ABOUT US

The Department of Education (the department) is responsible for delivering and regulating state-wide learning and development services to approximately one-third of all Victorians across the early childhood and school education sectors. The department is also one of Victoria’s biggest employers, with approximately 80,000 teaching staff and around 5,000 public service employees.
The Legal Division provides highly valued legal services to support the delivery of the department’s strategic objectives, key reforms and to manage legal risk. In doing so, Legal Division provides direct, practical and strategic legal advice to portfolio ministers, the secretary, other senior staff and over 1,600 government schools, supporting approximately over 650,000 Victorian Government school students.

The purpose of this role is to share responsibility with a co-Director, for leading and managing the Workplace and Education Law (WEL) branch, and to support the Executive Director, Legal Division in relation to strategic, business and human resource functions for the whole Division.
The WEL branch provides legal advice and litigation management for all matters relating to negligence and duty of care, employment, discrimination, human rights, privacy, FOI, family disputes, intervention orders, mandatory reporting, child safety and other legal issues that arise in Victorian government schools. The branch also assists in legal policy issues related to early childhood and schools.
The position requires leadership and people management skills, as well as technical legal expertise in relation to the areas of practice covered by the WEL branch including duty of care, privacy, discrimination, employment, occupational health and safety, prosecutions, investigations and inquests.