Legal Intern, Multiple positions

This position is located in the Commercial and Institutional Law Practice of the UNOPS Legal Group. The Legal Intern will report directly to the Corporate Legal Advisor. 

The primary responsibilities of the Legal Intern will be to provide legal assistance on commercial and institutional matters, to perform reviews of legal documents, and to support the Corporate Legal Advisor in internal and external meetings, negotiations and disputes. The position will involve some elements of legal research and drafting as well as administrative tasks. That said, the position will give interns exposure to a wide variety of types of work overseen by the UNOPS Legal Group.

Under the overall guidance of the Corporate Legal Advisor, the Legal Intern will have the following duties:

1. Provide support to the Corporate Legal Advisor, focusing on achievement of the following results:  

• Draft, edit, proofread, finalize and process legal correspondence and communications with internal and external stakeholders, including senior management and external partners, for internal clearances, approval and signature; monitor requisite follow-up actions.

• Provide secretarial, administrative and logistics support to internal and external meetings, boards, committees or conferences on legal matters, including assisting in the preparation of minutes, draft summaries, reports, notes, documents etc.; track status of meetings; monitor follow-up actions.

• Compile, organize and review legal information and legal reference materials from various sources for internal and external meetings, briefings, work plans, legal reports, conferences, etc.

• Support Legal Advisors within the Commercial and Institutional Practice in providing efficient and consistent legal advice to clients by contributing to internal knowledge management systems (for example, by maintaining document libraries, intranet sites, and legal templates, etc). 

• Assist in the preparation of legal documents for electronic storage, access and circulation/publication, including document scanning and conversion, review of content and extraction of key data and text excerpts for categorization and indexing purposes, etc.

• Set up and maintain legal reference files/records (electronic and paper) for the Legal Group (for example, Host Country Agreement database, Due Diligence Register, etc).

• Administer the non-legal aspects of the due diligence system, i.e. intake and tracking of requests, supporting referral for research to internal or external reviewers, filing of due diligence records in the register, maintaining a searchable database of entities, responding to routine queries, updating reviews on a rolling basis for existing partners, clients and funding sources. 

• Assist with the enhancement of existing systems for records management and retrieval, including development of proposals for consideration.

• Assists with the registration and publication of international treaties and other legal instruments.

• Respond to moderately complex information requests and inquiries.

• Handle, or refer to the appropriate Legal Advisor, a variety of verbal and written inquiries from internal or external stakeholders, including providing information on processes and procedures related to specific legal activities, instruments, etc; maintains an overview of assigned tasks within the Legal Group to ensure optimal capacity allocation. 

• Update and maintain distribution lists for internal and external working groups; monitors, prepares and distributes various legal materials, reports; handles arrangement for printing and translation as necessary; coordinates shipment arrangements, courier services, etc.

• Perform other duties in support of the Legal Group’s work, as assigned.

3. Training components and learning elements

The intern will be a part of the five-person team and will be exposed to learning on the job on a daily basis. Time shall be allocated for the understanding of UNOPS functioning, legal policy framework, legal implementation areas, etc. The intern will be able to participate in other trainings offered by UNOPS

Education: 

• Have completed or be enrolled in a law (or related) degree programme at the graduate or undergraduate level; or have graduated from such studies within three years prior to the application date of the internship

Experience:

• Experience in an international environment, in Legal will be a strong asset.

• Experience in the usage of computers and office software package (Google Suite/Workspace OR Microsoft Office) and experience is desirable.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English, both written and verbal, is required;

• Knowledge of French and/or Spanish is an advantage.

Contract type: Internship 
Contract level: Internship
Contract duration: 6 months 

• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• UNOPS seeks to reasonably accommodate candidates with special needs, upon request.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• For retainer contracts, you must complete a few Mandatory Courses (around 4 hours) in your own time, before providing services to UNOPS.
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.  

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns.
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

UNOPS is an operational arm of the United Nations, supporting the successful implementation of its partners’ peacebuilding, humanitarian and development projects around the world. Our mission is to help people build better lives and countries achieve sustainable development.

UNOPS areas of expertise cover infrastructure, procurement, project management, financial management and human resources.

Working with us

UNOPS offers short- and long-term work opportunities in diverse and challenging environments across the globe. We are looking for creative, results-focused professionals with skills in a range of disciplines.

Diversity

With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.