Senior Legal Adviser

The Statutory Oversight team is responsible for providing expert advice on the application of statutory processes to business areas within Comcare and acts as Comcare’s liaison with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The team is responsible for receiving Public Interest Disclosures (PID) and co-ordinating PID investigations.

The Statutory Oversight team actively promotes Privacy and develops Comcare-wide privacy training and is responsible for ensuring Privacy Impact Assessments are completed and that Comcare’s activities are consistent with the Privacy Act 1988. The team processes Freedom of Information 1982 (FOI) and facilitates administrative access to personal information under the statutory requirements in the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (SRC Act).

The Senior Legal Adviser supports the Principal Legal Adviser and provides client-focused high level, specialist legal and strategic advice and support to Comcare staff to ensure compliance with statutory obligations. The Senior Legal Adviser will resolve problems and manage risk effectively and manage their own workload in a manner consistent with the APS Values and Code of Conduct, the Legal Services Directions 2017, and internal Comcare procedures.

The Senior Legal Adviser will achieve organisational objectives through successful planning and participating, contributing and collaborating across Comcare and with external stakeholders. The position manages a small team that has responsibility for Comcare’s obligations under various statutory processes and is responsible for:

• Conducting and advising on Privacy Threshold Assessments and Privacy Impact Assessments on complex and high risk projects including IT projects.
• Legal research, analysis and evaluation, preparing reports and providing advice in administrative law areas including Privacy and FOI.
• Nurturing complex relationships with internal and external stakeholders including clients, service providers, licensees and premium payers.
• Supervision, quality assurance, training, support and development of other team members.
• Initiating and driving continuous improvement and managing change.
• Following reasonable directions given by the Principal Legal Advisor and General Manager of Legal Group.
• Delivering high quality, timely strategic advice on complex administrative law matters including FOI and privacy and undertaking complex administrative decision making on sensitive matters.
• Leading, developing and managing team members to deliver legal services including providing professional supervision, settling and second counselling their work.
• Developing and maintaining internal and external relationships that manage risk for Comcare, fostering teamwork and collaboration across the organisation, problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
• Developing and implementing business improvements, strategies, frameworks, policies, procedures and guidance, drafting reports and/or briefs, updating Legal group reporting documents.
• Contributing to business planning, and formulating recommendations on legal and policy issues.

Qualifications and experience

Mandatory:

• Tertiary qualifications in law.
• Current practising certificate.
• Post qualifications experience, ideally 4 plus years.

Desirable:

• Experience in FOI and Privacy.
• Experience in information technology and cyber security.

Eligibility and specific conditions of employment

• Australian citizenship.
• Character clearance (Australian Criminal History Check).
• Employee health declaration.
• Six months probationary period for new engagements.

How to apply

Please review the Job information pack below and provide a statement of claims with your responses outlining what you could bring to this position including your skills, experience and knowledge relevant to the job specific capabilities. Your statement should not exceed one page.

Please note: The vacancy closes at 11:59pm, Australian Eastern Standard Time (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney time). If you experience any issues with submitting your application, please contact.