Lawyer, Accountable Corporations (0905)

This position is an excellent opportunity for a German-qualified lawyer with a strong corporate or commercial background and litigation experience to make a key contribution to the work of our accountable corporations team. The team uses corporate and financial laws to drive greater intergration of climate- and nature-related risks into the management decisions of companies and influential actors in the corporate sector.

You will use your expertise to support and implement strategic legal interventions, including strategic litigation and advocacy with the objective of encouraging a shift towards a cleaner, more sustainable, and resilient economic system that operates within planetary boundaries, ensures access to justice and accountability for negative environmental externalities and prevents greenwashing. Your focus will be to support and develop opportunities in Germany and other EU and European jurisdictions for the work of the accountable corporations team.

Meet your Manager

In this role, you will be managed by Johnny White. Johnny joined ClientEarth in 2020. He lives in London with his family and children and enjoys cooking and running in his spare time. Before joining ClientEarth, he worked as a litigation and disputes lawyer at the international law firm Clifford Chance. He works with the lawyers in the Accountable Corporations team to design and implement ambitious legal strategies focussed on systemic impact..

Main Duties

• Contributing to the strategic direction of work to hold corporates to account in Germany and other focus countries and further planning, developing and implementing the strategy in line with ClientEarth’s global and regional priorities and ClientEarth’s decision-making procedures;
• Contributing to the selection, development, and management of litigation and other legal interventions and managing cases, including providing high quality legal input e.g. for court and regulatory submissions and legal letters;
• Undertaking advocacy with relevant stakeholders at the national and potentially regional level, including politicians, government advisers, private sector actors and NGOs and preparing consultation responses;

See the job description (below) for a full list of duties for this role.

Role requirements

• Fluent (CEFR level C2) in German
• Fluent (CEFR level C2) in English
• First and Second State Examinations
• Professional experience in private practice or a relevant in-house role with focus on environmental, corporate, commercial or corporate finance law in Germany
• Experience in managing commercial litigation or supporting strategic litigation

See the job description (below) for a full list of requirements for this role.

While this position is initially on a limited contract, all staff at ClientEarth have the opportunity to apply for positions that regularly open up across the organisation, including permanent ones.

Note to candidates: We know that long lists of criteria can be daunting and that some candidates will not apply for a role unless they feel they are 100% qualified. If you feel you meet at least some of the essential criteria, we still encourage you to apply.

Further Information

Have a question about this job? Please visit our Careers site for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

Flexible working: We are proud to be a Flexa accredited Employer. Visit our Flexa Employer page for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based See our Benefits page for more as well as our flexible working FAQ.

ClientEarth values diversity and inclusion and the benefits this brings. We aim to appoint the most suitable candidate at all times and welcome applications from people from all different backgrounds. See our equity, diversity and inclusion journey page for more.

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in Germany.

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.