Legal Services for Terre des hommes Foundation 

Terre des hommes (Tdh) Palestine delegation is seeking the services of an attorney/Law Firm in Palestine / Israel to provide legal services based on a retainer agreement.

Organization and Context background information

Created in 1960, the Foundation of Terre des hommes Lausanne (Tdh) mission is to defend and promote the rights of children, in humanitarian as well as development contexts. Today, Terre des hommes Foundation is the largest non-governmental organization (NGO) for children’s aid in Switzerland. Tdh implements projects and programs in more than 40 countries, including Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt in MENA. 

Tdh opened its delegation in Palestine in 1973 and currently implements a program focused on Access to Justice for children in conflict and in contact with the law and on Child Protection in Gaza and West Bank. 

Tdh Palestine delegation manages a total annual budget of 1 million USD for of 2020 with projects funded by several donors such as: UNOCHA, UNICEF and Tdh own funds.

The main office is located in Jerusalem with one field office in Gaza. The delegation comprises a total of 10 employees and some volunteers.  

Objective and deliverables of the services

The objective of the services requested is to ensure understanding and compliance with the Palestine and Israel legal framework related to regional and national INGO operations, and to build mutual trust between the organisation and various stakeholders, including the relevant governmental ministries, based on a robust and credible legal approach by providing the following services: 

1. Act as an official legal representative for Tdh Country Office based in Palestine and Israel in liaison with relevant governmental entities;
2. Provide Tdh Palestine with general legal advice, counsel, consultation, opinions and recommendations on a wide variety of legal matters, including but not limited to: different contractual agreements (eg. employment, procurement of goods/services, rental, etc.), the organization written operational policies and procedures and updates on changes to the respective labour laws, NGO, Income Tax and National Insurance laws in Israel and the Palestinian Authority in regard to the Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza operations.
3. Provide legal advice on any issues related to financial regulations relevant to the work of INGOs;
4. Notify Tdh Palestine of significant changes in labor, NGO, Income Tax and National Insurance laws in Palestine and Israel that may affect Tdh or its operations and provide Tdh proactive advice to reduce any significant anticipated or ongoing legal exposure.
5. Furthermore, the legal advisor is expected to give timely updates with the necessary explanations to the organisation’s management team, on any new legislations for data protection/privacy, money laundering or any other regulation that may affect the organization’ legal status;
6. Provide advice to ensure compliance with the country regulations to avoid any penalties;
7. Provide guidance in preparing and updating drafts of the organization written operational and guidance staff manuals and to check if they are in conformity with the Palestine and Israel labour law(s);
8. Review the organizations general agreements to obtain an understanding of the context of the legal aspects and provide the necessary guidance;
9. Review contract templates as well as sample of existing or past contracts of staff and external service providers and make recommendations for enhancing these to better reflect the requirements of the HQ and of the country legislation. The sample of contracts and the recommendations should include those for which there were or are ongoing disputes;
10. Support with visas related issues, entry permissions, work permits and residency, for all employees being those expatriates and national staff as needed;
11. Draft and/or review lease or sale agreements for properties, cars, etc., to be leased and/or purchased by Tdh Palestine related to its work;
12. Provide Tdh with legal advice on all matters involving disputes which may arise from time to time;
13. Attend all meetings, negotiations and discussions where legal opinion is required, if and when requested by Tdh;
14. Coordinate with other special counsels, as needed, to assure proper management of legal issues, and proper coordination and transition of legal issues. 
15. Perform other legal services and tasks, as assigned by Tdh Country Representative or Finance, Admin and HR coordinator. 
16. Perform legal duties such as court cases, when needed, and upon an agreed fee.

Key deliverables

The following deliverables are expected throughout the duration of the retainer contract: 

• Review the HR Regulation document within the 1 month from the start of the agreement and follow up the process of obtaining the necessary approvals 
• Ongoing and official Legal Representation of Tdh Palestine in all matters that the services will be needed; 
• Ad-hoc advice on legal matters as they will arise upon the request of the management team and the Country Representative; 
• Advice and support in obtaining visas, work permits and residencies in case of Tdh facing problems with the authorities; 
• Revisions of all contracts and providing advice in writing; 
• Assessment and advise of our legality compliance in all matters. 

Modalities and Timeline 

The legal services are expected to be carried out within a period of 6 Months, starting from 1st of July 2020 until 31 of December 2020.   

Requirements for the attorney/Law Firm

The eligible expert/s/ Law firm should have the following qualifications and experience:

• The law firm must be licensed in Israel and the Palestinian Authority and readily able to represent Tdh in Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza; 
• The attorney(ies) should have a university degree in Law studies and being certified member(s) of Palestine and Israel Bar Associations;
• At least five years of relevant experience in providing legal services INGOs specifically.
• Excellent command of English Language spoken and written; Arabic as mother tongue; 
• The attorney(ies) will be required to provide written opinions in both Arabic and English languages on certain issues within a limited timeframe.
• Timeliness of response and accessibility to the Attorney is an important aspect of the service.  Accessibility includes the ability to be generally available to attend meetings in person on short notice and the ability to be reached promptly by telephone. Responses need to be in writing.

Application procedure

The application should contain the following information: 

• Letter of Interest to include statement of relevant experience and similar assignments executed in the last five years with other clients (iNGOs);
• CV of the applicant and its partners/lawyers (in case of a Law Firm);
• Financial offer; 
• Confirmation of availability to carry out the work during the six months contract;
• Quotation request form signed and stamped;
• Registration documents “Commercial Register” and “Profession licence”.

All documents shall be submitted electronically within June 16, 2020 to the following email address: [email protected]

Ethical considerations

The consultant/consulting agency must sign the Terre des hommes Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct and be willing to adhere to its principles and expected practices. If a breach of the policy or code of conduct takes place the consultancy will be terminated immediately without any financial burden on Tdh.

Disclaimer on copyright, data protection

All documents, project designs, drawings, data and information shall be treated as confidential and shall not without the written approval of Tdh be made available to any third party. In addition, the consultant(s) formally undertakes not to disclose any parts of the confidential information and shall not, without the written approval of Tdh be made available to any third party. The utilization of the report is solely at the decision and discretion of Tdh. All the documents containing both raw data/materials provided by Tdh and final report, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to Tdh upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written as, and as a result of the research or otherwise related to it, shall remain the property of Tdh. No part of the report shall be reproduced except with the prior, expressed and specific written permission of Tdh.

The attorney(ies) will work directly with the Country Representative, the Senior Management Team and the Finance, Admin and HR Coordinator of Tdh Palestine.

How to Apply 

The application should contain the following information: 

• Letter of Interest to include statement of relevant experience and similar assignments executed in the last five years with other clients (iNGOs);
• CV of the applicant and its partners/lawyers (in case of a Law Firm);
• Financial offer; 

• Confirmation of availability to carry out the work during the six months contract;

• Registration documents “Commercial Register” and “Profession licence”.

All documents shall be submitted electronically within June 16, 2020 to the Following email address: [email protected]