Senior Legal Advisor of Prosecutors Vetting Commission

Background 

In 2021, the government of the Republic of Moldova started the justice sector reform, aiming to ensure integrity and accountability of justice sector stakeholders and to increase society’s trust in the justice sector. As part of the justice sector reform, the government decided to conduct an extraordinary vetting exercise of judges and prosecutors, to improve the integrity in the justice sector.

This vetting process is a unique endeavour for the Moldovan society. It is a thorough and tough process that can happen only once in a good way. It asks a lot of society: there might be temporarily limited capacity in the justice sector, and it can have substantial consequences for personal careers. Yet it is also a historic process, that works towards the betterment of the Moldovan justice sector and will therefore have positive impact on Moldovan society in the end.

The Center for International Legal Cooperation (CILC) is assigned by the European Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to facilitate the Prosecutors’ Vetting Commission (also known as “Commission 3”) and its Secretariat. CILC is continuing its effort to add to the team of professionals to staff this Secretariat.

This call for experts aims to create a shortlist of motivated and qualified people for the following position of SENIOR LEGAL ADVISOR:

The senior legal advisor will be the main responsible to provide legal advice in investigations done in the Secretariat, as well as the functioning of the Commission and the Secretariat and interaction with third parties. The senior legal advisor will be supervising and coordinating a small team of legal advisors. For a senior legal advisor strong and detailed-minded legal and analytical skills and independent working skills are required, with a focus on servicing the Commission members in their needs for investigation.  

The responsibilities of the senior legal advisor include but are not limited to: 

• Providing legal advice within the Secretariat and particularly to any upcoming legal issues in investigations, including coordinating a small team of legal advisors; 
• Creating and implementing procedures to ensure consistency and quality of the work of legal advisors; 
• Evaluating and checking to quality and accuracy of the performed work by the legal advisors before final decisions/evaluation reports are put through to the Commission members; 
• Revising written decisions/evaluations reports and other documents of legal advisors; 
• Providing advice to ensuring consistency and clear reasoning in the final decisions/evaluation reports of the Commission;
• Provide advice to the Commission on the internal framework (Rules of Procedure etc.), as well as assistance in communication with third parties;
• Coordinating organizational matters related to the legal representation of the Commission before national courts and public authorities.    

As a senior legal advisor, the following criteria make you eligible: 

• Relevant managerial skills and experience; 
• At least 5 years of professional experience in a legal profession. Court experience in Moldova and/or an international judicial body is considered an asset; 
• Up-to-date and detailed knowledge of Moldovan legislation and legal environment;  
• Experience in drafting and editing legal documents. Experience in drafting judgments/ decisions / legal opinions is an asset; 
• Highly organised and detailed oriented, able to work in a high-performance environment; 
• Strong communication skills, both orally and in writing; 
• Able to work within strict working procedures, handling data in a secure and meticulous way; 
• Fluent in written and spoken Romanian and English (at C1 level of CEFR), knowledge of Russian is an asset; 
• Degree in law from an accredited university; 
• Thorough knowledge of relevant national institutions; 
• Person of the highest personal and professional integrity.   

Disqualifying factors:

• Current or past work in the Moldovan prosecution system, in any role.
• Status as a candidate prosecutor.
• Status as a student at the National Judicial Institute.

General conditions for the position

Applicants should be aware of the following: 

• The position is full-time.
• Project duration April 2023 – April 2026.
• Moldovan nationals offered a fulltime position may take a leave of absence and/or suspend their contractual obligations from their current Moldova based employer for the duration of this contract, but may not be actively engaged with, nor paid by any other organization during the contract period.
• Remuneration is based on a CILC salary and service delivery grid specifying the scales per function. Actual remuneration will be based on the qualifications and experience of an applicant in line with the salary grid and employment/assignment policy of CILC. The monthly remuneration for this position is up to 9 000 Euro brutto. 
• When contracted, signing of a Non-Disclosure Agreement and abiding by the Code of Conduct for Secretariat staff is mandatory. This means amongst others no engagement with political parties/events and modest behaviour.
• CILC welcomes applications from candidates who fulfil the specific profiles, irrespective of gender, disability, marital or parental status, racial, ethnic or social origin, colour, religion, belief or sexual orientation.

Procedure for application and selection:

Expressions of interest can be submitted via email only via secretariat@cilc.nl. Please include in the subject of the email for which position you express your interest. The deadline for submitting the applications is 27th of February 2025. Applications submitted to other mail addresses will be excluded from consideration.

Required documents include: 

• Current CV – in English.
• Contact data of professional references including name, title, email address and phone number.

For each position, CILC will choose from the pool of expressions of interests the people who fit the positions best, against the criteria of: 

• Level of professional knowledge and experience
• Level of professional skills/capacities

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. Short-listed candidates will be invited for an (online) interview. A background check will be part of the recruitment procedure.