UNDP Jobs - 75882- Legal Consultant BMS/LO

Legal Consultant BMS/LO

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

02-Jan-2018

Application Deadline :

01-Dec-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

3 months (with a possible extension of up to 12 months)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

3 months (with a possible extension of 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 Legal Office (LO) serves as in-house counsel in UNDP. The Office consists of two Practices, which provide advice and assistance on a range of legal matters relating to the UNDP’s operations, programming and administration.

The Corporate and Institutional Law Practice (C&I) is responsible for advising and assisting in negotiating commercial contracts and agreements, issues related to non-staff personnel and resolution of disputes, as well as programming matters, leases, partnerships, financing and inter-agency arrangements as well as advising and assisting on matters relating to the legal status of UNDP, including privileges and immunities, SBAA and host country arrangements, and policy development on institutional, corporate and operations matters.

The Corporate and Institutional Law Practice is seeking a consultant to support ongoing review/research projects.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant is required to, inter alia, assist the Senior Legal Adviser of the Corporate and Institutional Law Practice Group with the legal research, analysis, drafting, logistics and coordination associated with pending corporate and institutional matters. In particular, and in connection with these matters, the consultant’s duties will include:

Assistance with the preparation of legal advice on a wide range of corporate and institutional issues, including on the interpretation and application of UNDP regulations, rules, policies and procedures.

Assistance with the review and preparation for negotiation of contracts for UNDP headquarters units and country offices, including leases, goods, and services contracts.

Legal research on institutional matters, involving, inter alia, relationships with governments, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental and private sector entities.

Assistance with the settlement of claims and disputes arising from commercial contracts, agreements and other arrangements involving UNDP.

In addition to the above, the Consultant will be required to generally assist with other work performed by Corporate and Institutional Legal Practice Group as required.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

Inputs to legal advice on Institutional matters
Inputs to legal advice and assistance on programming matters
Inputs to legal advice and assistance on claims and contract terms and negotiations
Inputs to legal advice and assistance on financing agreements with various vendors and donors

Competencies

Client orientation with constructive approach to resolution of problems, timely support and respect for deadlines;
Excellent analytical skills;
Excellent drafting skills;
Excellent interpersonal skills and a sense of initiative;
Excellent communication skills, oral and written;
Ability to work with utmost discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters;
Excellent organizational skills;
Ability to work under pressure;
Knowledge of UNDP policies and procedures, including procurement procedures and the Financial Regulations and Rules, would be an advantage.
Familiarity with the UNDP privileges and immunities as per the General Convention and the Standard Basic Assistance Agreements would be an advantage.

Required Skills and Experience

Advanced degree (Master's or equivalent) in law with a concentration in commercial and/or international law. (Required)

Experience:

A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience with a law firm, a corporation and government, or an international organization’s legal office (required);
Knowledge of the UNDP legal framework
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages.

Language Requirements:

Working knowledge of French or Spanish desirable
Fluency in English

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. Relevant experience in the providing inputs on institutional matters, Inputs to legal advice and assistance on programming matters, Inputs to legal advice and assistance on claims and contract terms and negotiations, Inputs to legal advice and assistance on financing agreements with various vendors and donors Weight = 40%; Maximum Points: 280 points;
Criteria 2 Demonstrable Experience in Legal research on institutional matters, involving, inter alia, relationships with governments, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental and private sector entities. Weight = 40 %; Maximum Points: 280 points ;
Interview Weight = 20 %; Maximum Points: 140 points ;

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top four shortlisted candidates for interview. 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 (70 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 work under the guidance and direct supervision of Senior Legal Adviser of the Corporate and Institutional and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

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

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants