• Location: Naarm/Melbourne or lutruwita/Tasmania
• Term: 3 year contract with possible extension
• Part-time 30 hours per week (0.8 FTE)
• Remuneration: SCHADS Level 6: $98,750 - $102,450 + 10.5% super + 17.5% Annual Leave Loading
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are particularly encouraged to apply
• Reporting to: Managing Lawyer, Safe Climate – Gas

Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) is the largest environmental legal centre in the Australia-Pacific, dedicated to protecting our climate, communities and shared environment by providing access to justice, running ground-breaking litigation and leading law reform advocacy.

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

We are recruiting for a Senior Solicitor to join the Safe Climate (Gas) Team within our Systemic Change Program. The role may be based anywhere in Australia but will focus on the proposed expansion of offshore oil and gas developments off the coast of Victoria and Tasmania. Therefore, VIC or TAS based candidates, particularly those who can work from our Naarm/Melbourne or nipaluna/Hobart office, are preferred.

The Senior Solicitor – Safe Climate (Gas) will engage with legal issues surrounding climate change and environmental protection in the waters off Victoria and Tasmania. In this role you will think creatively about delivering systemic change in relation to supporting strong community opposition to new oil and gas proposals in the waters off Victoria and Tasmania, including in the Otway Basin and Bass Strait.

Candidate Profile

You will have an unrestricted practising certificate, and strong PAE working as a lawyer with demonstrated litigation experience. This position represents an opportunity to engage with legal issues surrounding climate change and environmental protection in Australia’s South-East, and offers a high level of autonomy. Lawyers who want a chance to think creatively about delivering systemic change in relation to fossil fuel developments and climate change are strongly encouraged to apply.

EDO is a diverse and inclusive workplace. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are particularly encouraged to apply.

Key selection criteria

Core skills

• Strong autonomous Litigation focus
• An unrestricted practicing certificate or entitlement to one
• A minimum of 3 years PAE working as a solicitor with litigation experience, 5 + years PAE highly desirable
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to make sound judgments 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 collaboratively with diverse communities and individuals highly desirable

Personal qualities and cultural competency

• A champion of the agreed values of the EDO
• Strong initiative and self-motivation
• Commitment to the protection of the environment and public participation in environmental decision-making
• A strong sense of ethics and understanding of professional obligations
• Demonstrated awareness of and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of individuals 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.

Early applications are encouraged as interviews will be held on a rolling basis. If you have any accessibility needs for the recruitment or interviewing process, please let us know.

A position description is attached.