- Location: nipaluna/Hobart or wider Tasmania
- Term: Ongoing
- Full-time preferred, however flexible working arrangements will be considered for the right applicant)
- Remuneration: SCHADS Level 5-6: FTE $88,400 – $102,450 + 10.5% super + 17.5% Annual Leave Loading
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are particularly encouraged to apply
Job title: Solicitor/Senior Solicitor
Reporting to: Managing Lawyer, lutruwita/Tasmania
Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is the leading environmental law practice in the Australia Pacific Region delivering legal solutions for peoples, nature and our climate. We have a big vision which is a world where nature thrives. We’ve got big ambition about the role we can play in delivering that vision and we’ve got an incredible team across the country working to achieve it.
We are dedicated to protecting our climate, communities and shared environment by providing access to justice, running ground-breaking litigation and leading law reform advocacy. Over our 30-year combined history we’ve developed a formidable track record of empowering communities and delivering effective protection of the environment through legal services.
As the region’s legal experts in our field, we aim to be a brave, unified, and focused team, committed to inclusion and excellence in all that we do. We strive to be a diverse and inclusive workplace supporting a highly skilled, engaged, and effective team, where everyone can feel that they belong.
Some of our ground-breaking cases we have been working on in Tasmania can be found here:
The opportunity:
We are recruiting for a talented Solicitor/Senior Solicitor with demonstrated litigation experience to join our lutruwita/Tasmanian Practice Team within our Healthy Environment and Justice Program.
This role offers the opportunity to make an impact on climate and environmental justice in lutruwita/Tasmania. You will work on a broad range of environmental issues in lutruwita/ Tasmania with a focus on climate justice, pollution (including from salmon farming) and mining. as well as cultural heritage, biodiversity and human rights. The Tasmanian Practice focuses particularly on working with First Nations people and remote and regional communities on environmental and climate justice issues.
You will be working with our amazing Managing Lawyer – Meet one of our lawyers: Claire Bookless, Tasmania – Environmental Defenders Office (edo.org.au)
Candidate Profile:
You are a lawyer looking for an opportunity to use your legal skillset and experience to work with the largest public interest environmental law centre in the region.
Lawyers who think outside the box and want a chance to think creatively about delivering systemic change are strongly encouraged to apply.
You will have or be entitled to an unrestricted practising certificate, strong PAE working as a lawyer, and ideally, have demonstrated litigation and/or administrative/environmental law experience. This position represents an opportunity to deliver on human rights, climate change and the environment and for the right candidate, can offer a high level of autonomy.
You want to work at the intersection of climate justice, human rights and the environment and want an opportunity to make an impact for people and nature.
Key selection criteria:
Core skills
- An unrestricted practicing certificate or entitlement to one in the relevant jurisdiction
- 2 years PAE working as a solicitor including litigation is highly desirable
- Demonstrated experience in administrative and/or environmental law highly desirable
- Strong problem-solving skills and ability to make sound judgements and decisions based on consideration of different views
- Demonstrated ability to work productively and to deadlines
- Excellent oral and written communication skills suited to a range of audiences
Substantive experience
- Demonstrated litigation experience in administrative or environmental law and/or related disciplines
- Capacity to undertake law reform or policy, experience desirable
- Demonstrated experience working with First Nations people or diverse communities and individuals highly desirable
Personal qualities and cultural competency
- A champion of the EDO values
- Strong initiative and self-motivation
- Commitment to the promotion of human rights and the environment
- A strong sense of ethics and understanding of professional obligations
- Demonstrated awareness of and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of First Nations and peoples from diverse cultures, backgrounds and orientations in both the delivery of our work and our internal culture
- Demonstrated ability to work in a collaborative and team-based environment
Our Culture and Benefits:
- We care deeply about creating a workplace where our team members feel valued, respected, and empowered. We are committed to providing equal opportunity regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or life stage.
- The chance to be part of the largest environmental legal practice in the Australia-Pacific
- A very flexible and family-friendly workplace
- Option to work from home and the office
- 8 weeks paid parental leave, regardless of gender or carer status
- 15 days personal/carer’s leave
- 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave
- 3 days paid cultural leave
- Extra leave over the Christmas period
- Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
- Ongoing professional development opportunities
- EDO proudly has a JEDI (Justice, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) Committee and a Mental Health Ambassador Committee, and has developed a First Nations Program with the aid of indigenous-led consultancies.
- Affinity groups for the following: Global Majority*, LGBTQIA+ & People with Disability
*Global Majority is a collective term that first and foremost speaks to and encourages those so-called, to think of themselves as belonging to the majority on planet earth. It refers to people who are Black, African, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or, have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’.
Our Values
Commitment – We are committed to; a united organisation, to each other, to collaboration, to justice, to our communities and to creating a world where nature thrives.
Diversity – We are respectful of and welcome diversity of staff, volunteers, offices, environmental regions, communities, stakeholders.
Integrity – We work effectively, efficiently, strategically, professionally, and ethically; “justice is in our nature”.
Vision – We lead change and environmental empowerment using innovation, creativity, and courage.
EDO recognises that vaccination is a personal choice and we must find a balance between the safety of employees and volunteers, and individual rights. Accordingly, we have developed a Covid-19 Safety Policy to protect the health and safety of our employees, volunteers, clients and visitors in our workplace. This Policy requires EDO employees, volunteers, clients and visitors who enter our offices or attend in-person EDO meetings or EDO events to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
All offers of employment may be subject to satisfactory background checks including a National Police Check, disclosure of previous or current disciplinary action, referee checks, proof of eligibility to work in Australia, and qualification checks.
EDO particularly encourages applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, Pacific Island peoples, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, workers of all ages, people with disability, and people who identify as LGBTQIA+.
How to Apply
Applications must include a CV and a letter that clearly addresses each of the selection criteria. Applications which do not address the selection criteria will not be considered.
Applications close on Sunday 23 April 2023. Applications should be emailed to [email protected] with ‘Application for position of Solicitor – HEJ – TAS’ or ‘Application for position of Senior Solicitor – HEJ – TAS’ in the subject line. If you have any accessibility needs for the recruitment or interviewing process, please let us know.
