Director (Principal Legal Officer)
CONTEXT STATEMENT
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) exists to meet the Nation’s commitment to care
for our veteran and defence service community—the men and women who have served
Australia in times of war and conflict as well as peacetime. We do this through programs of
care, compensation, commemoration, income support and Defence support services. Our
aim is to ensure enhanced self-sufficiency, quality of life, financial wellbeing and community
recognition for those we support.
DVA is both a policy and service delivery agency with an annual budget in excess of $12
billion. We have strong relationships with Australian ex-service organisations, the
Department of Defence, the international veteran community and international veterans’
administrations.
DVA’s vision is to be a responsive and flexible organisation, efficiently delivering high
quality, connected services to al generations of veterans and the wider veteran community.
DVA’s cultural vision, underpinned by the APS Values of ICARE, are:
• We know our clients,
• We are future focused,
• We walk the talk,
• We are connected and we work together, and
• We are capable and empowered to deliver
The Legal Services & Audit Branch is a specialist in-house practice that supports lawful
implementation of the Department’s objectives by advising on the management of legal risk
as well as providing legal advice, litigation and dispute resolution services, legal training and
legislation services.
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Director (Principal Legal Officer)
We are looking for candidates with relevant experience, flexible thinking and a consistent
and reliable work ethic. You need to have strong and efficient administration, liaison and
communications skills and the ability to manage conflicting demands to meet deadlines.
You wil have the opportunity to work in one of these areas of law:
Commercial and Corporate Law
•
Corporate advice, which involves PGPA Act compliance, including reviewing and
updating Accountable Authority Instructions (AAIs), Finance Business Rules (FBRs)
and various policies and procedures;
•
Commercial advice, including drafting and advising on contracts, deeds, licences,
Intellectual Property issues, procurement and probity, negotiations and commercial
/ risk advice;
•
Commercial litigation, including advising on contractual disputes, common law
disputes and actions (e.g. defamation and negligence) and management of DVA’s
debt recovery litigation in various courts across Australia;
•
Property, which involves advising DVA on preparing leases, licenses and purchases
and disposals of land in its property portfolio and also advising on and lodging
caveats as part of the pension loans scheme;
•
Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety (WRES), which includes providing
advice on DVA’s WHS obligations (e.g. as part of the pandemic response), HR matters
(e.g. termination of employees / contractors), reviewing DVA’s enterprise agreement
and instruments, advising on redundancies and disciplinary matters and managing
DVA’s litigation in the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Fair
Work Commission (FWC) and Federal Court to do with workplace disputes;
Statutory Interpretation
• Provision of timely advice on complex legal matters under the Department’s primary
pieces of legislation and related instruments.
• Work closely with the policy areas of the Department to support appropriate
decision making.
Legislation and Instruments
• Manage the Minister’s legislation program before the parliament
• Prepare drafting instructions and related documentation for all legislative proposals.
• Provide advice on matters relating to the legislative process.
• Drafting of the Department’s legal instruments and determinations.
Information Law
• Management, processing and provision of legal advice on the Department’s
information access mechanisms.
• Handling of all privacy law matters, including development of Privacy Impact
Assessments and Privacy Threshold Assessments (PIA/PTA).
• Processing non-routine, complex and/or sensitive FOI matters.
Litigation and Discretionary Claims
• Manage appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) of decisions under the
Department’s primary legislation. This may involve appearing in AAT and/or
instructing external lawyers.
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Director (Principal Legal Officer)
• Managing Federal Court litigation, where there has been an appeal to the Federal
Court from a decision of the AAT or where there has been judicial review under the
Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 or under the section 39B of the
Judiciary Act 1903.
• Management and investigation of Discretionary Claims made against the
Department. This includes the investigation and provision of recommendations to
the decision maker for claims made under the Scheme for Compensation for
Detriment caused by Defective Administration (CDDA Scheme) and the provision of
input to the Department of Finance in respect of Act of Grace requests.
Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide Taskforce
• Legal advisors for responding to the upcoming Royal Commission into Defence and
Veteran Suicide.
• The legal team working in the Taskforce will:
o coordinate with other government and external legal teams,
o monitor Royal Commission proceedings to anticipate the Department’s
responsibilities for producing information, and
o work closely with all areas of the Department, and assist with document
identification processes, document review and witness evidence in a
fast-paced environment.
This recruitment process is being used to fil current and future ongoing and non-ongoing
vacancies. A merit pool of suitable applicants will be created which may be used to fill future
vacancies should they become available over the next 12 months.
The current vacancy in the branch is the Director of Commercial and Corporate Law. Specific
experiences in ICT procurement, property leasing and/or WRES are highly desirable.
DUTY STATEMENT
Position Number:
TBC
Job Title:
Director (Principal Legal Officer)
APS Level:
EL2
Division:
Chief Operating Officer
Branch
Legal Services and Audit
Section:
Various
Location:
Canberra ACT
Immediate Supervisor:
General Counsel (SES Band 1)
DUTIES
In accordance with the principles of workplace diversity, Work Health and Safety,
participative work practices, APS values and APS Employment Principles:
As a Director (Principal Legal Officer) you will need to work collaboratively with staff across
the department on the delivery of key priorities, while managing staff in your section. Your
responsibilities would include:
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Director (Principal Legal Officer)
• Delivery of high quality legal services that meet client expectations (including
financial), manage business and legal risk, compliance requirements and professional
standards.
• Develop and maintain client relationships with business areas and promote the Legal
Services and Audit branch as the Department’s trusted advisor.
• Supervise and support other section members including contributing to the setting
of the direction of work priorities and practices and monitoring work flow for legal
support staff as required.
• Further develop professional legal expertise, through participation in development,
training and study opportunities, and meet Continuing Legal Education requirements
and other expectations.
• Have professional responsibilities within a legal team delivering services in a very
complex environment and have “day-to-day” responsibility for legal matters with
important Government and client implications.
• Operate under broad direction and undertake legal work with moderate supervision,
the extent of which is dependent upon complexity of legal work and experience.
• Successful applicants wil demonstrate sound decision-making and judgement to
produce high-level legal advice across different areas of the department’s
operations, which may include corporate management or service delivery.
• Drafting high quality documents (including briefs, instruments, explanatory
statements, agreements and correspondence).
• Manage and develop capabilities of the branch, this includes professional
supervision and mentoring of lawyers and/or working with lawyers operating across
different areas of law, jurisdictions and geographic locations
• Liaise with managers at all levels in the Department.
• As necessary, represent the Section, Branch, Division or Department at meetings, on
committees or with other agencies.
• Ensure the department complies with the
Legal Services Directions 2017.
SELECTION CRITERIA
Your application will be assessed against the relevant APS level within the Integrated
Leadership System (ILS)
For
executive and senior executive levels is built around five core capability clusters:
• shapes strategic thinking
• achieves results
• cultivates productive working relationships
• exemplifies personal drive and integrity
• communicates with influence.
The five core capability clusters for the pathway for
APS levels are:
• supports strategic direction
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Director (Principal Legal Officer)
• achieves results
• supports productive working relationships
• displays personal drive and integrity
• communicates with influence.
To learn more about the ILS click here.
The successful candidates wil have:
• Excel ent written and oral communication skil s (including negotiation and
influencing skills);
• Significant demonstrated experience as a senior lawyer in government and/or
private sector;
• Proactive and result orientated;
• Experience in delivering high level and complex legal advice to senior executives in
government and/or the private sector on a wide variety legal issues.
• Highly developed leadership, management and practice management skills.
STATEMENT OF CLAIMS
Candidates apply by submitting a 1000 word statement of claims, also known as a ‘one page
pitch’.
Candidate’s statement of claims outline their skills, knowledge and experience and why they
should be considered for the role taking into consideration the duties and selection criteria
(ILS).
Mandatory
• Must have at least a Bachelor of Laws degree (or equivalent) from a recognised
Australian tertiary education provider.
• Admission as a legal practitioner of the High Court or the Supreme Court of a State
or Territory of Australia and must possess, or be eligible to obtain, an ACT practising
certificate.
• Substantial contemporary, relevant knowledge and experience in relevant areas of
law and knowledge of the Commonwealth legal environment.
• You will also need to hold or obtain a baseline security clearance.
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