Legal Project Officer at Thomson Reuters

About The Role

• As Project Officer/Legal Project Officer at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, you will:

Project Implementation

• Take lead in project activity forecasting, planning, coordination and execution, managing activity budgets, and leading on logistics.
• Provide logistical support for remote activities including workshops and mentoring schemes.
• Support the PM in the recruitment of participants to the program, including vetting all journalist participants in consultation with the Global Fund, and working with the relevant Global Fund focal point to undertake initial screening and support CSO vetting process.
• Take lead in outreach and onboarding of participants to the project, including to the TrustLaw Portal and pro bono network.
• In consultation with the Global Fund, support the PM in demand generation for mentorship, workshops, and other learning and capacity development activities.
• Coordinate cascading of elements of the project in line with donor requirements.
• Engage with existing and new cohorts to facilitate their access to legal support based on identified legal needs and work together with the Legal Project Manager to support participants with management of legal research and other requests. Depending on qualification of the candidate, the role may also include scoping legal requests and research.
• Work with the Legal Project Manager to map and recruit, engage, and manage relationships with pro bono and consultant legal teams to support the legal needs of beneficiaries and mentorship components of the project.
• Work closely with the PM to monitor the project plan and deliverables, keeping documents updated as and when changes take place.
• Coordinate activities with teams across the Foundation such as Media Freedom and internal operational functions (finance, comms, etc.).
• Attend project activities and support implementation as per requirements.
• Support civil society cohort that is receiving mentorship.
• Support the PM in coordinating and facilitating the project Board.
• Contribute to the development of impact stories and progress reporting (internally and externally), including gathering feedback from all cohorts.
• Support the Project Manager and Legal Manager in identification of potential and emerging risks and issues which could impact the successful delivery of the project. Escalate critical concerns. Contribute to development of mitigation strategies.
• Support knowledge sharing and learning for the programmes team by sharing lessons learnt and contributing to discussions to increase wider team understanding.
• Support knowledge capture, ensuring that we document our networks, relationships and ongoing conversations systematically.

External Coordination

• Actively support external project communications in collaboration with project team, communications team, and project donors.
• Working closely with the PM and LM, coordinate the work commitments/contractual obligations of project consultants.
• Liaise with project stakeholders in the management of events and on-going support.
• Participate in regular exchanges with the Global Fund to review workplans and agreed activities.

Budget support

• Contribute to project budget oversight through monitoring of project expenses and tracking budget allocations as necessary. Collaborate with the finance team to ensure financial compliance.
• Set up and manage vendors/consultant procurement as per policy, manage payment of invoices, and ensure all backing documentation is logged.

About You

To be our Project Officer/Legal Project Officer, you will likely have:

• At least 3 years work experience in a similar role, coordinating a range of activities with a number of internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience of working in and/or knowledge of youth advocacy, health, human rights and/or pro bono legal support in West Africa.
• Legal training, experience or qualification or prior experience with legal pro bono is advantageous, though not essential.
• Experience of building trusting working relationships across organisations with common goals, and working constructively with a diverse range of people
• Experience of managing a range of project related risks.
• Excellent organizational skills, juggling a number of competing priorities.
• Experience of administrative or finance processes and excellent numerical skills
• Ability to implement projects utilizing a context sensitive approach.
• A pro-active self-starting and problem-solving attitude, including paying attention to detail and being good on follow-through.
• Experience organizing events and training sessions
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills –able to establish and maintain positive working relationships both internally and externally, with people from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds
• Competency in Word, Teams, Outlook and Excel. Experience with databases (e.g. Salesforce) would be an advantage
• Willingness to travel internationally
• Fluency in English.
• Fluency in French is highly desirable.