Evidence Caseworker

ABOUT GLAN

The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) works with affected communities to pursue innovative legal actions across borders to challenge states and other powerful actors involved in human rights violations and systemic injustice. Our actions address the most pressing instances of human rights concern and they fall within the following themes: War and occupation; accountability and supply chains; environmental and economic justice; and migration and border violence.

Since our establishment in 2016, we have developed legal strategies directly addressing human rights impacts in over 23 countries and territories. Our cases include the successful legal challenge against imports of cotton produced with forced labour in Xinjiang (East Turkistan) into the UK on behalf of World Uyghur Congress and the climate case against 32 European States before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, brought on behalf of six Portuguese applicants.

More recently, we have supported the preeminent Palestinian human rights organisation Al Haq, to rapidly challenge UK weapons exports to Israel due to the risk of these arms being used in violations of international law. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

GLAN is recruiting for an exciting new role. It would suit someone at the junior level or someone who is interested in moving careers into the evolving area of the use of open source audio visual content in accountability for the world’s worst crimes. You will be joining a team that punches well above its weight – and your work would contribute meaningfully to criminal investigations, in addition to domestic litigation.

This year alone, our team has trained judges and lawyers in Ukraine, secured a ground-breaking precedent which says it is a crime in the UK to knowingly trade in goods produced through Uyghur forced labour, and forced the UK government to revoke all of its arms licences for Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Cases are won and lost on evidence – so you will be performing a truly vital role in our accountability-focused projects. This area is still in development, and you would have the opportunity to perform cutting-edge work with real impact.

We want to hear from all kinds of people for this role – we are looking for potential and acumen, not necessarily just formal qualifications. We know that many of the best people are excluded from obtaining experience and qualifications due to structural inequalities in society, so we are interested in hearing from people who have a passion for this work, but who have been unable to compete with more privileged peers due to such barriers. 

GLAN’s expertise sits at the interface between law and online open source investigations – and we are looking for someone who can prepare detailed, granular digital evidence for use in court. Therefore, we are encouraging applicants with both legal and non legal OSI backgrounds to apply. Training will be provided. Please note that this role will involve reviewing potentially traumatic content where absolutely necessary. You will be provided with vicarious trauma training.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Designing investigation plans and enacting them with our partner organisation, a world-renowned open source investigations outlet
• Collating and arranging information into databases, having regard to data structures that are suitable for legal purposes.
• Entering incidents and evidence into our evidence platform and ensuring immaculate presentation
• Liaising with other leaders in the field to ensure symbiosis of evidence work among organisations
• Describing evidence and drafting summaries to a very high standard according to a style guide
• Working with our OSI team to ensure synergy of processes

GENERAL RESPONSBILITIES

• Undergo ongoing training to stay updated with changes and new developments in the legal field.
• Always conduct yourself in an ethical and professional manner.
• Adhere to all company policies and procedures.
• Undertake any other reasonable task or duty as may be assigned by the Director, Chief Operations Officer, Senior Lawyers or Board of Trustees 

ENCOURAGING DIVERSITY OF PERSPECTIVES AT GLAN

We regret that GLAN’s workforce is currently not representative of society. We seek excellence in our team, and we are aware that in not attracting diversity, we are missing exceptional candidates. We are looking to expand on the range of experiences and perspectives of our colleagues, as we believe this will better serve the people we represent. We especially invite applications from those with knowledge of the language, culture, and political environment of countries in the Global Majority, particularly those in which we currently work.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

You are likely to join the Global Legal Action Network because you are passionate about our work. But here are some other great reasons to work with us:

• Salary £34,000
• Home working
• We’ll enrol you in a pension scheme, with 3% contribution from GLAN if you put in at least 5%.
• We have access to an Employee Assistance Programme.
• 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and three days gifted between Christmas and New Year
• Enhanced maternity, paternity & adoption pay
• Enhanced compassionate & bereavement leave
• Paid wellbeing leave
• Access to co-working spaces
• Homeworking allowance (as per HMRC guidelines)
• Potential for sabbatical leave to support staff who wish to take time away from work to pursue travel, study or other personal life changes

GLAN is open to exploring this as a consultancy arrangement rather than direct employment. In this instance benefits would be discussed. 

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

Applicants wishing to progress their legal training will be performing qualifying work experience for the purposes of the Solicitors Qualification Exam. 

Desirable

Any degree or qualification which has utility in the field of OSI, such as data science, digital forensics, law (in particular evidence law), image science, programming.

EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Experience of writing clearly, concisely and to a high standard
• Experience of working independently to achieve a result.

Desirable

• Experience in online open source investigations
• Demonstrable experience in data-driven journalistic investigations
• Experience in legal practice, in particular in the area of evidential standards and the law of evidence
• Experience in formal investigations, for example in international tribunals or other official war crimes investigations

SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE

Essential

• Energy and drive to create high quality, meaningful work which is performed to a very high standard
• The ability to write clearly and concisely
• Interest in working with granular data; and an interest in organising large amounts of data in a compelling fashion
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy
• A track record of self motivated work
• The ability to organise complex work-streams
• A strong sense of justice and inclusion

Desirable

Knowledge of Arabic or modern Hebrew. 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

GLAN is a homebased organisation. It is expected you will have an appropriate space, free from distraction, to carry out your duties. You will be required to attend semi-regular meetings & events.

GLAN VALUES

GLAN has a set of core values. As a Evidence Caseworker you would be required to uphold these values:

Community Centred

• Use of open source audio visual content in accountability for the world’s worst crimes against communities.

Partnership Focused

• Designing investigation plans and enacting them with our partner organisation.

Radical

• Committed to deep, systemic change rather than superficial fixes both in how we work and how we run our organisation. We strive to dismantling systems of oppression that perpetuate racial and class inequalities within our organisation and the communities we serve.

Creative

• Continue our ground-breaking precedent for the use of open source technology.

Tenacious

• To be tenacious and passionate for GLAN’s work.