Expired: Managing Civil Lawyer – Darwin

POSITION OVERVIEW

The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency Ltd (NAAJA) provides legal assistance and justice services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory. We have offices in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. We are recognised as a leading legal service and have received national and local human rights and crime prevention awards for our work.

NAAJA’s legal practice is the largest in the Northern Territory, providing high quality, culturally proficient and accessible advice, casework and court advocacy in both criminal and civil law. NAAJA particularly seeks to achieve social justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through strategic litigation, law reform and education.

NAAJA’s civil law practice is an extremely busy and diverse one, with practice areas including police accountability, child protection, adult guardianship, consumer, discrimination, tenancy, social security and victims of crime assistance claims.

The work requires high levels of motivation, energy and a commitment to professional excellence.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are encouraged to apply.

DUTIES

  1. To assist the Chief Executive Officer and Principal Legal Officer in obtaining, coordinating and effectively using resources in servicing the Civil Law section.
  2. To ensure the efficient, effective, culturally appropriate and trauma informed provision of civil law services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory.
  3. To lead a diverse team of legal and non-legal staff in the Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs offices, including through providing an ethical and supportive
  4. Directly supervise legal staff including effective performance management.
  5. Provide high quality advice on civil law issues to clients and internally to the Principal Legal Officer as required.
  6. Identify issues that cause disadvantage to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the civil justice system and to assist NAAJA through the Principal Legal Officer to respond to those issues through strategic casework (including litigation), advocacy and law reform.
  7. Work co-operatively as part of a team to help achieve the goals identified in NAAJA’s Strategic Plan, including through work with NAAJA’s Criminal, Law and Justice and Throughcare
  8. Represent NAAJA externally as required and build strong relationships with NAAJA’s key stakeholders.
  9. Participate in all Management, staff and team meetings as required.
  10. Other duties as directed.

SELECTION CRITERIA ESSENTIAL:

  1. Admission (or eligibility for admission) as a legal practitioner in the Northern Territory with a minimum of 5 years post-admission experience in civil law.
  2. Demonstrated ability as a manager of staff and resources in a complex legal environment including leadership skills of a high standard.
  3. Experience in the development, maintenance and review of effective office and risk management systems in the context of a legal practice.
  4. Demonstrated ability to effectively supervise the provision of legal services to the highest professional and ethical standards.
  5. Substantial legal experience (including litigation), ideally with sound knowledge in some or all of the following areas of law:
    1. discrimination and equal opportunity
    2. child protection
    3. administrative law
    4. tenancy
    5. consumer protection including consumer credit
    6. tort including intentional torts
  6. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the Northern Territory.
  7. Good time management and organisational skills including demonstrated capacity to perform under pressure and ability to effectively handle high volume workloads within tight deadlines.
  8. Ability to identify policy/law reform issues of relevance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Northern Territory through community consultation and analysis of the casework experience of NAAJA and other agencies.
  9. An understanding of the underlying issues giving rise to the disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the justice system, including a demonstrated understanding and sensitivity to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their history and culture.
  10. Ability and willingness to travel to and work in the regional areas serviced by NAAJA.
  11. Current Drivers licence.
  12. Ability to obtain a satisfactory “Working with Children Clearance” (Ochre Card) upon commencement.
  13. Ability to obtain a satisfactory criminal history check and no history of disqualification from employment by a legal practice.

A copy of the duty statement can be found here: DS – MANAGING CIVIL LAWYER

Applicants for this position must address the selection criteria in their written application, which should be sent to Recruitment@naaja.org.au

Applications close on Friday 12 April.