All lawyers of the Office are entitled to practise as lawyers in their national jurisdiction. Their professional obligations to their clients derive from their status as professionals in their national jurisdictions, regardless of their role as United Nations staff. These obligations include always acting in the best interests of a client and maintaining the client`s confidentiality. OSLA lawyers are subject to an internal code of conduct as well as the code of conduct for legal representatives and litigants appearing in person before the courts. These codes require lawyers under the Act to act in the best interests of a client at all times and to maintain client confidentiality. The Secretary-General has repeatedly stressed the operational independence of the Office of the Prosecutor General. If you require technical assistance, please contact ccms-support@un.org. All staff members are encouraged to contribute to the mechanism that provides the additional funding required by the Office to assist as many staff in need of advice and assistance as possible. If the Office has refused assistance, you may submit your own request for a management review directly to the Management Evaluation Unit or an equivalent review body within your employers` organization and/or to the Dispute Tribunal or other appellate bodies. You may also be represented by another or former employee before the United Nations Administrative Tribunal for Development or UNAT.
You can also turn to an outside lawyer or get pro bono support from outside lawyers who are willing to help you. It has long been the policy of the Organization that staff members (including former staff members or relevant dependants) who wish to appeal an administrative decision or against whom disciplinary action is taken have access to legal assistance and representation. To this end, the United Nations General Assembly established the Office of Staff Legal Assistance (OSLA), composed of full-time legal officers at United Nations Headquarters in New York, Addis Ababa, Beirut, Geneva and Nairobi. The Office replaces the former List of Counsel, although its functions are similar. To do so, go to: oslaw.un.org, create an account and submit your support request. Brandon is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and practiced in the United States before joining the UN in 2007, first as a volunteer with the Ministry of Justice of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo. Since then, he has held various positions as Legal Secretary at the United Nations. Prior to joining OSLA, Brandon worked with the UNMIK Advisory Board on Human Rights and the Rule of Law Liaison Office. Brandon holds a J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Pittsburgh. Brandon works out of the Addis Ababa office. OSLA is currently able to offer support in English, French and Arabic.
Individual AAOS lawyers may also have additional language skills. Yes. OSLA is accessible to all employees, whether or not they contribute to the voluntary top-up funding mechanism. Employees who require assistance or guidance must submit an online form using OSLA`s OSLAW case management application. 4. Do I have to pay for legal assistance from OSLA? The Staff Council has considered various options to ensure adequate legal representation for staff and would like its views on the options described below: See Who helps OSLA. If you are one of the people OSLA can help, you have the right to ask for help, but OSLA is not required to provide representation beyond the initial consultation. The Office will review all requests for support and assess whether there is a way to help. This involves a thorough assessment of the merits, and the Bureau may then decide that there is no reasonable chance of success in pursuing any form of challenge in a particular case. In such cases, the Bureau may decline support, although it always considers informal resolution options before doing so.
The Dispute Tribunal upheld OSLA`s right to refuse assistance on the grounds that an employee is unlikely to succeed. See UNDT/2010/025, para. 37, for more details. [Insert link to DT in PDF format – link will be provided] OSLA`s role is to provide legal advice and representation to staff with respect to the organization`s formal internal justice system. The Office is the only office in the United Nations system to offer this service. It is independent and not affiliated with staff unions, the Ombudsman or other United Nations offices involved in the settlement of labour disputes. While the Office may deal with and talk to other offices about a particular case, it will only do so with the prior consent of a client. If you think that one of the ombudsmen, the Ethics Office, the Staff Union and the OSLA Office can help you, you can address your concerns to any or all of these bodies and you can do so at the same time. OSLA legal advisors or volunteers providing legal advice are required to adhere to a code of conduct and may not seek or accept rewards or material benefits from clients or other parties (other than their salary at the UN in the case of OSLA legal counsel) for their work as legal counsel. At any stage of a conflict, or even in anticipation of a conflict, an employee can seek advice from OSLA. The Office`s lawyers and volunteers can provide advice on the legal merits of a case and the options available to the public servant. If an employee decides to pursue a matter in the formal system, the BSO will determine whether it may be helpful and, if so, will provide legal advice and/or representation throughout the process.
Katya graduated as a lawyer in England and Wales in 1999. She worked in London in the areas of labour and criminal law before joining the United Nations in 2005 as a Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Since then, she has served the United Nations in various legal capacities, including in the Office of the Attorney General and the United Nations Dispute Settlement Court, and as Legal Adviser to the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. Katya holds an LLM in Advanced Legal Practice from Northumbria University and studied law in London after completing an MA in Modern History from Oxford University. Katya is based in the New York office. Staff may obtain legal advice from non-OSLA lawyers, including current or former employees, or from external legal counsel of their choice at their own expense. Staff members may also represent themselves (as such) in proceedings under the legal administrative system of the United Nations (see staff rule 10.3 (a) and (d)). Many OSLA clients work in locations where there is no OSLA law firm.
Our lawyers will contact you by phone, email, Skype or other online communication tools. You may be required to „appear” before the Court by telephone or videoconference.