Lawyer, Commercial Law Unit

Department of Education; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Department of Education in Victoria is seeking a lawyer to advance their legal career within the Commercial Law Unit of the Commercial and Legislation Law branch in the Legal Division. The role involves delivering specialist advice on commercial law matters and risk management for schools and the department, with supervision from Senior Lawyers as needed.

It is an ongoing, full-time position offering flexible and hybrid working arrangements to support your work and personal commitments

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with interest and developing expertise in commercial law.
• Experience providing commercial legal advice in government context desirable.
• Ability to seek guidance and supervision from Senior Lawyers.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist and strategic legal advice on commercial law matters and risk management for schools and the corporate department.
• Collaborate with Senior Lawyers to seek guidance and supervision when needed.

Job description

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a lawyer to advance their legal career working in an outstanding legal team, in the Commercial Law Unit of the Commercial and Legislation Law branch in the Legal Division of the Department of Education. The role is ongoing.

About us

The Department of Education (the department) is responsible for delivering and regulating state-wide learning and development services to approximately one-third of all Victorians across the early childhood and school education sectors. The department is also one of Victoria's biggest employers, with approximately 80,000 teaching staff and around 5,000 public service employees. The Legal Division provides highly valued legal services to support the delivery of the department's strategic objectives, key reforms and to manage legal risk. In doing so, Legal Division provides direct, practical and strategic legal advice to portfolio ministers, the secretary, other senior staff and over 1,600 government schools, supporting approximately over 650,000 Victorian Government school students.

About the role – fulltime, ongoing

The role supports the work of the Commercial Law team to provide specialist, technical and strategic legal advice on commercial law matters and risk management in relation to schools and the corporate department. The role requires a lawyer with a demonstrated interest and developing expertise in commercial law. Experience providing commercial legal advice in a government context is desirable, but not essential. The role also requires a lawyer with good judgment who knows when to accelerate matters, proactively seeks guidance, feedback and supervision from Senior Lawyers, and pursues and resolves ambiguities where possible.

W hy join us?

• Meaningful work that is varied, satisfying and rewarding – A career as a government lawyer provides opportunities that are unrivalled by the private sector. Scale, impact and richness of work sets the public sector apart from almost every other employer. To find out more about the wide range of opportunities for bright publicly minded lawyers visit Legal profession | vic.gov.au
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements — Part time, flexible start and finish times, work from home to help manage your work and personal commitments.
• Competitive salary – Annual salary increases in line with the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement
• Diversity and inclusion - As one of Victoria's largest employers, the department is committed to creating an organisation that is inclusive and ensuring it has a workforce that represents the community it serves.
• Values – The department has adopted the public sector values which are set out in the Code of Conduct for Victorian Public Sector Employees, which are Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. The department's Values underpin how we interact with colleagues, students and families, members of the community, suppliers and government.
• Employee assistance program — For emotional, mental and general psychological wellbeing and support

Application closes 11:59pm on Wednesday, 21st October 2026