Legal Manager - Agriculture And Land Use

Location: London-based or remote, as long as travel to the office in London for two consecutive days per month is feasible 

Salary: £50,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension; 4 day full-time work week (Monday – Thursday) 

Please note that we are currently hiring for two new positions in Opportunity Green’s legal team. Please only apply for one position (i.e., the position you think you are most suited to and are most interested in), but note that we may consider you for other suitable positions if appropriate and will contact you if this is the case.

About us: 

Established in 2021, Opportunity Green is a fast-growing not-for-profit organisation that helps to identify and unlock opportunities to tackle climate change. We build ambitious coalitions, support climate vulnerable countries in international negotiations and find innovative legal pathways to fight climate change.

Our legal team works on climate legal actions relating to the aviation, shipping, buildings, and steel sectors in the UK, EU, and internationally. We provide strategic legal analysis to support decarbonisation in these sectors; undertake legal interventions, including legal challenges and litigation; and undertake legal advocacy, including submissions to international courts, states, and the United Nations. 

We are now looking for a Legal Manager to help scope the potential to use legal levers to drive decarbonisation in the Agriculture and Land Use sector.

What’s the role? 

Reporting to Opportunity Green’s Legal Director, you will be responsible for leading our new legal work on Agriculture and Land Use, including strategic legal analysis and interventions. You will be undertaking initial legal research to identify and develop legal strategies for driving decarbonisation in the Agriculture and Land Use sectors. You will then use your legal skills to lead the implementation of such strategies, with the support of the wider legal team.

You will be working at the cutting edge of climate law in new and emerging areas, and will help identify and develop strategic legal action ideas that aim to drive system change in these sectors. You will use your legal skills to think outside of the box and develop innovative legal pathways for change in these sectors, with a view to taking forward the most promising actions.

You will work closely with a wide range of NGOs across Europe to obtain technical and policy insight on your ideas to help you develop them into actionable concepts.

Our legal team is already achieving outsized impact with a great team spirit. We are looking for someone who is analytical and organised, but who is also a people person with great communication skills, a collaborative approach and a passion for fighting climate change. Opportunity Green is a growing organisation so you will also be involved in supporting other aspects of work, such as contributing to funding proposals, developing campaign strategy, providing legal input into communications, and taking part in our committees.

About the candidate 

We are looking for a candidate with: 

• A passion for using their legal skills to tackle climate change.

Desirable skills and experience: 

We do not expect any candidate to have all skills listed below but rather we look for transferable skills and potential as well as past experience. 

• A high level of self-motivation and commitment to Opportunity Green’s values, ethos and purpose. 
• A law degree or equivalent experience, with post-qualification experience in litigation desirable but not essential. 
• An ability to see solutions to complex problems through a creative legal lens.
• Experience of writing high-quality legal analysis. 
• Excellent attention to detail and an ability to work with technical and legal material, but also an ability to think strategically and not get bogged down in detail when that is unhelpful. 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. 
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively and interact with lawyers and non-lawyers from around the world with kindness and respect. 
• Passion for stopping climate change. 
• Excellent time management, and the ability to meet deadlines, logically tackle problems, and set and communicate priorities.

Diversity and inclusion  

Diversity and inclusion are important principles at Opportunity Green. We believe that diversity and inclusion make teams stronger and more effective. We are committed to fair and equitable employment practices, and we are striving to ensure that a variety of voices and experiences are included in our organisation. Our commitment to diversity and our parental leave policy are available to view on our website, here. 

We will consider all applicants who meet most or all of the essential competencies regardless of their identity or background. That said, we know that diverse candidates may be reluctant to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the criteria outlined in the job description. We encourage anyone to apply who can demonstrate the variety of skills and experiences relevant to meeting the requirements of this role.

We recognise that many diverse experiences and perspectives are not represented in our current workforce, and are seriously underrepresented across the non-profit sector in general, and as such, we particularly welcome applications from people with disabilities, people of colour, people from marginalised backgrounds, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these groups if two candidates are equally qualified. We also value flexible working and are open to those who would want to work part-time in this role.

What we offer 

The successful candidate will be offered an annual salary of £50,000 plus 10% employer-contributed pension. Please note that Opportunity Green has fixed salary scales, with the possibility of step increases with strong performance. When hiring we always hire at the bottom of a band and do not enter negotiations with new employees as negotiations have been historically shown to disadvantage women and minorities. 

We take our team’s well-being and professional development seriously. In addition to a competitive salary, we offer:

• A commitment to work/life balance, with a 4-day work week at 28 hours 
• A generous holiday entitlement of 20 days’ holiday per year, plus bank holidays and office closure between Christmas and New Year’s that does not count towards your holiday entitlement (and expectation that you fully disconnect when taking time off) 
• A market-leading pension of 10%
• A progressive parental leave policy, including 26 weeks’ paid leave for both parents 
• Lots of flexibility within a hybrid working arrangement, with regular opportunities to come together as a team
• Support for your professional development as part of Opportunity Green, with a budget to support your learning & development plus opportunities to lead projects, publish content, learn from experts, work directly with policymakers and stakeholders, and take part in conferences and events. 

However, it is important to note that while this role is permanent, employment is always reliant on Opportunity Green continuing to receive philanthropic support from our funders, which we expect every member of the team to play their part in working towards. 

How to apply: 

Please click here to apply

To minimise the risk of unconscious bias, we ask that applicants remove certain identifying elements from their CVs. If you do not remove these details, we reserve the right to withdraw your application from review.

• Photos 
• Name – if needed, please use ‘Applicant’ 
• Age 
• Email and/or phone number 

Unfortunately, if you do not already hold the right to work in the UK and/or require sponsorship to continue working in the UK, Opportunity Green will not be able to consider your application at this time.

The closing date for applications is 15 July 2024.

What happens next? 

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an online interview to discuss their experience and suitability for the role. After this, candidates that are most suitable for the vacancy will be invited for an in-person interview in our London office, for which there may also be a short task. Travel will be reimbursed for non-London-based applicants (within the UK).

Online interviews are likely to take place w/c 29 July. In person interviews will likely be shortly after this (w/c 12 August).

We reserve the right to ask for references during the recruitment process. 

If you have any questions, or you need additional requirements and/or reasonable adjustments at the application stage, please contact recruitment@opportunitygreen.org 

www.opportunitygreen.org/legal-manager-agriculture-and-land-use