appropriate, in various legal proceedings both
domestically and internationally.
- Establishes feasible options to enhance performance of the Legal Unit.
8.1 Manages all projects within the section.
8.2 Develops sectional objectives to facilitate drawing of individual work plans.
8.3 Agrees on staff annual work plans to ensure that the plans are in line with the objectives of the department.
8.4 Conducts half yearly appraisal of staff to determine individual performance and training needs.
8.5 Appraises and approves sectional training plan.
8.6 Oversees preparation of recurrent and capital budget for the section.
8.7 Disciplines staff under his/her supervision.
8.8 Produces quarterly and annual reports,
JOB SPECIFICATION
Education and Training
LLM plus three (3) years working experience as a Chief Legal Officer.
Or
LLB with at least five (5) years working experience as a Chief Legal Officer.
Responsibility for work of others
The incumbent had responsibility for supervising and directing all legal unit staff. Responsibility for safety
The incumbent is responsible for the safekeeping of valuable assets and documents within his/her jurisdiction.
Responsibilit-y for safety of others The factor is minimal in this job .
COMPLEXITY
The job demands ability to read comprehensive documents addressing varying complex issues such as cases, contracts agreements, etc.
Authority for decision making
The incumbent is responsible for advising the Judiciary management and departments on legal matters.
Problem Solving
The incumbent refers to relevant financial rules and regulations, constitution of Lesotho, procurement act and judicial service laws and other local statutes.
Dexterity
The incumbent advices about legal matters at an institutional level. The job needs enormous skills, mental and visual concentration
Contacts
Makes regular conducts with the Chief Accounting Officer, departmental heads, Law Office and other sectors
Mental Effort
The job requires a very high mental effort when contracts/agreements are discussed. There is a lot of reading involved,
Skills and Competencies
Ability to develop and deliver presentations.
Demonstrated ability to successfully manage a large corporate or centralized institutional legal office.
• Ability to provide competent legal advice and counsel to senior officials in the Judiciary on a wide range of legal and policy issues.
• Knowledge of the range of applicable laws and regulations which impact on all facets of Judiciary policy and operations.
• Ability to analyze and interpret issues and to prepare legal opinions.
• Ability to communicate and interact with officials at all levels of government.
Knowledge of current and developing legal issues and trends in area of expertise.
• Knowledge of the principles and procedures of legal research.
• Employee development and performance management skills.
• Negotiating skills.
• Knowledge of contract law.
• Knowledge of the judicial system and procedures.
• Ability to develop and implement legal strategies and solutions.
• Knowledge of faculty and/or staff hiring procedures.
Applications on relevant forms of GP. 104 for serving officers and GP. 103 for job seekers accompanied by certified copies of educational Certificates, transcripts, C.V’s etc. should be hand delivered to Human Resources Division High Court
Not later than 13 June, 2022