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

JOB DETAILS:
Senior Legal Officer
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:
• Good communication skills
• Proposal development skills
• Proficiency in computer applications

Behavioral Competencies/ Attributes:
• Proactive
• Transformative
• Active listening
• Trustworthiness
• Emotional Intelligence
• 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:
• 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;
• 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;

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 96

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

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