Legal Intern - Corporate and Institutional Law Team

TOR – Legal Internship – Corporate and Institutional Law Team

 

Background:

As the United Nations lead agency on international development, UNDP works in 170 countries and territories to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality. We help countries to develop policies, leadership skills, partnering abilities, institutional capabilities, and to build resilience to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Our work is concentrated in three focus areas; sustainable development, democratic governance and peace building, and climate and disaster resilience.

 

The Office of Legal Services in the Bureau for Management Services (BMS/OLS) serves as in-house counsel in UNDP. The Office provide advice and assistance on a range of legal matters relating to the UNDP’s operations. OLS consists of three operational Teams: Corporate and Institutional Team (C&I), Programmes and Projects Team (P&P) and Administrative Law Team (AL). 

 

The Corporate and Institutional Law Practice (C&I) in BMS/OLS is seeking a Legal Intern to support its work. The C&I Team is responsible for handling institutional and commercial legal matters with respect to diverse contracts (services, goods, works, leases, banking arrangements, etc) with vendors, consultants and other personnel of the organization, disputes and claims with such vendors, consultants and other personnel, privileges and immunities of the Organization, legal aspects of public sector financing agreements, multi-partner trust fund arrangements, and inter-agency arrangements (including agency services.) The C&I Team is also responsible for policy review and the development, creation, and updating of corporate legal templates. 

 

Description of Responsibilities:

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Senior Legal Advisor and Head of C&I, the C&I legal intern will provide support and assistance to the lawyers of the C&I team by carrying out the following tasks:

 

• Review of documents, including standard and non-standard legal instruments and contracts in relation to arrangements with vendors, contractors, consultants, donors and other entities, entered into further to UNDP’s operations and activities.
• Support in the review of disputes and claims.
• Conduct legal research on complex issues and drafting legal documents and communications.
• Support training sessions and knowledge-sharing initiatives to promote awareness of UNDP’s legal framework among internal stakeholders, including with respect to legal templates.
• Provide general support to the C&I Team on ongoing matters, knowledge management and team operations.

 

The internship is very hands on and allows for a great deal of interaction and opportunity to receive guidance from and engage with C&I lawyers on a wide variety of legal issues.

 

 

Competencies:

Core

Achieve Results:

• Plans and monitors own work, pays attention to details, delivers quality work by deadline.

Think Innovatively:

• Open to creative ideas/known risks, is pragmatic problem solver, makes improvements.

Learn Continuously:

• Open minded and curious, shares knowledge, learns from mistakes, asks for feedback.

Adapt with Agility:

• Adapts to change, constructively handles ambiguity/uncertainty; is flexible.

Act with Determination

• Shows drive and motivation, able to deliver calmly in face of adversity, confident.

Engage and Partner

• Demonstrates compassion/understanding towards others, forms positive relationships.

Enable Diversity and Inclusion

• Appreciate/respect differences, aware of unconscious bias, confront discrimination.

 

Cross-Functional and Technical Competencies

Business Development – Knowledge Generation

• Ability to research and turn information into useful knowledge, relevant for context, or responsive to a stated need.

Business Management – Communication

• Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience.

Legal – Knowledge of applicable legal framework

• Understanding of the legal norms as applied to the United Nations in general, and to UNDP in particular. This includes an understanding of the structure, functioning and operations of UNDP within the broader UN system and the application of international treaties, including the UN Charter, UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as an understanding of