Legal Advisor

The Register of Damage for Ukraine was established in May 2023 through an Enlarged Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe. The Register has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands. It serves as a record, in documentary form, of claims and evidence on damage, loss or injury caused by the Russian Federation’s internationally wrongful acts in or against Ukraine. The Register receives claims from individuals, businesses and state and municipal entities in Ukraine about damage, loss or injury that they have suffered because of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, with the purposes of creating a factual and evidentiary basis upon which Ukraine and Ukrainians will seek reparations for Russia’s violations of international law.

The team within which you will work is the Legal Division of the Register. The main task of the legal team is to review and process incoming claims and to assist the Executive Director in formulating recommendations to the Board of the Register.

As a Legal Advisor, you will:

• review and process incoming claims and pre-screen them against the established eligibility criteria for their inclusion into the Register (manually or with the use of specialised software and other digital tools);
• contribute to the formulation of recommendations to that effect to the Head of the Legal Division and the Executive Director;
• contribute to keeping an accurate record of claims brought before the Register;
• ensure that proper policies, procedures and guidelines for claims processing are applied;
• perform extensive legal research and analysis and prepare legal opinions, studies, briefs, reports and correspondence, as required;
• support the Head of the Legal Division and the Executive Director in assisting the Board with performance of its functions and in providing it with an efficient and high quality level Secretariat;
• support the Head of the Legal Division and the Executive Director in ensuring that policies, procedures and guidelines for claims processing are up-to-date and contribute to the drafting of amendments and internal rules and regulations;
• perform other job-related duties as required.

• Operational - Planning and work organisation
• Operational - Analysis and problem solving
• Interpersonal - Teamwork and co-operation
• Interpersonal - Adaptability

• Professional and technical expertise: 

• thorough knowledge of international law;
• proven experience of drafting high quality legal texts in English.

• Operational - Concern for quality
• Operational - Learning and development

• Professional and technical expertise:

• experience from working on large and complex litigations or mass claims with arbitral tribunals or institutions, national courts, or law firms;
• recent experience in the application of relevant information technologies to claims administration or with handling the processing of large amounts of data;
• experience with data management and analysis tools and methods such as statistical sampling and relevant methodologies, machine learning techniques, artificial intelligence tools and applications, other data analysis applications;
• proficiency in computer applications and software for database management operations;
• knowledge of Ukrainian.

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer. 

Please note that candidates from other Participants or Associate Members of the Register of Damage for Ukraine (including Canada, Japan and United States of America), who are not nationals of a Council of Europe member State, who are offered employment shall not be eligible for appointment as staff members within any entity in the Council of Europe other than the Register of Damage for Ukraine.

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Article 490 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 Central European Time (CET). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointment, preference beetwen suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected], we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will be updated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our careers website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at [email protected].