Working in renewables as an in-house lawyer
If you are looking to work in a fast paced, high growth sector of law and help fight climate change, renewable energy might just be the area for you!
Over the last 7 years we have seen tremendous growth within the sector both from start-ups and established multinationals shifting their focus and investment into renewables.
What areas of law are particularly in demand?
- M&A
- Project Financing
- Construction
- Real Estate
- Commercial / Energy
Experience of working within the energy sector whether this is oil / gas or renewables would also be beneficial however many General Counsels are open to lawyers without sector experience. More importantly will be your solutions driven approach to partnering with the business and your desire to fill in the gaps in your knowledge whether technical or commercial.
What can you expect day to day?
If you are joining one of the market leading, international renewables developers you are likely to take on a more focussed position such as M&A /Project finance or EPC contracts. This will enable you to really specialise and work on some of the largest, high profile, projects globally whilst also supporting your colleagues across other areas of law.
In a growth SME you are more likely to take on a wider remit working across the business covering M&A, JV’s, project development, EPC contracts, financing and commercial contracts.
Both will offer you plenty of scope for development and the opportunity to really integrate and add value commercially.
What will be the challenges?
With rapid growth often comes a degree of chaos and you will need to juggle the business needs whilst also helping build out new processes / best practice.
It will be important for you to have the initiative to learn about the commercial and technical aspects of the industry so you can become a trusted business partner who is solutions driven, supporting multiple stakeholders as well as coordinating with external counsel potentially across multiple jurisdictions.
What are the long term career prospects?
There are always likely to be regulatory challenges within the energy sector in different jurisdictions however with renewables being a key focus globally we are likely to see sustained growth and with this development opportunities for in-house lawyers.
Recent examples we have seen include Counsels being promoted into wider international remits, taking the lead on major projects as well as having the opportunity to take on managerial responsibility, developing and building out their own team.
Next steps?
If you are interested in finding out more about working as an in-house renewables lawyer please feel free to reach out to Chris at Mack Legal– for further insight.
Mack Legal is a specialist in-house search and recruitment company. We have developed an in-depth knowledge of the renewables market and continue to support both multinational and growth SMEs build out their in-house legal teams across APAC, EMEA and LATAM.
