Legal Counsel

Legal Counsel

One of our Client, a national supervisory authority responsible for monitoring and enforcing the provisions of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act, is currently looking to recruit a Legal Counsel (full-time) to join its team.

Key Responsibilities:

• The Legal Counsel will work within the client’s legal team and will report directly to them.

The main tasks and responsibilities shall include the following:

• Handling local and cross-border data protection complaints and personal data breaches;
• Handling applications lodged by applicants under the Freedom of Information Act;
• Conducting ex officio investigations in relation to data protection matters;
• Providing legal advice concerning all the laws regulated by the Client;
• Representing and defending the Client in judicial proceedings before the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal, the Court of Appeal and any civil, criminal or other case as may be required;
• Responding to queries (both in writing and by phone) concerning laws regulated by the Client, and handling requests for assistance by data subjects on how to exercise their rights under such laws;
• Representing the Client by attending and actively contributing at international and European fora and expert groups, both remotely and in person;
• Cooperating with other local, European and international regulators and authorities;
• Collaborating and exchanging information with supervisory authorities of other countries and participating in joint programmes, meetings and conferences, both in Malta and abroad;
• Regularly monitoring developments in the data protection field, including researching national and European case-law and analysing the impact thereof on Client’s work;
• Delivering lectures, presentations and awareness-raising sessions on the laws regulated by the Client;
• Proposing innovations and improvements to the current practices and systems with the objective to enable the Client to achieve better and more effective results in its operations; and
• Discharging such other responsibilities as may, from time to time, be assigned by the Commissioner.

Must have

At the time of the application, the candidate shall:

• Have a thorough knowledge, both written and spoken (at least C1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) of the Maltese and English languages;
• Possess a level 7 Malta Qualifications Framework (MQF) law degree pursued in Malta, or alternatively an equivalent academic qualification gained abroad and recognised as equivalent in Malta by the Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre (MQRIC);
• Possess a warrant to exercise the profession of Advocate in Malta (candidates who are not in possession of, or who are in the process of obtaining, the warrant may also be considered);
• Have excellent knowledge and understanding of data protection legislation;
• Have a minimum of two (2) years professional experience in data protection legislation;
• Have high standards of meticulous attention to detail;
• Have excellent written and verbal communication skills;
• Be highly organised, efficient and able to manage own workload with minimal supervision; and
• Be highly pragmatic and proactive.

Desirable to have

Preference will be given to eligible candidates who:

• Have performed duties as data protection officers;
• Have experience in handling of requests to exercise data subjects’ rights in terms of the GDPR;
• Have experience in carrying out data protection impact assessments;
• Have experience in drafting of data protection notices, personal data breaches notifications, records of processing activities, agreements and other data protection-related documents and policies;
• Have a good knowledge of information security fundamentals.