Thomson Reuters Foundation - Manager - Legal - TrustLaw - South Asia Region

The Thomson Reuters Foundation stands for free, independent journalism, human rights, women's empowerment, and the rule of law. We expose corruption worldwide and play a leading role in the global fight against human trafficking. We use the skills, values, and expertise of Thomson Reuters to run programmes that trigger real change and empower people around the world, including free legal assistance, journalism and media training, coverage of the world's under-reported stories, and the Trust Women Conference.

The Foundation is recruiting a Legal Manager, South Asia for TrustLaw.

TrustLaw is the Thomson Reuters Foundation's global pro bono program. Our mission is to spread the practice of pro bono worldwide to drive social change. We help high-impact NGOs and social enterprises to grow, streamline their operations and navigate complex laws and regulations by connecting them with free legal assistance from the best law firms around the world. We also deliver groundbreaking legal research on key social and policy issues that our members use to support their advocacy and law reform efforts.

Launched in 2010, TrustLaw has grown to include over 3,000 members, including over 750 law firms and in-house legal teams and over 3,500 NGO and social enterprise members.

The Foundation is seeking a highly skilled and dynamic lawyer to expand our award-winning TrustLaw programme across South Asia. We have a growing presence in the region but see huge potential for continuing to broaden and deepen the reach of our service. We are looking for the ideal candidate to lead these efforts.

Responsibilities :

Based in Thomson Reuters- office in Mumbai, the successful candidate will be responsible for supporting and expanding our service across South Asia and will represent the Thomson Reuters Foundation in the region. This will include:

- Scoping legal pro bono requests from our community of NGOs and social enterprises so that the requests clearly explain the legal needs.

- Managing pro bono requests, including connecting the pro bono client with lawyers and following up with the parties involved.

- Designing, scoping and managing multiple cross-border research programmes that address the most critical social and policy needs facing our NGO and social enterprise members.

- Designing and implementing strategies to expand the TrustLaw membership by recruiting and engaging the best NGOs and social enterprises, as well as the strongest law firms and corporate in-house legal teams in the region.

- Managing relationships with key TrustLaw members and facilitating their engagement with the service, through hosting events and regular communications.

- Representing TrustLaw and the Thomson Reuters Foundation by speaking publicly about our work at conferences and other events.

- Supporting the team on thought leadership projects including the TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono and TrustLaw training courses.

The candidate :

- An experienced lawyer with strong legal skills. You will have at least 5 years- post-degree work experience (ideally at least two of those years will have been spent in commercial private practice or working in an in-house corporate legal team).

- Experience, or a demonstrated interest, in the legal pro bono sector, with knowledge of key global pro bono trends and/or experience working with the charitable, philanthropic or social enterprise sector.

- Extensive experience working with a diverse range of stakeholders.

- Strong understanding of the South Asia region generally, and of the legal and non-profit sectors in particular, and experience working in the region.

- Fluent in English, with excellent written and spoken communication skills and an ability to adapt messages to different audiences.

- A confident public speaker and networker who can confidently present the Foundation and our work to a range of different audiences.

- Ability to work quickly under pressure, to prioritise work and meet deadlines to drive projects to completion.

- An independent self-starter able to design their own agenda and take responsibility to advance and complete projects.

- A strong team player, able to work remotely and communicate effectively with a global team.

- Experience using Salesforce is desirable.

- This role will require travel across the region and occasionally to London.

Deadline for applications: Friday 15 December 2017