ILRI Vacancy: Legal Officer (Closing date:20 September, 2024)

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Legal Officer to manage institutional research and operational contracts, take charge of and manage the unit’s repositories and databases for efficient provision of legal services to ILRI’s research and operational teams, and provide general support to the legal unit in compliance-related matters.

ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe, and sustainable use of livestock. It is the only one of 15 CGIAR Research Centres dedicated entirely to animal agriculture research for the developing world. Co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, it has regional or country offices and projects in East, South, and Southeast Asia as well as Central, East, Southern, and West Africa.

Key Responsibilities

Contracts management and research support

1. Review and approve institutional contracts in line with ILRI and CGIAR policies and applicable legal requirements.
2. Oversee the sign-off and dispatch process for institutional contracts ensuring that complete and fully signed contracts are in place and properly filed as required.
3. Review due diligence checklists required by donors and/or partners for completeness and provide research teams with required information and documents to facilitate this process.

Legal and corporate compliance

1. Oversee and ensure timely and accurate completion, updates, and renewals of all hosting services agreements.
2. Manage certification, notarization, and authentication of documents.
3. Co-ordinate the process of adjudication and settlement of legal claims and cases with external and internal stakeholders.
4. Conduct research on emerging legal issues and advise management on any related legal risks and/or required measures to ensure full compliance.
5. Prepare training materials for ILRI staff and management on emerging legal issues and conduct training where required.
6. Maintain and update databases and repositories of contracts and key ILRI and Kapiti institutional/legal documents especially in relation to assets records, policies, procedures, legal disputes, lab notebooks, and other institutional records ensuring the databases are updated as required and properly organized for ease of retrieval of documents.
7. Manage day-to-day requests for templates and documents ensuring that the unit’s SharePoint materials are updated as required. Attend to clarifications and other queries raised through the legal service desk.
8. Perform any other related duties as may be assigned from time to time to assist the Legal Unit achieve its mandate.

Requirements

1. Relevant professional certification.
2. An advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
3. Seven years’ relevant experience.
4. Post-admission experience in an in-house legal team in a large corporate, an international organization, or a busy law firm handling contracts, litigation, and human resources related matters.
5. Demonstrate a good grasp of relevant laws including but not limited to laws governing International non-profit organizations; Kenyan Law and the Constitution of Kenya 2010; Intellectual Property Law and related International Laws and Treaties, Labour Laws, and Corporate governance.

Terms of Appointment

This position is at job level HG 15 and it is only open to Kenyan nationals. The position is a 3-year contract, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and availability of funding. ILRI offers a competitive salary and benefits package which includes pension, medical, and other insurances.

How to apply: Applicants should send a cover letter and CV expressing their interest in the position, what they can bring to the job, and the names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to the Director, People and Organizational Development through our portal ilri.simplicant.com on or before 20 September 2024. The position title and reference number REF: IPP-LO/1519/2024 should be clearly marked on the subject line of the cover letter.

We thank all applicants for their interest in working for ILRI. Due to the volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

ILRI does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process (application, interview meeting, processing, or training). ILRI also does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.