Job Details

Job Description

About Us

Catholic schools have been delivering excellence in education to Sydney school students for 200 years. Sydney Catholic Schools (SCS) continues to be a thriving and growing contemporary educational community with 150 schools, more than 71,000 current students,10,000 staff and a large alumni community.

The Role

Reporting to the General Counsel, this role is responsible for overseeing Sydney Catholic Schools’ governance framework, its legal and child protection functions and system-wide communications.

The role will involve delivering legal advice and support to schools and directorates on a range of matters including employment law, commercial law, family law, real property law, discrimination, personal injury, intellectual property, copyright, privacy, work health and safety and child protection. Lawyers in the SCS Legal Team are also responsible for assisting Sydney Catholic Schools in litigation and tribunal matters.

Major Accountabilities

The lawyer will be required to perform tasks which include but are not limited to:

• Responding to day-to-day enquiries from schools in relation to staff and student matters
• Providing accurate, practical and timely in-house legal advice across a range of matters
• Assisting the General Counsel and Legal Counsels to respond to legal complaints and claims against Sydney Catholic Schools
• Assisting with litigation matters in tribunals and commissions, and state or federal courts
• Reviewing SCS policies, procedures and contracts to ensure legal compliance
• Researching and analysing legal risk factors that arise in conjunction with operational and commercial decisions and offering proactive advice on potential legal risks, in consultation with Counsel
• Draft, review and amend commercial contracts, agreements, deeds, licences, leases and other legal documents/correspondence
• Maintain and communicate current knowledge of changes in legislation relevant to Sydney Catholic Schools. 

The Person

To be successful in this role, it is essential you have attained the following knowledge and experience;

• be admitted as a legal practitioner in the state of NSW with at least 2 years post qualified experience
• demonstrated skill and experience in providing legal advice
• excellent legal research and analytical skills
• superior communication, negotiation, presentation and/or advocacy skills, including a proven ability to communicate and negotiate professionally with external parties such as regulators, contractors, external counsel and external legal service providers
• demonstrated ability to write clear and accurate briefings
• capability and willingness to work as part of a small and diverse team who provides immediate on-call, as well as detailed and complex, legal advice
• knowledge of individual professional obligations as a solicitor in the state of NSW, particularly in relation to accessing sensitive, privileged and confidential information.

Desirable

• demonstrated understanding/experience of working in the Education, not-for-profit or public-sector organisation
• prior litigation experience and a current driver’s licence.

What We Offer

• flexible working arrangements/hybrid workplace  
• offering a salary of $142,007+ Super and salary packaging
• competitive remuneration with ongoing training and support
• the ability to build your career in a multi-disciplined business environment
• a supportive team committed to a great work-life balance.

Application Process

To apply for this position please click ‘apply now’ and follow the prompts. 

To support your application, you will be required to provide:

• your current resume
• cover letter addressing the value your experience and qualifications could add to this role specific to the essential criteria.

General Enquiries: For more information about this role, please contact Jai Pradhan via email at jai.pradhan@syd.catholic.edu.au 

Working With Children Check (WWCC)

This role is classified as child-related work and therefore requires a WWCC clearance prior to commencement of employment.

Apply Now