Principal Government Lawyer

Job Description

Our practice, led by a General Counsel and two Senior Executive Lawyers, provides legal services to the department through a hybrid structure of specialist teams (e.g. commercial and information law) as well as more generalist teams with a focus on supporting business areas in our department. This structure promotes relationship building with our clients, and a deeper understanding of the statutory, policy and business context in which our clients operate, while also ensuring we develop staff with expertise in more specialised areas.The Corporate and Legislation team is part of the department's Program and Corporate Law Branch.The department is recruiting a Principal Government Lawyer to co-lead the Corporate and Legislation team. The team is managed by two Principal Government Lawyers who jointly manage the team's responsibilities in advising on financial law, delegations and discretionary payments. Each Principal Government Lawyer also has a separate responsibility of either managing the team in advising on employment law or administering the Legislation Liaison Officer function.We are looking for a Principal Government Lawyer with either legislation or employment law experience to manage either of these responsibilities. We encourage candidates with either background to apply as we are open to filling either role in the Corporate and Legislation team. Financial law, delegations or discretionary payments experience is desirable in either role (as this work stream is shared amongst the co-leads) but not essential. The skillset aligned to the role of Legislation Liaison Officer is highly sought after and will be offered a placement as a priority.Canberra is also the preferred location for the role; however, all capital cities will be considered.As a Principal Government Lawyer and Legislation Liaison Officer you will: Manage the department's legislation program. Manage legislation and instrument bids. Coordinate the department's response to external stakeholder requests on the department's portfolio legislation (including consultation). Provide legal and strategic advice to clients on legislation processes and support Ministers and the department to introduce and progress bills through the Parliament. As a Principal Government Lawyer advising primarily on Employment law you will: Provide legal advice to the People branch in the department. Provide advice on code of conduct, performance and termination issues. Provide advice on complex rehabilitation and discrimination matters. Provide statutory and enterprise agreement interpretation. The department is looking for someone with strong leadership skills, who is client and solution focused and experienced in (or has an aptitude for) the provision of in-house government legal services. You should have excellent legal, analytical and communication skills. You should also have exemplary professional judgement and initiative. The key duties of the position include: The duties and responsibilities for this role include providing a broad range of legal services to the department's Corporate and Enabling Group as set out under the heading 'the Role' and demonstrating capabilities listed under the heading 'Capabilities' below. The duties and responsibilities for this role will also include complying with obligations in Commonwealth legislation and policies where relevant, for example the Public Service Act 1999 and the Legal Services Directions 2017.#J-18808-Ljbffr