Privacy Assistant and Assistant to Associate General Counsel at Thompson Rivers University – Kamloops, British Columbia

The Privacy Assistant helps the Privacy and Access Specialist with privacy compliance and provides professional managerial and administrative assistance to the Associate General Counsel. The incumbent will work closely with Associate General Counsel, the Privacy and Access Specialist, the Manager of Student Judicial Affairs, external counsel retained by the Office of the General Counsel and other senior members of the University community in meeting the responsibilities of the Office.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES
The position is responsible for helping to coordinate functions of Associate General Counsel and the Privacy and Access Specialist. This entails being aware of all aspects of the operations of the Office of General Counsel, understanding their respective importance/priority and communicating with Associate General Counsel to ensure that necessary tasks are accomplished in a timely manner. Other duties include:

• Receiving, prioritizing, and processing all mail, email and voice mail directed to Associate General Counsel with expert judgement and knowledge, including important correspondence and documents in human rights proceedings and lawsuits
• Conducting research for Associate General Counsel and preparing documents based on the research performed.
• Assisting Associate General Counsel with budget and travel.
• Coordinating processes relating to FOI requests.
• Entering information into systems used for tracking FOI requests, privacy complaints, and related files.
• Drafting acknowledgements and other complex correspondence related to FOI requests.
• Locating, gathering, sorting and compiling records in response to FOI requests
• Printing, scanning or copying records and filing them in paper or electronic systems.
• Reviewing records, investigating and determining information that is relevant to FOI requests, and taking appropriate notes.
• Reviewing records to locate sensitive information, such as personal information.
• Redacting sensitive information from documents, as directed by the Privacy and Access Specialist.
• Communicating with faculty, staff and third parties (via email, on the telephone, or in person) about FOI requests and related matters.
• Providing administrative assistance from time to time to assist with matters of student academic integrity; this assistance will include drafting correspondence, tracking responses and contacting parties to academic integrity investigations and appeals.

Inasmuch as the position reports to the Associate General Counsel for the University, the incumbent is bound by and must respect the rules of the solicitor client privilege and lawyer client confidentiality.

The position frequently involves dealing with labour and employment matters and the incumbent deals with the framework of rules and procedures applicable in unionized work environments in British Columbia. Also, the position periodically accepts service of legal process on the University and must react knowledgeably to the various documents that may be served. The incumbent may occasionally be required to file documents in Court registries and retrieve documents from those registries.

The incumbent may be asked to do land title searches and corporate registry searches and must know how to conduct those searches.

The incumbent must develop and maintain comprehensive filing systems including accurate and reliable bring-forward systems.

REPORTS TO
Associate General Counsel

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS

• One year diploma in a related field and at least three years of relevant experience.
• The position requires a high degree of initiative, organizational ability, well developed communication and interpersonal skills, and excellent word processing skills.
• The incumbent is expected to anticipate the needs of Counsel and the Privacy and Access Specialist and take proactive steps to support them in addressing issues.
• The incumbent must possess a professional attitude, maturity, tact, diplomacy, discretion, strong conceptual skills, and the ability to work under pressure.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS/ASSETS

• Education or experience as a paralegal.
• Experience reviewing and organizing records and redacting sensitive information.
• Experience working in a post-secondary, public-sector, or other highly regulated environment.
  

NOTE: To learn more about Thompson Rivers University or living in Kamloops or Williams Lake please visit our Careers website. External Candidates invited to interview will be required to bring a copy of their transcripts to the interview.