Legal Officer at The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)

Legal Officer at The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) – to manage institutional research and operational contracts, take charge of and manage the unit’s repositories and databases for efficient provision of legal services to ILRI’s research and operational teams and provide general support to the legal unit.

ILRI works to improve food and nutritional security and reduce poverty in developing countries through research for efficient, safe and sustainable use of livestock.

Key Responsibilities
Contracts management and research support

Review and approve institutional contracts to ensure full compliance with ILRI and CGIAR policies and applicable legal requirements.
Oversee the sign-off and dispatch process for institutional contracts ensuring that complete and fully signed contracts are in place and properly filed as required.
Manage the legal unit’s contracts repository ensuring the folders are updated with current documents and properly organized for ease of retrieval of documents.
Review due diligence checklists required by donors and/or partners for completeness and provide research teams with required information and documents to facilitate this process.

Legal and corporate compliance

Maintain and update databases of key ILRI and Kapiti institutional/legal documents especially in relation to assets records, policies, procedures, legal disputes, lab notebooks and other institutional records (including hosting arrangements).
Monitor and ensure timely and accurate updates and renewals of all hosting services agreements.
Monitor and follow up on the status of legal cases and claims.
Conduct research on emerging legal issues and advise management on any related legal risks and/or required measures to ensure full compliance.
Prepare training materials for ILRI staff and management on emerging legal issues.
Manage certification, notarization and authentication of documents.
Manage requests for templates, documents, clarifications, and other queries to the legal unit ensuring that the unit’s SharePoint materials are updated as required.
Perform other tasks as may be assigned from time to time to assist the Legal Unit achieve its mandate.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in law.
Relevant professional certification.
An advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
Six years’ relevant experience.
Post-admission experience in an in-house legal team in a large corporate, an international organization or a busy law firm handling contracts, litigation and human resources related matters.
Demonstrate good grasp of relevant laws including but not limited to laws governing International non-profit organizations; Kenyan Law and the Constitution of Kenya 2010; Intellectual Property Law and related International Laws and Treaties, Labour Laws and Corporate governance.