Legal Affairs Specialist o/p Brussels, P-4, Office of Executive Director, Rome, PAT 133709

UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

At UNICEF, we are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.

UNICEF is a place where careers are built: we offer our staff diverse opportunities for professional and personal development that will help them reinforce a sense of purpose while serving children and communities across the world. We welcome everyone who wants to belong and grow in a diverse and passionate culture, coupled with an attractive compensation and benefits package.

Visit our website to learn more about what we do at UNICEF.

For every child, commitment

UNICEF’s Legal Team in the Office of the Executive Director supports the organization’s business units around the world – our clients – by delivering strategic legal solutions through collaboration. We provide legal advice that is risk-informed, timely, responsive, and pragmatic. We empower clients and build their capacity to self-help. We proactively engage with clients to anticipate trends and challenges and develop systemic solutions; and we protect UNICEF by identifying legal, reputational and other risks, and helping to mitigate those risks. Our lawyers are based in several UNICEF locations, including in Rome, Italy. 

The Legal Affairs Specialist will provide legal advice to internal clients on data protection matters, including interpretation of the Policy on Personal Data and Privacy and related regulatory documents, data protection in relation to a broad spectrum of agreement and MOUs, and any other data protection matters, as well as supporting other business units globally on a broad spectrum of legal matters ranging from commercial contracts, disputes, and institutional matters. Legal Affairs Specialist will report to the Senior Legal Affairs Specialist who reports to the Chief Legal Counsel.

We seek to hire an experienced lawyer to join the Legal Team in Rome, Italy under a fixed -term appointment. The initial appointment will be for two years, with the possibility of extension subject to organizational needs and satisfactory performance. 

How can you make a difference? 

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 is expected to work autonomously, collaborating regularly with other team members, all under the supervision of the Senior Legal Affairs Specialist.

The Legal Affairs Specialist will act as the lead lawyer to:

 

1.     Provide substantive legal advice in the following areas from a data protection and privacy perspective:

1.)   partnerships with governments and international financial institutions;

2.)   commercial and financial transactions;

3.)   institutional matters, including privileges and immunities;

4.)   policy development and interpretation

5.)   human resources matter (except tribunal cases)

6.)   dispute resolution

2.     Collaborate closely with the UNICEF Data Protection Team, as well as 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.

3.     Leads on representing the Legal Team in the Data Protection Programme Working Group and providing inputs and advice as necessary. This includes advising on the development and roll-out of divisional and regional implementation plans. This may include development of tools and guidance and jointly providing training with the Data Protection Team. 

4.     Leads on advising on and negotiating data protection framework agreements with key partners, as well as data processing agreements at all levels. This could also involve working on advising on strucuturing and governance of UNICEF digital products as well as related documentation. 

5.     Advise on data breaches and remedial actions, as well as other information security incidents as needed. 

6.     Advise on the legal interpretation of decisions, regulations, rules, procedures, and other elements of the UNICEF regulatory framework, including but not limited to UNICEF’s Policy on Personal Data Protection & Privacy.

7.     Develop and provide training and capacity building to teams across the organization; proactively share knowledge with other team members.

8.     Support projects managed by