Senior Legal Officer

Mandatory Qualification/Requirements:

• You are required to be admitted or eligible to gain immediate admission, as a Barrister-at-Law or solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland
• You are required to possess a 'C' class driver's licence to undertake travel
• As a senior legal officer, you are required to be on-call to address out of hours emergency legal advice and support

Desirable Requirements:

• It is highly desirable that employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. NOTE: Employees unable to comply with any future mandatory vaccination policy requirements of the Department may be subject to disciplinary action.

Role specific/technical skills

• You possess expertise in relation to the department's services in a court environment and apply your knowledge to provide high quality legal services. This role requires the technical ability to litigate, negotiate, provide legal advice, and to interact with clients and stakeholders in a complex legal environment including with the department and the Director of Child Protection Litigation in child protection matters.

The Senior Legal Officer key responsibilities are:

• Lead the development and supervision of a team of independent professional legal officers, including providing guidance to staff in the management of matters; monitoring work allocation; and monitoring performance of delivery of high quality, timely and client focused legal services.
• Provide high level legal advice to the Official Solicitor and other OCFOS staff as well as staff of the Department as required in relation to any highly sensitive or complex matters. Ensure that high quality independent legal services are delivered on behalf of the Queensland Government - including undertaking duties out of hours in relation to urgent applications.
• Supervise the provision of early and independent legal advice and preparation of court material in support of child protection applications and other related matters - including family law, adoptions and criminal law to the extent that they interface with the Child Protection Act 1999.
• Liaise and negotiate with the CSSCs, regions and the Director of Child Protection Litigation about complex matters.
• Supervise the timely provision of briefs to the Director of Child Protection Litigation in proceedings on applications for child protection orders.
• Coordinate and represent the department in child protection related meetings. Provide expert and professional legal advice and representation to the department in the appeal of any matters to the Children's Court of Queensland.
• Develop high quality systems, practice standards and quality assurance processes.
• Establish and maintain constructive and enduring relationships with key stakeholders to ensure a consistent, coordinated and effective approach to the provision of legal services by OCFOS.
• Monitor practice trends and report trends to the Official Solicitor as required.
• Facilitate professional development opportunities.
• Contribute to the building and maintenance of a team culture that supports the vision and values of the department and achieves agency objectives.

This position is aligned to the Team Leader profile of the Queensland Public Service Leadership competencies for Queensland. To be successful in this role, you will be required to demostrate capability in the areas detailed within the Role Profile.
Delegations
This position has a range of administrative, financial and human resource delegations is an authorised officer under the Child Protection Act 1999 and has a range of statutory delegations in relation to this.
This position reports to a Principal Legal Officer.
Applications to remain current for 12 months.
Job Ad Reference: QLD/491609/23
Closing Date: Wednesday, 14th June 2023This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License.