Chief Executive Officer

The Organisation

For more than 40 years Women’s Legal Service NSW (WLS NSW) has pioneered new ways of helping women to access the law. WLS NSW is an independent non-profit organisation which provides a voice for women in NSW and promotes access to justice, particularly for women who are disadvantaged by their cultural, social and economic circumstances. This is achieved through legal advice and casework, community legal education, and law and policy reform work with a focus on areas of law that most directly have a gendered impact on women.


Benefits & Culture

• Respectful, impact and values driven environment
• Passionate, professional, and highly dedicated multi-disciplinary team
• Competitive salary with generous salary packaging
• Additional annual leave

The Role
  
Reporting to the board and working alongside the Principal Solicitor, you will continue the leadership and operational delivery of the current strategic plan to ensure the organisation’s future, culture and continued achievement of access to justice.
  
You will effectively and confidently lead the organisation in its advocacy for justice, equality and legal rights for women including influencing policy development and law reform. Additionally, you will:

• Provide inspirational, consultative and confident team leadership
• Network and represent WLS NSW to government and non-government agencies and other stakeholders
• Oversee compliance, funding and associated reporting requirements
• Ensure best practice governance and risk management

Skills Required

You are an accomplished CEO or executive leader with skills ideally developed within the community legal sector, advocacy, human services or similar client focused organisations. You’re passionate about social justice issues for women, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and those experiencing economic, social and cultural disadvantage. You also bring:

• Tertiary qualifications in law or other relevant discipline
• Success in leading and promoting an inclusive, positive and results-based culture
• Political astuteness and advocacy skills that informs policy and law reform from a feminist perspective
• Sound financial management including managing funded service models and operational excellence
• Experience engaging with a board, ensuring organisational governance and risk management
• A track record of building trusted relationships with a broad range of stakeholders across State and Federal government, partner organisations, community members and philanthropic funders

Being a woman is a Genuine Occupational Qualification for the purposes of WLS service provision (Section 31 Anti-Discrimination Act 1977).

If you are passionate about high quality and accessible legal services for women, please apply by submitting your resume and cover letter addressing the skills required above. For further information please contact Hayley Martin on 02 8243 0570.

Please note there is no formal closing date for this role, if you are interested we would encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

NGO Recruitment values equitable recruitment practices and is committed to representing candidates reflective of the diverse organisations and communities we work with. We welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds, ages, and identities, and are happy to adjust our recruitment process to support accessibility needs. If you are interested in this position and have most of the skills or experience we are looking for, please go ahead and apply.