Projects Associate Director/Legal Director

"A firm of great experience in energy matters and has a thriving renewable energy practice"

Overview

We have an exciting new opportunity for an experienced energy lawyer to join our  brilliant Energy Projects team in either Bristol or London. You will be a central senior member of our market-leading energy practice, and have a particular focus on energy market commercial and regulatory advisory mandates.

This will cover: grid connection and use of system arrangements; energy offtake agreements (including corporate PPAs); and complex optimisation and route to market structures across power, renewables and storage. The role combines high quality transactional support with cutting edge regulatory advice in a rapidly evolving energy market.

You will also be given responsibility for building client relationships and business development whilst working in a supportive team environment. A key part of the role is your ability to work proactively and collaboratively with the other team members, and we expect you to have a strong interest in working with the partners to develop and supervise more junior talent.

The team

The Energy Projects team is split between Bristol and London, and works closely with other service lines in our Energy and Energy Transition sector You will work directly with a number of Partners in the team and will be a key team member for providing support, supervision and leadership to the rest of the team. Our Energy and Energy Transition team is particularly well known for the depth of its experience in the Renewables sector (including storage), but successful candidates are also likely to have experience in conventional power and/or energy transition technologies.

 Key responsibilities

Your key responsibilities will include being part of a team that provides complex, commercial advice in the following areas:

• Regulation and market design
• Advising generators, investors, developers, and other market participants on UK energy regulation, policy and market design (including liaising with our European colleagues on cross-border regulatory matters)
• Providing detailed advice on: (1) licence conditions, industry codes and frameworks (e.g., Electricity Act, Ofgem rules and consultations, CUSC, BSC, Grid Code); and (2) Capacity Market rules, the CfD and new revenue support mechanisms (RAB, cap and floor etc)
• Creating and sharing knowhow on regulatory change (e.g., network charging reforms, access/queue management, code governance reforms, REMA/electricity market design) and supporting client engagement with regulators and industry bodies.
• Grid connection and network arrangements
• Drafting, negotiating and advising on grid connection and use-of-system arrangements at transmission and distribution level (e.g. CUSC, Connection Offers/Agreements, Grid Sharing arrangements).
• Supporting due diligence on grid connection issues (including connection reform) for M&A and project finance mandates.
• Offtake and route to market
• Structuring, drafting and negotiating PPAs and related offtake instruments: corporate PPAs (sleeved and virtual/synthetic), private wire PPAs, utility and route to market PPAs, tolling, balancing and other optimisation services, ancillary services and capacity agreements.
• Advising on novel revenue stacks and merchant opportunities for renewable and storage projects (including asset optimisation, co-location, and optimisation of constraints).
• Transactions and projects
• Supporting  M&A and project finance transactions with specialist regulatory, grid and offtake workstreams.
• Coordinate multi jurisdictional advice with local counsel and internal specialists (competition, public law/procurement, planning, real estate, tax, construction).

In delivering the above scope of work, we expect that you will:

• Client service and practice development
• Act as a trusted advisor; lead negotiations and manage complex workstreams efficiently
• Help supervise and develop junior lawyers and trainees; contribute to precedents and know how
• Produce client alerts, thought leadership and training on emerging regulatory and market issues
• Support business development, pitches and key account plans
• Risk and financials
• Manage matters to scope, budget and timelines; ensure compliance with internal risk, confidentiality and information security processes.
• Contribute to team financial performance (utilisation, recovery, matter profitability)

Candidate Profile: 

Essential experience

• Experience in energy regulation and commercial/transactional work within a leading law firm or in house at an energy company.
• Strong track record advising on the energy market areas noted above
• Comfortable leading negotiations and interfacing with technical, commercial and financing teams
• Excellent drafting skills and the ability to translate complex regulation into pragmatic, commercially focused advice
• Collaborative mindset; confident supervising juniors and coordinating multidisciplinary teams. A strong team player, with a proven track record of having led and/or helped develop a team of junior lawyers.

Desirable experience

• Track record of having advised on novel energy transition technologies, including hydrogen, CCUS, long-duration storage, behind-the-meter structures, heat networks and/or interconnectors.

What we offer

• High profile mandates across renewables, storage, hydrogen, flexibility, and new energy technologies.
• Excellent candidate profile across one of our most strategically important sectors
• A collaborative, growth oriented team with genuine responsibility from day one.
• Competitive remuneration and comprehensive benefits.
• Flexible/hybrid working and support for continued professional development.

Your career development

Like all our lawyers, you will benefit from our multi-award winning career development programme. At each stage of your career this provides you with:

• clear expectations of your role and what it takes to progress;
• high quality clients and work, with early responsibility and client exposure;
• thorough assessment and individual feedback from a range of experienced colleagues;
• robust technical training with early skills based development, increasingly tailored to you; and
• reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure.