Legal Consultant, BMS/Legal Office

Background

The Legal Office (LO) is part of the Bureau for Management Services (BMS) and is the exclusive source of legal advice to the Administrator and all UNDP business units.

 As an essential part of UNDP’s institutional integrity, the LO ensures that UNDP, UNCDF and UN Volunteers perform their mandates on a firm legal basis in accordance with the principles of the UN Charter, the regulations approved by the Executive Board and the rules and policies promulgated by or under the authority of the Administrator. The LO also enables effective programme delivery by helping provide integrated management solutions for UNDP offices, including identifying legal risks and suggesting measures for their mitigation. In addition, the LO protects the legal interests of UNDP, UNCDF and UN Volunteers by defending them in legal actions.

 The Administrative Law Practice (AL) is responsible for advising senior management in Headquarters, Country Offices and of affiliated funds and programmes on legal issues of the status and conduct, the formulation of policies and procedures and the resolution of claims, with respect to staff members and UN volunteers and representing the Organization in cases and settlements within the internal justice system.

 The Corporate and Institutional Law Practice Group (C&I) is responsible for advising on matters relating to the legal status of UNDP including privileges and immunities, host country arrangements, commercial contracts, procurement, leases, premises, banking, inter-agency arrangements, the interpretation of the Financial Regulations and Rules, advising on legal aspects of programming and operations and defending and resolving commercial claims.

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will conduct research and provide analysis and reporting on recurring issues either brought to the Legal Office for action or which came to its attention, together with (where appropriate) suggestions for remedial action.

Duties and Responsibilities

The UNDP Legal Office is seeking a consultant to conduct research and provide analysis and reporting on recurring issues either brought to the Legal Office for action or which came to its attention, together with (where appropriate) suggestions for remedial action.

 The consultant is required to, inter alia, prepare final drafts of a brief from each of the teams on recurring legal issues. The drafts are to be prepared in conjunction with the Team Leaders and the LO Director, with a view to being ultimately submitted to the Director BMS for further discussion and action at the senior management level.

 Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

 The consultant will draft an outline based on research and consultations within the LO to ensure that the content accurately reflects and includes the recurring legal issues and their alignment to the UNDP Legal Framework.

After the draft text is reviewed by the relevant team leaders, the consultant will incorporate revisions related to content and/or language based on feedback received.

	Deliverables/ Outputs	Estimated Duration to Complete	Target Due Dates	Review and Approvals Required
1	Outline of Draft Report	3 - 5 days	Within 5 working days of contract start date	Director Senior Legal Advisors
2	Draft Report	2 – 4 weeks	Within 20 working days of contract start date	Director Senior Legal Advisors
3	Revised Report	2 - 4 weeks	Within 40 working days of contract start date	Director Senior Legal Advisors
4	Final Report	2 - 4 weeks	Within 60 working days of contract start date	Director

Competencies

• Excellent analytical skills;
• Excellent drafting skills;
• Ability to work with utmost discretion in handling sensitive and confidential matters;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Ability to work under pressure;
• Knowledge of UNDP policies and procedures, including procurement procedures and the Financial Regulations and Rules, would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with the UNDP privileges and immunities as per the General Convention and the Standard Basic Assistance Agreements would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with the UN Administration of Justice System.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master's or equivalent) in law is required 
• A concentration in commercial and/or international law would be an advantage

 Experience:

• A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience with a law firm, a corporation and government, or an international organization’s legal office is required;
• Knowledge of the UNDP legal framework is desirable;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages are desirable.

 Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required;

 Application Procedure:

 The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
• A two-page methodology on how the Offeror will conduct the work including a Work Plan and approach in delivering the required outputs within the assignment period;

 Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

 Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7-hours working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).

• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; (excluding mission travel); living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.

• The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around the specific and measurable deliverables of the TOR. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR, and deliverables accepted and certified by the technical manager.

• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

 The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

 Evaluation Process:

 Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

 Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1: Knowledge of commercial/international law; Maximum Points: 15;
• Criteria 2: Legal Analysis/methodology; Maximum Points: 15;
• Criteria 3: Knowledge of UNDP Legal Framework; Maximum Points: 15; and
• Criteria 4: Interview : Maximum Points: 25.

 Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top three shortlisted candidates for interview. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

 Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

 Financial Evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

 The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

 Contract Award:

 Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

 Institutional arrangement

 The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Chief Legal Officer and Director, Legal Office and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

 Payment Modality:

• Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified above and deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hours working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.

 Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

 Annex 1 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 - IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 - RLA Template

 Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org

 The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.

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