LAWFAS Paralegal & Administrative Support Services

Spektrum supports apex purchasers (NATO, UN, EU, and National Government and Defence) and their Tier 1 supplier ecosystem with a wide range of specialist services. We provide our clients with professional services, specialised aerospace and defence sales, delivery, and operational subject matter expertise. We are looking for personnel to join our team and support key client projects.

Who we are supporting

The NATO Communication and Information Agency (NCIA) is responsible for providing secure and effective communications and information technology (IT) services to NATO's member countries and its partners. The agency was established in 2012 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

The NCIA provides a wide range of services, including:

• Cyber Security: The NCIA provides advanced cybersecurity solutions to protect NATO's communication networks and information systems against cyber threats.
• Command and Control Systems: The NCIA develops and maintains the systems used by NATO's military commanders to plan and execute operations.
• Satellite Communications: The NCIA provides satellite communications services to enable secure and reliable communications between NATO forces.
• Electronic Warfare: The NCIA provides electronic warfare services to support NATO's mission to detect, deny, and defeat threats to its communication networks.
• Information Management: The NCIA manages NATO's information technology infrastructure, including its databases, applications, and servers.

Overall, the NCIA plays a critical role in ensuring the security and effectiveness of NATO's communication and information technology capabilities.

The program

Assistance and Advisory Service (AAS)

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) is NATO’s principal C3 capability deliverer and CIS service provider. It provides, maintains and defends the NATO enterprise-wide information technology infrastructure to enable Allies to consult together under Article IV, and, when required, stand together in the face of attack under Article V.

To provide these critical services, in the modern evolving dynamic environment the NCI Agency needs to build and maintain high performance-engaged workforce. The NCI Agency workforce strategically consists of three major categorise's: NATO International Civilians (NIC)'s, Military (Mil), and Interim Workforce Consultants (IWC)'s. The IWCs are a critical part of the overall NCI Agency workforce and make up approximately 15 percent of the total workforce.

Role ID – SHAPE-0027-R-A

Background

• LAWFAS is an operational concept to enhance the sharing of legal knowledge within the NATO community of interest and with NATO member nations and partners. Four inter-related parts compose it: information knowledge management concepts, energetic people, current information technology (IT), and the legal professionals in the NATO legal offices and legal offices in the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs of the 32 NATO nations.
• The NATO legal community developed LAWFAS as a tool for sharing, preserving, and using legal knowledge in furtherance of NATO education and training, collaboration, and interoperability. LAWFAS uses a web-based Microsoft SharePoint (SharePoint) application to support a common document repository and collaborative tools.
• Regarding operational readiness, the LAWFAS service had been considered under the Readiness Action Plan (RAP) Minimum Military Requirements, which means that LAWFAS is meant to support NATO Force Integration Unit personnel and other RAP-related personnel.
• As detailed below, contractor services are required to curate the information in the document repository and make it readily available and usable to LAWFAS users through continual development and improvement of the platform.
• It must be noted that one of the biggest challenges NATO faces is how to effectively connect and communicate within a segmented command structure. LAWFAS is used as a tool to mitigate this challenge for the NATO legal community by bridging organizational seams and linking offices that are, in many use cases, not within the same command structure. LAWFAS encourages communication within the large NATO legal community by providing an accessible, curated repository of information (such as NATO treaties and agreements, polices, directives, and procedures) that increases common knowledge. Through the SharePoint feature of colleaguefinder, LAWFAS also offers the ability to search for and connect qualified NATO legal experts with one another. Like any SharePoint application, it also provides controlled-access spaces for active collaboration on version-controlled documents between colleagues who may be in a single office, different countries, or even on different continents.
• An important goal of LAWFAS is to build better institutional memory. Relying on the Connected Forces Initiative concepts of interoperability through expanded education and training, exercises, and better use of technology, LAWFAS is establishing procedures to retain and retrieve information that has legal significance. This is particularly critical for operations and missions where the many types of legal issues faced at the different commands and regions of the theatre require extensive documentation and thoughtful evaluation. LAWFAS can be used to access key legal information whether users are at their desk in Mons, deployed, or even sitting in the white cell during NATO exercises. Relying on the NATO Special Operations Headquarters' proven information knowledge management (IKM) concepts, and applying the NATO Headquarters document management taxonomy, LAWFAS will remain constantly available despite troop rotations, staff changes, decommissioning of commands, and the opening and closing of operational theatres.
• Initially operational only on the unclassified NATO network, LAWFAS has been deployed also on the NATO classified systems. Deploying LAWFAS on the classified network has expanded its usefulness as a tool for information sharing and collaboration for theatre locations and other operational commands connected to those systems.
• LAWFAS provides NATO with a tailored capability for distributing pre-deployment legal training, retaining lessons learned, delivering continuing legal education, and providing a way for NATO to institutionalize its legal knowledge.

Role Duties and Responsibilities

• Consolidate and publish information on LAWFAS:
  • Define publishing workflows
  • Upload and collect missing/new documents
  • Review of uploaded documents
  • Complete metadata
  • Publish reviewed documents to authorized users
• Curate information in the LAWFAS platform consistent with organizational policies and procedures for records and knowledge management and best practices.
• Provide document search and related legal research support services to OLA and other authorized LAWFAS users using LAWFAS and other databases, repositories, procedures, and forms made available pursuant to paragraph 9, above.
• Provide subject matter expert advice to guide LAWFAS development including functional implementation, data configuration management, database usability, data migration, and problem correction.
• Capture user requirements and produce use cases to guide LAWFAS functional enhancements.
• Provide of subject matter expert technical support in the event of LAWFAS project meetings, including with LAWFAS demonstration or multimedia tools.
• Develop collaboration workflows and/or workspaces for ACO OLA and other NATO entities. Prepare technical, functional, and user documentation.
• Prepare test scenarios for formal testing of LAWFAS developments.
• Archive OLA letters, agreements, and other key documents. Maintain and enforce agreed data standards and data management practices. Explore other available legal data bases for the collection and update of LAWFAS documents and OLA archives.
• Provide help desk assistance to LAWFAS users.
• Develop LAWFAS data import and export services, and prepare required reports.
• Develop and maintain reference data, templates, business rules, and workflows to meet knowledge management and information life cycle requirements.
• Develop technical solutions in liaison with appropriate NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) staff.
• Develop LAWFAS sites to facilitate access to SHAPE and HQ SACT Central Repositories of International Agreements records and archives with appropriate access controls.
• Develop and prepare statistical analyses of LAWFAS data, as required.
• Assist in the preparation and development of protocol and conference related activities for LAWFAS-related NATO legal community collaboration forums.
• Create and maintain LAWFAS knowledge management resources in support of OLA newcomers, hand over take over files, legal offices SOPs, and OLA events as instructed.
• Provide LAWFAS user training.
• Perform other related paralegal and administrative support of OLA collaborative platforms and processes.

Essential Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Competency in records and knowledge management and document library curation demonstrated through relevant experience or training.
• One year of experience in the last three (3) years in supporting a common document repository and collaborative tool and platform comparable to LAWFAS as described above;
• Practical experience in the design, development, implementation, testing and maintenance of a document repository, knowledge management system, or records management system integrating new policies, processes, technology and organization;

Desirable Skills, Experience and Certifications

• Experience working in or with NATO;
• Professional knowledge of French language;
• Experience or training in databases.
• Capable of working harmoniously and tactfully in a multi-national, multi-cultural environment;
• Capable of working effectively, providing structured and organised skills;
• Good communications skills;
• Capable of working independently;
• Capable of effectively liaising with military and civilian senior management personnel.

Language

• Business English

Working Location

• Mons, Belgium

Working Policy

• On-site (with possibility of working Remote in some circumstances)

Travel

• Some travel to other NATO sites may be required

Security Clearance

• Valid National or NATO Secret personal security clearance