• Location: Canberra CBD
  • Term: Permanent
  • Full Time (0.8 considered)
  • Remuneration:  SCHADS Level 4: $78,000-$83,000 + 11% super +17.5% Annual Leave Loading
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are particularly encouraged to apply

Job title: Legal Administrator, ACT Practice, Healthy Environment and Justice (HEJ)

Reporting to: Managing Lawyer of ACT Practice, Healthy Environment and Justice (HEJ)

Read the position description here

Purpose of the position:

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.  

The opportunity:

As the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) continues to grow, we have an exciting opportunity for an experienced legal administrator to join the team.

We are recruiting for a skilled Legal Administrator to join the ACT Practice team within our Healthy Environment and Justice Program. In this role you will play a key role in ensuring the effective and efficient management of advice and litigation files. This role will specifically be working with our amazing Managing Lawyer Melanie Montalban.

In this role you will be an integral member of the ACT Practice which is part of EDO’s Healthy Environment and Justice Program, and under the direction of the Managing Lawyer – ACT, will play a key role in ensuring the effective and efficient management of advice and litigation files.

EDO’s Healthy Environment and Justice Program works to deliver systemic change for Overburdened communities in the ACT and advance environmental justice.

Your days will be varied – from preparing and managing legal documents, and ensuring legal databases are kept up-to-date, to supporting the legal volunteer program, and assisting with more general administrative support needed in the Canberra office and a potential office move.

As we continue to grow our team organisation wide and in Canberra, a substantive part of this role will focus provision of general administrative support in coordination with the National Operations Coordinators, IT and Finance Teams.

Candidate Profile:

We are looking for a skilled legal administrator, with a commitment to attention to detail and accuracy, who can problem solve and work on their own initiative. You will need to be enthusiastic, and flexible, with a high level of computer competency, and ideally have familiarity with court processes and legal document management systems.

At a personal level you will be comfortable working with diverse communities, and a team player, working collaboratively in a distributed team environment.

You are:

  • An experienced legal administrator or have similar administrative experience in a busy office environment.
  • Passionate. About environmental justice and about the environment.
  • A people person. You have the confidence to liaise with clients, barristers, and others.
  • Motivated. You’ve got get up and go. You’re going to take ownership of this role and truly make a difference.

Key selection criteria:
Essential

• Experience in legal administration or similar administrative role in a busy office
• Ability and confidence to communicate well with a variety of people
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal, organisational and time management skills
• Demonstrated ability to use initiative and problem-solving skills in the workplace
• High level of computer competence, including Microsoft 365 environment
• Demonstrated Database and digital client file management skills (CLASS, LEAP or similar)

Desirable

• Demonstrated experience in assisting in administration of court and/or tribunal work, familiarity with court processes, including court filing, file management and assembly of legal briefs
• Experience with volunteer programs or supervising volunteers.

Personal qualities and cultural competency

  • Highly motivated, attention to detail and accuracy
  • A champion of the EDO values
  • Strong initiative and self-motivation
  • Commitment to the protection 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.  

How to Apply

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 Pacific Island people, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, workers of all ages, people with disability and people who identify as LGBTQIA+. 

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 14 July 2023. Applications should be emailed to [email protected] with ‘Application for position of Legal Admin ACT in the subject line. 

Please note: Your application may be considered for future roles at the EDO within the next 12 months without additional advertising. Please notify us in your application if you would not like to be considered for similar roles beyond this recruitment.  

If you have any accessibility needs for the recruitment or interviewing process, please let us know.