Legal Affairs Specialist United Nations Children's Fund Experience: 5 to 10 Years New York, United States of America Apply By: 10-01-2025

We seek to hire a Legal Affairs Specialist under a temporary appointment to join the Legal Team in New York Headquarters. This temporary appointment is for 364 days. 

Under the overall guidance of the Chief of Section in New York (Senior Legal Affairs Specialist) and the direct supervision of the Legal Affairs Specialist in New York, the Legal Affairs Specialist will support on a broad spectrum of legal matters ranging from commercial contracts to partnerships, disputes, programmes, and institutional matters.

Members of the UNICEF Legal Team are expected to be open-minded and resourceful, responsive, and dynamic, transparent and approachable, and clear and authoritative. The overall direction of the Legal Team is set by the Chief Legal Counsel in New York.

The Legal Affairs Specialist will support more senior members of the Office in:

Providing substantive  legal advice in the following areas:

• institutional matters, including privileges and immunities;
• organizational governance, including the Regulatory Framework and Delegation fo Authority
• policy development and interpretation, in particular for human resources related policies and procedures
• other legal issues in connection with matters handled by the Division of People and Culture, including relationships and agreements with external partners

dispute resolution:

• Collaborating closely with teams across the organization, at the headquarters / divisional level, and at the regional and country office level, in widely varying development and humanitarian contexts.
• Supporting the coordination of projects managed by the Office throughout their entire lifecycle, including design & planning, stakeholder engagement, monitoring & evaluation.
• Conducting other duties as directed.

The Legal Affairs Specialist will be expected to:

• Take ownership of matters; proactively highlighting potential issues and present possible solutions to more senior members of the Office. This involves taking ownership and having sense of accountability over your portfolio as a whole, consciously answering the need for creativity and resourcefulness in all situations (i.e. show initiative, be proactive, create and use networks, think outside the box).
• Support more senior members of the Office in taking leadership in action and being responsive with clients. This involves communicating with the client regularly, maintaining high levels of responsiveness to the client, keeping your supervisor regularly informed and seeking their input and guidance appropriately, managing the expectations of the client and knowing when to escalate.

Take charge – be responsible and be accountable, proactively seeking support of more senior members of the Office when needed. This involves:

• taking a risk-based approach, prioritizing and, where matters warrant your investment, taking a forward-looking strategic approach – demonstrating coherence, rigor and thought over your matters;
• being pro-active in stakeholder management, and following up on outstanding matters and queries;
• being resourceful, for example, use networks to unlock matters.
• Exercise good judgement on emerging challenges, especially where there is a need to escalate so as to avoid or overcome an impasse and involve your supervisor in a timely manner.
• If you would like to know more about this position, please review the complete Job Description here:

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Minimum requirements:

Education:

• A minimum of a post-graduate university law degree (for example. LL. B post-graduate; LL.M.; J.D.) in a relevant field of law (e.g. international law, commercial law) is required; or, at the discretion of the Chief Legal Counsel, a first-level university degree in combination with an additional two years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years’ of progressively responsible experience in the practice of law in a relevant field is required (e.g. international law; commercial law).  Experience with policy development and interpretation in an international organization is required. Experience in a law firm, in private practice or as in-house counsel, or in the legal office of an international organization is highly desirable

Skills: 

• A constructive and client-oriented approach to resolution of problems is required.
• Excellent research, legal writing and drafting skills are required.
• Excellent verbal communication and negotiation skills, excellent interpersonal skills with staff at all levels, and the ability to work with utmost discretion in handing sensitive and confidential matters are required.
• Knowledge of international legal procedures and instruments is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required. Proficiency in another language, particularly one of the other official languages of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) is highly desirable.

Source: https://jobs.unicef.org/cw/en-us/job/577882