Chief Legal Officer

Tēnei tūranga – About the role

The Chief Legal Officer is a senior executive leadership role responsible for providing strategic legal leadership and ensuring the Ministry operates within a robust and compliant legal framework. The role leads the design, development, and implementation of integrated legal services systems that support the Ministry’s strategic direction and ensure effective legal support across all areas of operation, including integrity, legislation, litigation, commercial, and policy and regulatory legal services.

As the head of the Legal, Ethics and Privacy branch, the Chief Legal Officer establishes the function as a trusted centre of legal expertise, delivering high-quality, consistent advice and exemplifying best practice within both the public sector and the wider New Zealand labour and business environment. The role is accountable for administering relevant legislation on behalf of the Ministry and for ensuring legal, privacy and integrity advice and services effectively support organisational outcomes and stakeholder needs.

Working in close partnership with the senior leadership team, the Chief Legal Officer provides strategic insight and leadership across all legal matters, contributing to decision-making at the highest level. The role also focuses on building and enhancing the capability of the Legal Services team, fostering a customer-focused culture, and strengthening professional standards and performance.

In addition, the Chief Legal Officer holds key statutory and functional responsibilities, including serving as MBIE’s Integrity Champion, Chief Privacy Officer for New Zealand privacy legislation and Data Protection Director for obligations under the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

Ngā herenga – Requirements of the role

Personal specifications

• Proven and extensive experience in the strategic management and leadership of a significant and complex legal services function in a large organisation.
• Proven and extensive experience managing large scale service delivery provision at a senior level.
• Senior leadership experience operating within large, complex, and politically sensitive environments, providing authoritative legal and strategic advice at executive level. 
• Proven team and enterprise leadership capability with the ability to set clear vision, accountabilities developing a positive, proactive and collaborative culture. The ability to get the best out of teams and hold people to account.
• Experience building and leading inclusive, diverse, and high‑performing teams, and fostering a safe, open, and responsive culture that supports professional excellence and wellbeing.
• Strong strategic and conceptual thinker who is able to make the connections between various aspects of the organisation and implications for legal services.
• Proven ability to build strategic relationships and collaborate effectively across complex organisations and with external stakeholders to achieve shared objectives and system‑wide outcomes.
• Sound appreciation of corporate management disciplines and techniques.
• Understanding of Government decision-making and operating procedures.
• Demonstrated experience in developing and maintaining an environment focused on system improvement to enhance organisational performance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Laws degree.
• Current practising certificate.
• Admission as a Barrister and Solicitor to the High Court with proven successful experience.
• Must consent to and satisfactorily complete a credit check as the role holds financial delegations.
• Must have the legal right to live and work in New Zealand.

Takohanga tuhinga o mua – Key accountabilities and deliverables

Responsibilities of this position are expected to change over time as the Ministry responds to changing needs. The incumbent will need the flexibility to adapt and develop as the environment evolves.

Critical areas of success

The Chief Legal Officer leads an integrated legal services system which delivers high quality advice and services.

• Leads the design, development and implementation of legal services systems that enable an integrated Ministry and ensure operations are legally compliant and ethically sound.
• Provides strategic leadership across legal, integrity and privacy matters, ensuring risks are proactively identified, managed, and mitigated, and emerging risks and opportunities are addressed.
• Holds and exercises the Ministry’s Chief Legal Officer delegations, ensuring statutory, regulatory, and governance responsibilities are met.
• Establishes and leads the Legal Services function as a centre of expertise, ensuring high-quality, consistent advice, strong practice standards, and a customer-focused culture.
• Ensures the delivery of integrated legal, privacy, and integrity advice and services that support organisational outcomes and meet internal and external stakeholder needs.
• Maintains effective systems, processes, and standards to uphold MBIE’s expectations of honesty, integrity, and professional excellence.
• Provides leadership and oversight of the Ministry’s legislative responsibilities, including administering legislation and supporting the legislative programme.
• Works collaboratively with Crown Law, Ombudsman’s Office and other government legal teams, including active participation in the Government Legal Network.
• Ensures the Ministry meets all legal and regulatory obligations, providing authoritative advice on compliance matters.

Strategic leadership and direction

• Contribute to the leadership of the Strategy and Assurance (SAA) group as a member of the SAA leadership team.
• Provide organisational leadership and stewardship through participation in SAA strategic development and Governance processes.
• Lead the strategic development of SAA work programme to align with and support the MBIE’s strategic direction and adopt a business-like and customer centric culture.
• Set the strategic purpose for MBIE and establish and socialise the purpose and character with staff, and set expectations for MBIE to ensure it meets its objectives.
• Guide, challenge and consult the organisation towards both economic decision making, value generation, a common understanding of business opportunities and their consequences.
• Work collaboratively with other Tier 3 Managers across the MBIE and SAA to drive coherent system wide outcomes.

Collective leadership

• Work collaboratively with other members of the Strategy and Assurance Leadership Team to support achievement of MBIE outcomes.
• Takes collective responsibility for the cohesion and performance of MBIE as a whole and provides peer support to other senior managers.
• Works with the Strategy and Assurance Leadership Team to define the outcomes and outputs expected from the Group to deliver on MBIE’s strategic direction.
• Contributes beyond core functional area to enhance overall effectiveness of the Strategy and Assurance Group.
• Ensures consistency and alignment between different teams in MBIE and promotes solution seeking where there are legitimate differences.
• Represents Senior Leadership Team views to staff.

General management

• Applies sound general management practices so that Legal, Ethics and Privacy operates effectively and efficiently, and delivers agreed outputs to support achievement of MBIE outcomes.
• Develops strategies, work programmes and performance targets for Legal, Ethics and Privacy with supporting measurement, monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
• Aligns Legal, Ethics and Privacy work programmes with MBIE’s strategic direction and other Groups’ work programmes.
• Monitors and adjusts work programmes through the agreed processes to enable Legal, Ethics and Privacy to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Regularly monitors and reports on progress towards achievement of plans and strategies.
• Manages expenditure and resources in line with approved guidelines, budget, deadlines and reporting requirements, with a focus on driving cost effectiveness in the Ministry.
• Builds continuous review and improvement throughout all elements of Legal, Ethics and Privacy operations.
• Effectively and consistently identifies and manages risk.

Personal leadership

• Provide leadership that engages and motivates others to succeed and develop, and proactively share experience, knowledge and ideas.
• Models exemplary management and leadership behaviours, State sector ethics and values.
• Creates a sense of vision, engages and motivates people to participate, and makes things happen.
• Fosters an open, collaborative environment that encourages quality, innovation, ongoing learning and knowledge sharing.

Branch leadership

• Build and maintain a high-performing team that is capable of developing and delivering innovative advice, products and services to support MBIE’s strategic direction.
• Establishes clear accountabilities, expectations and performance standards with direct reports and ensures regular performance management and development occurs.
• Monitors individual, team and branch performance to ensure that performance targets are met.
• Anticipates future capability needs in Legal, Ethics and Privacy, identifies gaps in capability and addresses these gaps through targeted recruitment and development or other actions.
• Coaches, mentors and develops staff to meet the needs of MBIE now and in the future.
• Identifies and develops talent for key roles in Legal, Ethics and Privacy.

Wellbeing, health and safety

• Displays commitment through actively supporting all safety and wellbeing initiatives.
• Ensures own and others' safety at all times.
• Complies with relevant safety and wellbeing policies, procedures, safe systems of work and event reporting.
• Reports all incidents/accidents, including near misses in a timely fashion.
• Is involved in health and safety through participation and consultation.

Tō tūranga i roto i te Manatū – Your place in the Ministry

The Chief Legal Officer position reports into the Deputy Secretary, Strategy and Assurance Group within the Legal, Ethics and Privacy branch. The branch sits within the Strategy and Assurance group.

More information about MBIE's structure

Ngā Kawenga Ārahitanga – Leadership Expectations

At MBIE our leadership expectations provide consistent language for how we expect our leaders to lead at MBIE. They are supported by our values, and the Public Sector leadership capabilities as described in the Leadership Success Profile (LSP).

Leadership Expectations - Ngā Kawenga Ārahitanga (MBIE)

Lead by example - Whakatinana hei tauira
Enable our people - Whakaāhei ō tātou tangata
Deliver what matters - Whakatutuki ngā manako

Matatautanga – Competencies (Leadership Success Profile)

The Leadership Success Profile (LSP) is a leadership capability framework, developed by the New Zealand public sector for the New Zealand public sector. It creates a common language for leadership and establishes what great leadership looks like. You can look at the twelve underpinning capabilities and four leadership characters here: Leadership Success Profile | Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission(external link)

To mātou aronga – What we do for Aotearoa New Zealand

Hīkina Whakatutuki is the te reo Māori name for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Hīkina means to uplift. Whakatutuki means to move forward, to make successful. Our name speaks to our purpose, Grow New Zealand for All.

To Grow New Zealand for All, we put people at the heart of our mahi. Based on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi, we are committed to upholding authentic partnerships with Māori.

As agile public service leaders, we use our breadth and experience to navigate the ever-changing world. We are service providers, policy makers, investors and regulators. We engage with diverse communities, businesses and regions. Our work touches on the daily lives of New Zealanders. We grow opportunities (Puāwai), guard and protect (Kaihāpai) and innovate and navigate towards a better future (Auaha).

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

As an agency of the public service, MBIE has a responsibility to contribute to the Crown meeting its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti). Meeting our commitment to Te Tiriti will contribute towards us realising the overall aims of Te Ara Amiorangi – Our Path, Our Direction, and achieve the outcome of Growing New Zealand for All. The principles of Te Tiriti - including partnership, good faith, and active protection – are at the core of our work. MBIE is committed to delivering on our obligations as a Treaty partner with authenticity and integrity and to enable Māori interests. We are committed to ensuring that MBIE is well placed to meet our obligations under the Public Service Act 2020 (Te Ao Tūmatanui) to support the Crown in strengthening the Māori/Crown Relationship under the Treaty and to build MBIE’s capability, capacity and cultural intelligence to deliver this.

Mahi i roto i te Ratonga Tūmatanui – Working in the public service

Ka mahitahi mātou o te ratonga tūmatanui kia hei painga mō ngā tāngata o Aotearoa i āianei, ā, hei ngā rā ki tua hoki. He kawenga tino whaitake tā mātou hei tautoko i te Karauna i runga i āna hononga ki a ngāi Māori i raro i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ka tautoko mātou i te kāwanatanga manapori. Ka whakakotahingia mātou e te wairua whakarato ki ō mātou hapori, ā, e arahina ana mātou e ngā mātāpono me ngā tikanga matua o te ratonga tūmatanui i roto i ā mātou mahi.

In the public service we work collectively to make a meaningful difference for New Zealanders now and in the future. We have an important role in supporting the Crown in its relationships with Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. We support democratic government. We are unified by a spirit of service to our communities and guided by the core principles and values of the public service in our work.

What does it mean to work in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Service?(external link) — Te Kawa Mataaho The Public Service Commission