• Permanent Full Time
• Salary $89,002 (plus 10.5% superannuation, salary sacrifice options available, and 6 weeks paid annual leave)

Grata Fund is seeking a Strategic Litigation Solicitor for a permanent full time position.

The Strategic Litigation Solicitor will work in collaboration with the Executive Director and General Counsel to implement Grata Fund’s vision and strategy for a robust public interest litigation culture in Australia by:

• Working with the legal sector, academia and campaigners to support and incubate new strategic litigation in Australia on human rights, democracy and climate justice.
• Removing cost barriers to litigation via case funding.
• Building broad campaign alliances around supported litigation to ensure lasting impact beyond the courtroom.

Job Responsibilities

This is a full time role based in Sydney with remote work options available. The Solicitor reports to the General Counsel and is responsible for:

1. Developing new strategic litigation leads & briefs: monitor Federal & State legislative proposals, trends and new laws to identify opportunities for litigation; work with the legal and campaign sector to identify strategic opportunities for litigation; and where necessary, develop briefs for counsel;
2. Facilitating Grata Fund’s case application process: review and provide feedback on applications for support; identify strategic potential of cases to address underlying causes of injustice; solicit and review independent prospects advice from counsel; and under the supervision of the General Counsel make recommendations to the ED & Board on which cases Grata Fund should support;
3. Drafting law reform submissions and reports and engage in law reform and policy advocacy on issues of interest to Grata;
4. Promoting Grata Fund’s offering, application process and partnership philosophy to the legal & campaign sector;
5. Developing partnerships with pro bono legal teams and pro bono counsel to take cases from ideation to reality; and
6. Other reasonable duties as directed.

Qualifications

We’re seeking an Australian qualified lawyer with at least 2 years of experience, who excels at strategic thinking, is results-oriented, and has strong project management and relationship-building skills.

• Results-driven: Bias for producing results and a track record of thinking laterally to find solutions (rather than getting immersed in process) and persevering despite obstacles.
• Strategic-thinker: Fluency in reviewing legislative proposals and ability to monitor legislative trends and ability to work with diverse interest groups to identify and foster opportunities for strategic litigation to protect and advance human rights, democracy and climate change.
• Relationship-builder: Track record of building relationships and alliances among a wide range of legal and non-legal players.
• Project management experience: Track record of staying on top of multiple projects without dropping any balls, anticipating obstacles, identifying and involving stakeholders appropriately, and using resources wisely.
• Effective communicator: Stellar formal written communications skills (policy papers, submissions, legal briefs etc). Ability to write stories in a compelling way for non-legal audiences is a plus.

Grata Fund is fully committed to diversity and inclusion. Applications are strongly encouraged from First Nations people; people living with disability; people who identify as LGBTIQ+; and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

How to Apply

Please send a one-page cover letter and resume to Maria Nawaz, Acting Executive Director, at [email protected] using the subject line: Strategic Litigation Solicitor enquiry via EthicalJobs.

About Grata Fund

Grata Fund is Australia’s first specialist non-profit strategic litigation incubator and funder. Grata develops, funds, and builds sophisticated campaign architecture around high impact, strategic litigation brought by people and communities in Australia. We focus on communities, cases and campaigns that have the potential to break systemic gridlocks and hold government and corporations accountable, across human rights, climate justice and democratic freedoms.

We launched in 2016 by supporting Doctors for Refugees and Fitzroy Legal Service to successfully overturn draconian gag laws in the Border Force Act which threatened doctors with 2 years in prison for reporting abuse in offshore detention centres. Since then, we’ve worked to support cases ranging on issues from remote Indigenous housing rights, refugee rights, access to education for children with disabilities, access to voting rights, climate change risk, technology and human rights.

Grata Fund works closely with the legal sector, campaigners and academia to develop and fund critical public interest litigation. Based at the UNSW Law Centres Precinct in Sydney, we plan to grow our young organisation into the leading strategic litigation incubator in the country.