Summary
Date Posted: Tuesday, May 17, 2022 , Base Salary: Not Disclosed

JOB DETAILS:
Principal Legal Officer
Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required:
Academic Qualifications
• Have a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution;
• Masters of Law (LL.B) degree or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution is an added advantage;
• 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);
• Certified Secretary;
• A member in good standing of the Institute of Certified Secretaries (ICS);
• Relevant management programme lasting not less than two (2) weeks from a recognized institution;

Previous relevant work experience required
• At least Eight (8) years relevant work experience Public Service or Private Sector, three (3) of which must be in a management position.

Functional Skills:
• Good communication skills
• Proposal development skills
• Proficiency in computer applications

Behavioral Competencies/ Attributes:
• Proactive
• Transformative
• Active listening
• Trustworthiness
• Emotional Intelligence
• Interpersonal
• Meet the requirements of Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010

Responsibilities:
An officer at this level will answer to the Corporation Secretary and Deputy Director Legal Services and will be responsible for facilitating secretarial services to the Board and in offering legal opinions and legal advice to the Director/CEO, legal services and effective management of the Legal division.

Contractual Responsibilities
• Formulating policies, standards and guidelines on and contracts for systematic discharge of contractual obligations;
• Drawing, vetting, reviewing and enforcing contracts, MoUs, and Service Level Agreements for clarity of obligations of the parties;
• 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;
• Monitoring service level agreements both internally and externally for clarity on administrative requirements on implementation for early identification of non-performance and prompt remedial action;
• Managing insurance placement, claims and sensitization of staff on their obligations; (preparing terms, liaising with underwriters on insurance matters).
• Board Secretarial Service (Governance)

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;
• Monitoring implementation of the governance audit recommendations;
• Participating in sourcing for recognized governance audit and legal audit service providers to assist the procurement process in identifying the desired service provider
• Managing administrative and logistical issues in Corporate Secretarial services
• Preparing quarterly reports to the Board for consideration and decision making;
• Supervising preparation of Board Papers to attain the required quality;
• Ensuring that Board Papers are released to Board Members within the stipulated timelines;

Litigation and Prosecution
• Executing litigation, prosecution and ADR strategies and processes for efficient services;
• Implementing policies, rules and regulations;
• Maintaining communication with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and external lawyers on legal matters on litigation and prosecution for guidance and direction;
• Preparing reports on litigation status of civil and criminal prosecutions for planning and decision making’
• Managing investigations on legal issues for collection of evidence for decision informed making;

Operational Responsibilities / Tasks
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 Secretarial Service (Governance)

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.
• Managing the e-board system for paperless and efficient functioning of the Board;
• 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;
• Managing correspondence relating to Board Services for timely responses
• Litigation and Prosecution

Preparing and perusing court pleadings and identifying issues for determination;
• Preparing, reviewing and analyzing summons, charge sheets, plaints, defenses, to ascertain legality and defects;
• Drafting affidavits and instructions relating to litigation, prosecution and ADR to support and strengthen cases;
• Maintaining current communication with parties in each case for information;
• Representing the institution in courts, tribunals and quasi-judicial bodies for business know how approach and cost containment;
• Ensuring prompt filing of pleadings in court to avoid being time barred as regulated by court rules and procedures;
• Ensuring prompt service of the pleadings on concerned parties to facilitate their response and speedy resolution;
• Initiating out of court settlement discussions for amicable resolution of dispute;
• Maintaining court cases register for tracking status of each case for decision making;
• Enforcing litigation, prosecution and ADR processes for efficient dispute resolutions;
• Preparing witness statements to support prosecution and defense of cases;
• lReceiving and court pleadings and all correspondence relating to litigation, prosecution and ADR and ensuring that they appropriately filed and responded to;
• Participating in formulation and review of legal policies and procedures to align them with the mandate of the institution and emerging issues;
• Adhering to performance management requirements for productivity;
• Initiating proposals for enactment/review of relevant legal and regulatory frameworks for alignment to the mandate, vision and mission of the Institution;
• Holding pre- hearing conferences with witnesses in readiness for court and quasi-judicial hearing;
• Ensuring compliance with departmental Quality Management System (QMS) procedures;
• Participating in development of departmental budget;
• Drafting briefing material and maintaining contact with external providers of legal;
• Checking, confirming and availing the court cause list for confirmation of listing
• Ensuring that witnesses and exhibits are available when required for proving the case.

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:
• Complex and open ended
• legal and policy problems in the Universities Fund and its external
• operations;
• Problems are broad and
• complex, involving more than one area of the Government. Solutions will often
• be arrived at through the stakeholder involvement, involve significant legal
• risk and require Board approval.
• Problems are strategic,
• affecting more than one area of the Government. Consultations will be required.
• Solutions will involve significant strategic and legal risk, and be decided by
• 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:
• Detailed verbal instructions or requests from universities, students, the Ministry of Education on matters of university education financing;
• Participating in the
• development of Laws, regulations and Universities Fund internal policy
• documents as well as external policies that affect the operations of the Fund;
• In depth legal reports,
• proposals or briefs affecting the universities, the Ministry of Education and
• the Auditor General’s Office.

Decision Making/ Job Influence:
Makes strategic decisions on:
• Legal matters that have impact internally and externally;
• Amendment of governing legal and other relevant frameworks;
• Contractual obligations on review of terms and termination and termination of contracts;
• Terms of engagement of external lawyers;
• Termination/withdrawal of cases from Court.
• Makes operational decisions on
• Litigation and prosecution (instituting and defending cases in court);
• Invoking ADR mechanism for dispute resolution;
• Provides governance and legal advisory to the Board and Management;
• 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;

Working Conditions:
• Works in an office environment;
• Travels out of the workstation across the country to attend court on litigation and ADR engagements, negotiations with strategic partners on guiding partnership legal instruments (Service contracts and MoUs);
• Occasional international assignments;
• Works under exposure to hostile parties in contentious legal matters;

Job Experience: No Requirements

Work Hours: 8

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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