Real Estate (Energy/Utilities) Senior Associate/Associate Director

Osborne Clarke; Greater London; Sur place; GBP 90 000 - 120 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Osborne Clarke is seeking a Senior Associate/Associate Director to join its UK Real Estate team, focusing on energy and energy transition matters. You will advise on high-value, strategically important projects, collaborating with partners and cross-disciplinary teams in a collegiate environment.

The role offers potential for leadership within a expanding EET sector, with exposure to major national and international matters.

Qualifications

• Senior Associate/Associate Director level profile with strong Real Estate experience.
• Demonstrable knowledge of energy or utilities projects within real estate.
• Lawyer with experience on large, high-value transactions across EET sector.

Responsabilités

• Advise on high-value energy and energy transition real estate matters.
• Collaborate with partners on large-scale projects and financings.
• Work with cross-disciplinary teams across OC’s UK practice.

Connaissances

Real Estate experience

Energy/Utilities projects

Description du poste

Role profile

"a strong multidisciplinary team that is a go-to for large and complex transactions."– Chambers & Partners

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced senior lawyer to join our UK Real Estate team, focussing on matters within our Energy & Energy Transition ("EET") sector. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing team and advise on high value, strategically important projects within a supportive and collegiate environment.

Our energy and utilities practice

We are widely acknowledged as the leading adviser on the move to a decentralised and decarbonised energy industry and adoption of innovative energy solutions and have adopted decarbonisation as one of the themes underpinning the firm's Transformational strategy. As well as advising our clients within this space, we are also helping major corporates meet their net zero commitments from an energy perspective.

Our Real Estate energy team focuses on acting for institutional investors, funders in and developers of renewables and energy innovation projects. We have extensive experience in providing real estate advice to our high profile clients on an extensive variety of energy projects, including solar, wind, battery storage, energy from waste and hydro power.

Our Real Estate utilities team works with English and Welsh utility companies, including those in the electricity, water and gas industries, on a wide variety of work including all land rights and consenting matters. Both contentious and non-contentious. The team also work with clients on large scale compulsory schemes – both CPO and DCO led.

Osborne Clarke’s wider real estate team acts on a comprehensive range of high value and complex investment, development and other transactional matters, including corporate structured deals, joint ventures and financings. The team works day to day alongside our construction, real estate disputes, planning, corporate and funds and finance teams.

The team

Our Real Estate team is based across Bristol, Reading and London and is made up of over 100 Fee-earners, including 22 partners.

We are looking to recruit a Real Estate lawyer with experience in either energy or utilities. Our Real Estate energy and utilities team is led by Partners, Charlotte Walker (energy) and Jonathan Mills (utilities). You will work closely with Charlotte and/or Jonathan (depending on the matter in hand) and also have the opportunity to work with the head of our UK EET sector, Matt Lewis (Partner) alongside several other Partners and senior lawyers with a focus on large-scale transactions across the EETsector. There will also be plenty of scope to work with colleagues across different service lines, given the nature of the work.

The work

Recent Work Examples Include

• Advised long standing client and leading independent infrastructure and private equity investment manager, Foresight, on an £80 million investment by two of its funds into a portfolio of biomethane Compressed Natural Gas refuelling stations for HGVs, which will enable fleets to switch from diesel to carbon-neutral fuel.
• Advised Foresight Solar on the £245m debt refinancing of a portfolio of 28 UK solar assets.
• We represented Aberdeen Standard Investments on the £105m refinancing of Albion Capital's Albion Community Power UK-based renewable energy portfolio.
• We acted for The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) on its acquisition of the Neilston Wind Farm and InfraRed Capital Partners Limited in its acquisition, development and subsequent sale of the 50MW Afton Wind Farm.
• Advised specialist asset manager Gresham House on its acquisition of a 50MW solar farm from Anesco as part of a £100 million partnership. Gresham House and Anesco signed a three-year development and construction agreement back in January, which will see them develop a 200MW ground mounted solar PV portfolio in the UK.
• We advised Green Frog Power on the refinancing with Macquarie and buy-out of their 214MW STOR operations and InfraRed on the sale of the Viridis 230MW CM-backed gas-peaking portfolio.
• Advised National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) on the DCO for the connection to RWE's Brechfa Windfarm. The project included the consenting of the electricity line and compulsory purchase of 32km of overhead and underground 132kV. It includes acquisition on land rights from the Crown on tidal waters across the Towy River.
• Advised on the Bicester to East Claydon Connection Project as sole advisor to Southern Electric Power Distribution (SEPD) on its first schedule 3 Electricity Act CPO. OC provided full-service support, including land rights and compulsory purchase strategy.
• SEPD - Project 500: sole adviser on a distribution network reinforcement project, securing voluntary arrangements with approximately 500 landowners.
• Advised Ecotricity on the successful promotion of the Heckington Fen Solar Park Order 2025 (a c.500MW solar farm DCO with 400MW of energy storage, 400kV 9km cable route, and NGET extension), including all aspects of the environmental impacts and grid connection options in Lincolnshire including interactions and commercial arrangements with Triton Knoll OFTO and Viking Link Interconnector.
• Advising NGED on acquisition and development strategy for various primary substation developments required to facilitate the HS2 Project. This included advising on the scope of HS2's powers, negotiating the terms of the relevant GVDs, advising NGED on permission requirements, including relevant environmental permissions, assisting with the appeal of a planning refusal and assisting in the acquisition of land rights required.
• Acting for NGED and advising on all aspects of the HS2 Hybrid Acts, including negotiating the design and construction agreement, drafting precedent GVDs used in the project, assisting in the project management of all required diversions and new connections, settling disputes around NRSWA, addressing landowner claims and disputes, including those escalated to MPs, assisting in the external comms strategy for the project, securing land rights for the project and resolving day to day project management issues with HS2 and the DfT.

Technical Skills And Experience

You will have gained experience within a well-respected Real Estate practice and be able to demonstrate a range of knowledge and experience of energy or utilities projects.

Due to the structure of the team and fast growth of our EET sector, we are looking to appoint a Senior Associate or Associate Director with a passion for this area.

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
• Reward for your contribution, progression and potential, rather than PQE or tenure

About Us

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations*. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

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