Position Title: Sr. Legal Counsel
Department: Legal
Location: Austin, TX or Remote U.S.
Position Summary
Reporting to the Associate General Counsel, the Senior Counsel will be a key member of the North America Legal Team and will provide legal support for the company's established and growing utility-scale, solar energy and energy storage pipeline in the U.S. and Canada. The Senior Counsel's role will focus on Real Estate, Land Acquisition, Environmental/Permitting and Development activities and will have access and regular communications with all functional teams across the organization, including Project Finance, Construction, Operations and Tax. The ideal candidate will be a strong technical attorney and a pragmatic businessperson.
Responsibilities
• Interacts with a variety of external counterparties, including title companies, environmental and tax consultants, outside counsel, lenders, and investors.
• Act as the primary attorney to oversee all strategic real estate legal support for site control, project finance and M&A transactions, including conducting and responding to due diligence inquiries and drafting, reviewing, negotiating, and managing real estate provisions in LOIs/terms sheets, real estate agreements and closing deliverables for real estate, permitting/environmental and real property tax abatement matters.
• Review title commitments, title proformas, title policies and surveys, and oversee title curative work in connection with project development, finance, construction and/or operations.
• Provide general real estate legal support for all aspects of project development, including project design, site control, tax abatement, permitting, interconnection, offtake, and financing opportunities.
• Provide general corporate real estate legal support to the corporate team in connection with corporate facilities.
• Manage, develop, and oversee internal real estate legal processes.
• Develop legal strategies for new and innovative transactions, including finance structures and site control for new types of renewable projects.
• Coordinate with and oversee outside real estate, tax and permitting legal counsel and consultants, as needed.
• Assist with various corporate and governance matters.
• Significant direct financial impact.
Requirements
• U.S.-credentialed law degree from a top-tier ABA accredited law school.
• Minimum of 5 years of substantial experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating real estate agreements within a top-tier law firm and/or corporate legal department.
• Demonstrated real estate experience with all aspects of project development, including site control, permitting, interconnection, offtake opportunities, and financing.
• Experience working specifically on utility-scale solar energy and/or battery storage projects preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with outside parties, including title companies, consultants, lenders and investors.
• Responsive and hardworking, ability to manage heavy workload in fast-paced environment with minimal oversight.
• Excellent organizational and planning skills, with meticulous attention to detail.
• Ability to work as a team member and maintain relationships across the organization.
• Clear communicator, comfortable explaining issues to junior commercial team members and presenting risks and structures to executive team.
• Ability to uphold standards of discretion and confidentiality and exercise good judgment.
• Entrepreneurial, creative, and strategic.
• Travel required 0 - 15%.
