Real Estate (Energy) Associate/Senior Associate (Lawyer)

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

We have an exciting opportunity for a lawyer to join our UK Real Estate team, focussing on matters within our Energy 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

Due to the cross-office nature of our work in this area, we are happy to consider applicants wishing to be based in Bristol, Reading or London.

The 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. In this role you will have the opportunity to be actively involved in some of the most exciting projects that the energy sector has to offer including working with many of the leading players in the UK market.

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 financing s. The team works day to day alongside our construction, real estate disputes, planning, corporate and funds and finance teams and is a powerhouse transactional practice.

In addition to our strong energy practice, we also have extensive expertise in RE investment, RE funds logistics, residential and commercial development, student accommodation, regeneration, telecommunications, utilities and retail.

The team is an integral part of Osborne Clarke's 3D strategy. Combining our legal expertise, sector understanding and transformational insights we are looking at how Urban Dynamics, Decarbonisation and Digitalisation are changing the way we live, work and travel. These insights prove invaluable and thought provoking for our clients as they set their own strategies to navigate through today's evolving environment.

The team

Our Real Estate department is based across Bristol, Reading and London and is made up of over 100 Fee-earners, including 21 partners.

You will have the opportunity to work closely with the head of our UK Energy & Utilities sector, Matt Lewis (Partner) alongside other Partners and senior lawyers with a focus on large-scale transactions across the energy sector. 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 forThe 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

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 projects.

Due to the structure of the team, we are looking to appoint an Associate or Senior Associate with a passion for this area, although we are happy to consider candidates with more or less experience.

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

Salary and benefits

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits .

For more information or to apply

At Osborne Clarke we welcome direct applications - if you would like any further information about the role, or the firm, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact, in complete confidence, Emily Hunaban in the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0117 917 3072.

At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all social backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, gender identities, and sexual or romantic orientations. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and where you 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 support working families via a range of family and caring friendly policies and will accommodate flexible working where we can. We value the health and wellbeing of our people: for example, we're signatories to the Mindful Business Charter, have an active network of mental health champions and offer free initiatives and flexible benefits to all our people.

Being an inclusive employer is important to us. We have made a number of external commitments such as the Race Fairness Commitment and Women in Law Pledge, and are working with organisations like Stonewall to become a more inclusive employer.

Osborne Clarke is a Living Wage Employer, so we're committed to paying everybody in our business enough to live on and to enable them to save for the future.

We want you to be able to show us your best during the recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application, interview process or when working with us, please let us know.