Marshall Weinberg Global Legal Fellow, Africa

• The Marshall Weinberg Global Legal Fellowship Program will help prepare the next generation of social justice lawyers in reproductive health and rights with two-year fellowships within the Center’s Global Legal Program. These emerging advocates will work directly with our legal experts and will take on work in areas of the greatest need, opportunity, and impact within our Africa and Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) programs.
• We are currently recruiting two Marshall Weinberg Global Legal Fellows for Africa. Candidates will be assigned to either Advocacy or Litigation and will work under the supervision of the Associate Director, Legal Strategies, or the Senior Technical Adviser respectively. Fellows will also work closely with other Africa program staff to support and build the work of the regional program in all areas of work.
• This is a two-year, full-time fellowship. This position will be based in Nairobi, Kenya in a hybrid model of 3 days in-office, 2 days working-from-home. Applicants must be legally permitted to work in Kenya.

Primary Responsibilities:
The Fellow for this role will be assigned to Litigation and Advocacy work, by:

• Conducting legal and policy research and analysis on international and regional human rights law, as well as comparative regional and national level law.
• Assisting in the development and drafting of fact sheets, briefing papers, articles, shadow letters, reports; presentations; and other advocacy documents positioning reproductive rights as fundamental human rights.
• Supporting the Africa program’s advocacy team in collaborative thought leadership initiatives to advance key reproductive rights issues regionally.
• Supporting the Africa program’s litigation efforts by assisting with research and drafting of legal petitions, amicus briefs and other legal memoranda.
• Representing the Center externally on matters related to reproductive rights through engagement with African regional human rights and political bodies and as required, engagement with the media.
• Supporting the Africa program’s engagement in collaborative advocacy efforts with other Center programs.
• Supporting provision of technical assistance to other teams at the Center, as well as to partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders, including through supporting development and implementation of advocacy strategies.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in law is required.
• 2-3 years of relevant work experience with demonstrable knowledge of international/ African regional human rights/women’s rights and of reproductive rights or women’s health law, or other related fields.
• Must have strong legal research and analytical skills, exceptional interpersonal and written skills capable of complex legal analytical work and possess excellent writing, editing, research and oral advocacy skills.
• Flexible and able to adapt to shifting duties while maintaining focus and follow-through and the ability to work professionally in a fast-paced environment; ability to prioritize in response to urgent requests.
• Ability to handle confidential information and matters with the highest level of discretion.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills, with attention to detail, accuracy, and pacing.

Don’t meet every single requirement? At the Center, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role but your past experience does not align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Behavioral Competencies:

• Develop & Manage Self & Others: Takes ownership of individual growth in order to achieve full potential; recognizes the value of team members and helps them develop their full potential while also achieving set objectives.
• Collaboration (People First): Works intra- and/or cross-departmentally to support the goals and overarching strategies of the Center and its strategic plan.
• Feedback (Improve & Innovate): Actively engaged in feedback cycles: Gives and requests feedback to and from peers, supervisors and direct reports about work products, behaviors, values, style, and approaches with a view on how this impacts self, other individuals, and teams.
• Accountability: Follow-through on each commitment made to individual contributors, teams and partners and proactively informs others of any delays that occur along the way.

Work Competencies:

• Project Management: Works effectively on project teams in order to achieve long-term project goal and objectives.
• Problem Solve & Make Decisions: Identifies, analyzes and resolves existing and anticipated problems, using common sense to make timely decisions in order to reach the best solutions for the organization.
• Internal/External Focus: Anticipates internal and external partner’s needs; assesses requirements and identifies new solutions that align with overall goals and objectives of the organization.
• Communication & Influence: Communicates with and influences others to gain agreement and commitment to the strategic goals of the organization.