New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa, Auckland  

About the Law Society
The New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa is the professional body for barristers and solicitors in New Zealand. The Law Society regulates all lawyers practising in New Zealand and is the membership organisation for practising lawyers. With 13 branch offices throughout the country, the Law Society is the Kaitiaki (guardian) of the practise of law in Aotearoa New Zealand and the consumers of legal services.

About the role
We are seeking an exceptional candidate to join our Professional Standards department. The Lawyers Complaints Service (LCS) handles complaints about lawyers. Working in the Auckland team of the LCS, the Professional Standards Officer (PSO) performs a key role in assisting in the coordination, processing, and investigation of complaints. The PSO is responsible for: 

• Providing reasonable assistance to persons to make complaints as required by the Act.
• Performing as secretariat/investigator/legal researcher to standards committee(s) under delegated authority and assist committee(s) as required.
• Preparing reports and draft decisions for standards committees.

The work is challenging, varied, and fast-paced, and requires a high level of judgment and integrity. This role is demanding and a high level of resilience is required.

This is a permanent full-time position. It is important that the Law Society can attract, support, and retain quality staff and one of the ways we can achieve this is by offering employees the flexibility to manage their work/life balance. We embrace flexible working to support our staff to deliver their best and achieve a good work life balance.

The ideal applicant will have the following skills and experience:

• The position is suitable for a legal practitioner with a minimum of 3 years’ legal experience or equivalent investigations and complaints handling experience. A practising certificate is not required for this role.
• Sound written and oral communication skills are essential. Written skills must include the ability to produce concise, well-structured, and well-reasoned material and to produce succinct summaries of complex and lengthy complaints. Oral skills must include the ability to communicate clearly with committee members (both collectively and individually), members of the profession and members of the public. Complainants and respondents are under pressure during the complaints process. Strong empathy skills are a must.
• Be prepared to perform under pressure. The standards committees aim to work to strict timetables, and an ability to meet deadlines and to plan and structure workload is required. This includes the ability to keep the work of several committees up to date simultaneously.
• Be flexible in the work they are prepared to undertake and help colleagues as required.
• Good judgement and a high level of discretion.
• Sensitivity to the demands of legal practice is required when dealing with busy committee members.
• A professional supportive approach to members of the public is also necessary.

The Law Society is committed to the principles of diversity and inclusion and is keen to ensure that appointments reflect New Zealand’s multicultural society. Applications from a diverse range of backgrounds are encouraged.

For a confidential discussion or additional information about the role please contact the People and Culture team:  recruitment@lawsociety.org.nz.
   
A copy of the position description can be found here.

If you would like to apply, please complete the application form and submit this together with your cover letter and CV to recruitment@lawsociety.org.nz. Please do not apply using the Seek portal as we will only consider applications that have been made to the above email address.

Applicants for this position should have NZ residency or a valid NZ work visa.