UNDP Jobs - 73516- Junior Legal Consultant (Administrative Law Practi

Junior Legal Consultant (Administrative Law Practice)- Consultant

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

03-Aug-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months with possible extension for up to 12 months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The UNDP Legal Office (LO) is part of the Bureau for Management Services (BMS) and is the exclusive source of legal advice on operational matters to the Administrator and all UNDP business units.

The Administrative Law Practice (AL) within LO is responsible for:

Advising senior management in Headquarters, Country Offices and of affiliated Funds and Programmes on legal issues of the status and conduct, the formulation of policies and procedures and the resolution of claims, with respect to staff members and UN volunteers;
Representing the Organization in cases and settlements within the internal justice system.

The UNDP Legal Office is seeking a Consultant to provide basic legal and administrative support to the Administrative Law Practice in responding to the high volume of work experienced by the Office.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

The Consultant is required to, inter alia, assist the Senior Legal Adviser and lawyers of the Administrative Law Practice with the legal research, analysis, drafting, logistics and coordination associated with a number of significant (time-bound) cases requiring daily support and inter-action with a large number of parties. In particular, and in connection with these cases, the Consultant’s duties will include:

Conducting research into existing jurisprudence of international administrative law;
Analyzing a vast volume of documentation associated with these cases and providing summaries of the available evidence;
Drafting initial legal opinions and initial correspondence on administrative law cases based on the research carried out and the analysis of the material;
Assisting with the extensive logistics required in these cases, including but not limited to liaising with relevant parties and counter-parts, organizing meetings; bundles of documents; drafting correspondence;
Coordinating actions as required by the Senior Legal Advisor and lawyers of the Administrative Law Practice ;

In addition to the above, the Consultant will be required to compile statistics of cases, as well as short summaries for each case, and generally assist with other work performed by the Administrative Law Practice Group as required.

Competencies

General:

Motivated by a willingness to respond rapidly and effectively to client needs;
Strong analytical and judgmental skills;
Use initiative to deliver required outputs and planned results;
Excellent communication;
Independent assessment and integrity.

Judgment/Decision-making:

Good judgment and initiative, imagination and resourcefulness, energy and tact;
Ability to ensure an effective work structure and support the team to maximize productivity and achieve the goals and objectives of UNDP;
Ability to work with utmost discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters.

Building Trust:

Reputation for dealing honestly and openly with issues and staff;
Recognized and respected by peers, clients and staff.

Communication:

Excellent oral and written communication skills;
Listens actively and responds effectively.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

An advanced degree in law (Master’s level) or an undergraduate degree and two years’ relevant experience is required.

Years of experience:

Admittance to the bar of a Member State or equivalent qualification to practice law in a Member State is desirable;
A minimum of 1 years’ practical experience in the practice of law with a law firm, a government and/or an international organization is desirable;
Practical and substantive familiarity with the UN system of administration of justice is required;
Practical experience in litigation and/or support in administrative law issues of United Nations system organizations is required.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken is required;
Working knowledge of another UN language would be an asset

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below. Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (700 points):

Criteria 1. •Admittance to the bar of a Member State or equivalent qualification to practice law in a Member State Weight = 5%; Maximum Points: 50;
Criteria 2. Relevance of practical experience in the practice of law with a law firm, a government and/or an international organization Weight = 15 %; Maximum Points: 150;
Criteria 3. •Relevance of Practical and substantive familiarity with the UN system of administration of justice Weight = 25 %; Maximum Points: 250; and
Criteria 4•Relevance of Practical experience in litigation and/or support in administrative law issues of United Nations system organizations Weight = 25 %; Maximum Points: 250

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (490 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (700 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (300 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where
p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The Consultant will be supervised by the Senior Legal Advisor of the Administrative Law Practice and will provide daily oral reporting and participate regularly in departmental weekly case status meetings. Administrative/Logistics support provided.

Payment modality

Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.