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.

An exceptional opportunity has arisen for an experienced lawyer to further progress their legal career by working in an outstanding legal team, in the Regulatory and Complex Disputes (RCD) unit of the Department of Education’s Legal Division.
The RCD unit manages complex disputes involving schools and provides advice on occupational health and safety matters, early childhood regulation, FOI and privacy disputes and coronial inquiries.
This role encompasses a wide range of matters including managing complex litigation, briefing external firms and at times directly briefing barristers. The Senior Lawyer will work specifically on complex litigated cases involving applications to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s (VCAT’s) review juristiction, as well as Magistrates’ Court and other litigation. The Senior Lawyer will be responsible for specialist legal advice in the areas of expertise relevant to the RCD unit and Workplace and Education Law branch, and may be asked to provide a mentoring role to more junior lawyers.