Senior Associate - Built Environment

Closing date: 9am on Tuesday 28 May 2024. We expect first round interviews to take place in the week commencing Monday 10 June 2024.

Start date: ASAP

Job location: Predominantly remote, UK. However, this role will involve in-person networking as well as relationship building and management (for example, one-to-one meetings, attending sector events and networking opportunities to support senior colleagues), so a London-based candidate, or a candidate with easy access to London, is preferred. Candidates must be UK-based

Job type: Permanent

Hours: Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm; 25 days holiday p.a. plus public holidays

Salary: £50,000 - 70,000 gross p.a., depending on experience

Reporting to: Head of Built Environment

Who are we

The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP) is the largest network of lawyers and business leaders using commercial contracts to deliver rapid decarbonisation globally. We work internationally with large public and private sector organisations (and the lawyers who advise them) to deliver fast and fair decarbonisation through contracts. We do this because contracts govern the entire global economy, and we believe that changing these contracts is one of the fastest ways of tackling the climate crisis. We do this by publishing open-source content, building networks of practitioners and engaging directly with organisations and governments in over 110 countries.

Learn more about us:

• Read our summary strategy, and our approach to delivering this strategy in high impact sectors.
• Explore our website including our careers page
• Review some of our content such as our contract clauses, guides and case studies

Purpose of the role

The Chancery Lane Project is looking for a full-time, permanent Senior Associate to work within our dedicated built environment sector team. The successful candidate will promote the widespread use of contracts as a tool for achieving decarbonisation in this high-emitting sector.

What you’ll do

• Work closely with the Head of Built Environment and Sector Relationship Manager to implement our sector strategy.
• Support the sector team to develop strategies that scale our impact for an international audience.
• Identify, develop, and deliver engagement and outreach activities with our target audiences. 
• Seek out, build, and nurture trusted relationships with key sector actors and networks. 
• Empower these actors and networks to use contracts to reduce emissions and support them with forward planning.
• Use your sector specialist knowledge to get feedback from target audiences and work with our legal editorial team to ensure that our content (guides, clauses, and glossary terms) is relevant and of the highest quality.
• Be prepared to either lead or assist with a range of engagement activities including in-person and virtual presentations, speaking events, and training workshops.
• Ensure that TCLP plays a powerful role in the decarbonisation of the built environment.

If your experience differs from the criteria above and below, but you believe that you would still be an excellent fit for this role, please contact us for an initial discussion at [email removed - click apply for more details]. 

You should apply if

General qualifications and experience

• You have at least 4 years’ post-qualification experience as a lawyer advising on construction and/or real estate transactions (solicitor, barrister, or in-house). 
• You can show evidence of subject matter expertise across the built environment sector, including: 
• experience across the contracts and contracting arrangements commonly used within the built environment,
• deep knowledge of how sector contracts are written, negotiated, and work in practice, and
• a sound understanding of the commercial factors that underpin construction and real estate transactions.
• You are interested in learning about:
• how the built environment functions as a complex system and how this translates into our strategy, and
• how the use of non-contentious law can result in decarbonisation.
• You are able to identify new opportunities for adapting sector specific legal documents to reduce emissions, and horizon scan for latest developments in the sector and the law that applies to them.

Engaging with our target audiences

• You enjoy meeting people and developing and nurturing relationships with them.
• You have some experience of effective business development or relationship management in any context.
• You have strong written and verbal communication skills.
• You are highly skilled in negotiation and persuasion, with a demonstrable ability to tailor your approach to your audience’s interests and expertise.
• You are comfortable talking at events, workshops, and in 1:1 meetings.
• You are committed to taking action to deliver tangible and systemic change in combatting the climate crisis.

Delivering a project or team strategy

• You have demonstrable experience of working in a team to achieve a particular strategy or project aim.
• You can show evidence of using creativity and lateral thinking to solve complex problems.
• You can synthesise large quantities of information and distil relevant data to inform strategic decision making. 

Teamwork, leadership and prioritisation

• You are organised and methodical, with effective project management and prioritisation skills that allow you to maximise impact.
• You are accustomed to working in fast paced, dynamic environments within high performing teams.
• You are highly self-motivated and can work just as effectively on your own as well as in a team. 
• You’re energised by working with others and enjoy collaboration. 
• You value inclusivity, and use empathy and compassion in the workplace.
• You have a passion for learning and enjoy sharing and recording things you learn.  
• You have a genuine commitment to personal and professional development.
• You think independently and are unafraid to share your views.
• You can take a step back and reflect on effective ways of working.
• You enjoy having a high degree of agility and variety in your work, constantly strategising to ensure you deliver the most impact with your work. This means you’ll understand when to change course and how to move quickly to re-group and re-deploy.

We would like to hear from a diverse range of candidates. If your experience doesn’t fit squarely within this job description, but you are deeply passionate about working at the intersection of climate change and mainstream law, and you have relevant built environment experience, then we’d still love to hear from you. You can put in an application or contact [email removed - click apply for more details] for an informal chat before you apply.

What you’ll receive in return 

• The opportunity to use your specialist legal knowledge, skills, and experience to take meaningful action for climate and do work that aligns with your values.
• The opportunity to network widely with critical decision-makers and stakeholders in significant organisations, across the global business and legal community. 
• Flexible working and a culture that genuinely puts family and a work-life balance first. 
• A fast-paced, respectful, and people-forward working culture which places a high level of importance on inclusivity and empathy for employees as individuals. 
• 25 days holiday per year plus public holidays.
• The option of additional holidays to reward sustainable modes of travel.
• 8% employer pension contribution, 4% employee contribution.
• A cash health plan.
• An Employee Assistance Programme.
• A commitment to professional development opportunities.
• Fully remote working, with the option of using an office or co-working space anywhere near you, for up to three days per week, as we understand some people enjoy a change of scenery and working from an office. 
• Modern tools that let you get on with your job, such as Slack, Google Suite, and Notion.

Who you’ll work with

You’ll join a growing organisation of 20 highly motivated people. We’re collaborative, supportive, and we value learning from each other. The built environment sector team will be a team of 3. You’ll report to our Head of Built Environment, and work closely with other members of the wider organisation. For now, you won’t line manage anyone, but that may change as we grow.

Despite being a remote organisation, we have built a supportive and sociable work culture. We encourage colleagues who live near each other to meet and work together too, if they want to. Many of our team are based in London and our management team meets in London at least once a month. Twice a year, the entire organisation meets for two days in person, which encourages deeper, richer conversations about our strategy, and allows us to work creatively as a whole team to promote better ways of working and increasing our impact.

Application and interview process

Candidates must have the right to work in the UK (you will be asked to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK if you are invited to interview).

Apply through our careers page with a CV (no more than 3 sides of A4) and cover letter (no more than 2 sides of A4). Your cover letter will: 

• demonstrate how you meet the knowledge, skills, and experience in the person specification above. If you don’t quite meet all of the criteria, then tell us about how you would use transferable skills to close the knowledge or experience gaps you have
• confirm your right to work in the UK
• include your notice period
• explain any substantial gaps in your CV.

Interview structure:

• First stage: a virtual 1 hour interview with a small panel from our team. 
• Second stage: an in-person 1.5 hour interview in London with a small panel from our team. You’ll prepare a short exercise in advance, for discussion during the interview.
• Third stage - learn about us from our team: if you’re successful at the second interview, you’ll have a short call with 1 or 2 members of our team where you can have an open conversation about what it’s like to work at TCLP, our culture, and ask any other questions you might have.  
• Offer: we’ll contact the successful candidate with an offer as soon as we can after the third stage. If you’re unsuccessful in the final round, we’ll give you feedback to explain why.

The ease and accessibility of our recruitment process for you is important to us! If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments to the hiring process, email [email removed - click apply for more details].   

Applicant privacy notice

By submitting your application, you allow us to keep your data on file. We store all data in line with UK GDPR regulations which can be found here.