Brief row interrupted by male standing up (5)
I believe the answer is:
remit
'brief' is the definition.
(both can mean someone's responsibilities)
'row interrupted by male standing up' is the wordplay.
'row' becomes 'tier' (a tier is a row of things).
'interrupted by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'standing up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in a down clue up is reverse order).
'tier' going around 'm' is 'timer'.
'timer' backwards is 'REMIT'.
(Other definitions for remit that I've seen before include "Brief - transfer" , "Send - terms of reference" , "Pay; mail" , "Task/area assigned (to an organisation)" , "Desist from" .)