Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required:Academic QualificationsProfessional Qualifications / Membership to professional bodiesPrevious relevant work experience requiredFunctional Skills:Behavioral Competencies/ Attributes:Responsibil...
Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required:
Academic Qualifications
- Have a Bachelor of Law (LL.B) degree or equivalent qualification from a recognized institution;
- Post graduate diploma from Kenya School of Law or its equivalent;
Professional Qualifications / Membership to professional bodies
- Admission as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya;
- Valid Practicing Certificate;
- A member in good standing of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK);
- Relevant management programme lasting not less than two (2) weeks from a recognized institution;
Previous relevant work experience required
- At least four (4) years relevant work experience in public service or private sector
Functional Skills:
- Good communication skills
- Proposal development skills
- Proficiency in computer applications
Behavioral Competencies/ Attributes:
- Proactive
- Transformative
- Active listening
- Trustworthiness
- Emotional Intelligence
- Meet the requirements of Chapter 6 of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010
Responsibilities:
- An officer at this level will answer to the Principal Secretary and will be responsible for litigation and prosecution services, contractual services and Board services.
Managerial / Supervisory Responsibilities
- Litigation and Prosecutions
- Formulating legal policies, standards, guidelines and procedures on litigation, delegated criminal prosecution and Alternative Dispute Resolution for efficient prosecutions;
- Strengthening policy and law frameworks for prosecution and litigation for efficient service delivery;
- Formulating litigation, prosecution and ADR strategies for systematic approach to prosecutions, litigation and ADR;
- Coordinating investigations and supervising civil investigations for efficient evidence gathering;
- Coordinating administration and supervision of delegated prosecutorial powers
- Coordinating instituting and undertaking prosecution of criminal and civil matters;
- Monitoring compliance with policies, standards and procedures to avoid sanctions and litigations;
- Formulating mitigation strategies to contain identified legal risks to forestall possible instituting of criminal or civil cases against the Institutions;
- Providing statutory interpretation briefs and legal opinions on litigation, prosecution and ADR matters for clarity and ease of implementation;
- Overseeing adherence to departmental Quality Management System (QMS) for efficient operations and service delivery;
- Providing legal education and awareness programmes/clinics to staff on relevant legal frameworks for understanding, compliance and containment of misinformation and legal risks;
- Monitoring compliance to legal, statutory, administrative and regulatory frameworks to minimize legal risks exposure;
- Managing risks in line with Enterprise Risk Management Framework for efficient risk management for informed decision making;
- Participating in the implementation of the performance management system enhanced productivity.
- Developing the legal universe for structured reference on legal compliance;
Contractual Responsibilities
- Formulating policies, standards and guidelines on and contracts for systematic discharge of contractual obligations;
- Monitoring and executing contractual obligation for compliance and protection of institutional reputation;
- Managing the legal and contracts management module within the ICT System for integrated, faster and efficient delivery of service;
- Managing insurance placement, claims and sensitization of staff on their obligations; (preparing terms, liaising with underwriters on insurance matters).
Board Services Responsibilities
- Formulating and reviewing Board policies, standards and guidelines for efficient governance
- Formulating and reviewing Board charter, committees’ terms of reference and other tools of the Board (Code of conduct and ethics, work plans, capacity development plans)
- Ensuring that principles of good corporate governance are adhered to for accountability and efficient service delivery;
- Supervising preparation of Board Papers to attain the required quality;
- Ensuring that Board Papers are released to Board Members within the stipulated timelines;
Operational Responsibilities / Tasks
- Litigation and Prosecutions
- Managing Litigation/other quasi-judicial processes for efficient dispute resolution;
- Undertaking Legal Research for alignment of litigation, prosecution and ADR functions to emerging issues;
- Conducting negotiations as appropriate for amicable understanding and resolution of contentious litigation and prosecution matters;
- Representing the institution in courts and quasi- judicial bodies to exact business know position and cost management;
- Preparing written and oral submissions for filing and presentation in court to highlight the key legal principles involved in the case;
- Monitoring compliance with court decisions to avoid contempt of court proceedings and sanctions;
- Conducting overall review and implementation of legal policies to keep abreast with emerging issues;
- Briefing and debriefing external lawyers to provide strategies for management of the cases and cost containment;
- Carrying out legal surveys on identified subject matters for in- depth analysis and for decision making.
- Coordinating preparation of legal advisories to various departments for informed decision making;
- Planning and developing departmental annual budget for structured financial management.
- Planning and budgeting for the Department’s annual financial requirements;
- Mentoring and coaching direct reports for succession planning and knowledge management;
Contractual Obligation Responsibilities
- Executing contract management processes and procedures (drafting, amending/reviewing, vetting and enforcing all contracts, MoUs and Service Level agreements).
- Developing and maintaining contract register for ease of reference and proactive ascertaining of expiry dates for initiation of prompt procurement process;
- Carrying out contractual negotiations to achieve amicable understanding and seamless execution;
- Preparing reports on the status of contract processes and procedures to inform respective departments on the status of implementation;
- Monitoring contract performance to ascertain conformity and compliance with parties’ obligations;
- Liaising with external lawyers on matters relating to contracts for proactive service delivery;
- Liaising with departments for technical details on the contract to ensure that the departmental input is provided for;
- Preparing and maintaining insurance placement and claims registers for ascertaining efficiency on timelines in settlement, trends in loss or destruction of assets for decision making;
- Implementing realization of securities and collateral for protection of the fund;
- Providing legal opinions on legal issues for guidance and understanding/ management of legal risks;
- Executing staff loans legal processes (advising on conveyancing processes in liaison with financial institutions);
Board Services Responsibilities
- Liaising with relevant bodies dealing with governance issues to create harmony in execution of governance guidelines and processes;
- Sensitizing liaison persons in departments on governance audit implementation requirements
- Monitoring implementation of governance and legal audits findings and recommendations;
- Implementation of Board policies for seamless Board functioning;
- Preparing and coordinating release of meeting notices and agenda for sufficient notice giving;
- Supervising preparation and dispatch of Board papers for pre- reading for informed decision making;
- Ensuring that the conflict-of-interest register is fully updated.
- Preparing and updating matrices on release of notices and agenda and status of Board decisions implementations for reference and decision making;
- Managing all logistics relating to Board services for effective Board facilitation;
Financial Responsibility:
- Developing departmental budgets
- Monitoring implementation of the budget;
Responsibility for physical assets around the area of work:
Responsible for maintenance of assets assigned to the department
Problem Solving:
The job holder will be required to solve the following type of problems:
- Complex and open ended
- legal and policy problems in the Universities Fund and its external operations;
- Problems are broad and complex, involving more than one area of the Government. Solutions will often
- be arrived at through the stakeholder involvement, involve significant legal
- risk and require Board approval.
- Problems are strategic,
- affecting more than one area of the Government. Consultations will be required.
- Solutions will involve significant strategic and legal risk, and be decided by
- the Board Problems are highly complex, requiring significant research and creative thinking. Consultations will be required. Solutions could contribute to the body of research / knowledge in this area.
Communication
The job holder will need to understand the following information to discharge his/her mandate:
- Detailed verbal instructions or requests from universities, students, the Ministry of Education on matters of university education financing;
- Participating in the
- development of Laws, regulations and Universities Fund internal policy
- documents as well as external policies that affect the operations of the Fund;
- In depth legal reports,
- proposals or briefs affecting the universities, the Ministry of Education and
- the Auditor General’s Office;
- Reports and briefs on legal proceedings that involve the Universities Fund.
Decision Making/ Job Influence:
- Makes operational decisions on court cases and ADR management
- Planning and assigning work to direct reports;
- Makes decisions on which evidence to admit for presentation to court;
- Monitoring and evaluating work performance of direct reports;