Legal Officer

The role of the Legal Officer is to coordinate and provide legal advisory services, monitor women’s access to justice, provide support to the SIS Forum (Malaysia) or ‘SIS’ legal literacy programmes, conduct advocacy for law and policy reform, network and communicate effectively with the general public and target groups, with the objective to promote better understanding of issues in Islam that uphold the principles of equality, justice, freedom and dignity within a democratic state framework.

1. Legal Advisory Services (Telenisa)

• Provide legal advice to clients during face-to-face sessions, written queries through email, social media platforms or telephone calls;
• Maintain documentation of cases received and services provided and identify trends and areas for advocacy;
• Source and maintain a list of contacts of legal practitioners and other services providers for our own reference as well as for Telenisa clients;
• Coordinate and co-organise the mobile clinics with SIS volunteer lawyers and the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG).
• Coordinate the LAC-NGO training programme with the Kuala Lumpur Legal Aid Centre, the Selangor Legal Aid Centre and other relevant NGOs;
• Orientate and supervise the chambering students under this programme;
• Coordinate and ensure that data is recorded and tabulated into the statistical or data software system and prepared for analysis;
• Identify and propose trends for advocacy from the analysis of the statistics;
• Coordinate and conduct the Court Watch action-oriented survey.
• Contribute towards the analysis and development of reports of the Court Watch survey.
• Identify and coordinate the development of relevant legal literacy materials, as and when required;
• Provide content to legal literacy materials, as and when required;
• Contribute towards writing articles for purposes of legal literacy for mainstream and/or social media, if and when the need arises.

2. Monitor Women’s Access to Justice

• Monitor the Syariah Courts and promote effective implementation of women’s legal rights;
• Identify trends and systematic weaknesses in the legal and judicial system and advocate for reform.

3. Advocacy and Law Reform

• Coordinate, implement and support activities for advocacy and reform with other SIS units;
• Develop networks that work on law and policy reforms;
• Contribute to the organising of activities and actions with the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) and any other relevant coalitions;
• Ensure proper documentation of the law reform work as carried out by SIS with other NGOs.

4. Support for Legal Literacy Program

• Where required, to give input, talks and media interviews to raise public awareness on women’s rights and access to justice;
• Identify opportunities to disseminate legal literacy awareness information to the public, and to women in particular;

5. Networking

• Liaise with women’s groups, other NGOs, government agencies, religious institutions and others to promote the work and interests of SIS;
• Build allies for policy and law reforms;
• Represent SIS at national, regional and international meetings, seminars, workshops, media interviews and conferences as required.

6. Organisational Development (General)

• Report regularly to the Programme Manager of the Advocacy, Legal Services & Research (ALSR) unit on the progress of work and to inform of any issues which are potentially constructive or detrimental to the organisation;
• Contribute to the development and submission of funding narrative and budget proposals, contracts or agreements;
• Participate in staff meetings, management team meetings and in Board meetings when necessary;
• Contribute to the strengthening of teamwork and team spirit at SIS, including organising staff discussions and social gatherings.

7. Others

• Conduct all administrative tasks related to your job function with efficiency and effectiveness;
• Submit a quarterly written report on your core areas of work and projects to the Programme Manager of the ALSR unit;
• Carry out other duties as may be reasonably required to meet the primary objectives of the organisation.

QUALIFICATION

• Bachelor’s Degree in law, and knowledge on Shariah laws and the Shariah legal system.
• Minimum of 2 years of working experience.
• Excellent research, analytical, and writing skills, with the ability to produce high-quality legal documents and reports.
• Demonstrate a positive attitude, strong interpersonal skills, exemplary work ethics, impeccable manners, and a deep commitment to respectfulness.
• Team player with the ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks;
• Good command of English and Bahasa Malaysia;
• Willing to be involved in public advocacy work or events;
• Candidates with counselling experience/knowledge are encouraged to apply.
• Passionate to work with an NGO.