Health and Safety Lawyer

National Grid • Permanent • Warwick, GB • £78k / year • 8m ago

We’re looking for a passionate Qualified Solicitor or Barrister to join our General Counsel Electricity Transmission (ET) Legal team to tackle a broad range of health, safety and environmental issues with the support of our Panel Firms and other subject matter experts.

You will be part of a new Legal Centre of Excellence, working closely with other lawyers, many of whom are experts in their fields, providing support to our Electricity Transmission or Electricity Distribution businesses. Alongside strong legal skills, we’re looking for an individual who is passionate about the energy sector and our net-zero goal. You must have strong commercial awareness and problem-solving abilities, ideally with experience of or in a regulated industry.

This role is based out of our Warwick or Bristol office, and we’d hope to see you at least two days per week but you’re welcome to be in the office more often if that would work best for you. We’re happy to discuss any additional flexibility in working patterns or requirements that you feel could help to make this job work for you!

What You'll Do

Responsibility for delivery and/or management of strategic and business-focused legal advice to NGET and NGED on a wide range of health, safety, and environmental issues.
This will include working with operational colleagues and safety professionals on aspects of our safety and environmental management systems, plus advising on enforcement/prosecutions by the HSE, EA or other statutory regulators following incidents, preferably with some familiarity with personal injury (civil) claims.
Managing external legal service providers to deliver timely advice, and in their conduct of formal proceedings in Court, within budget and demonstrably driving value for money and efficiencies.
Supporting with drafting briefing notes to internal stakeholders (including the Boards) where appropriate.
Supporting the continuous improvement in business performance, including proactively identifying, managing, and mitigating health and safety and environmental risks.
Supporting with presentations and training to other members of the UK Legal team and business teams on relevant topics.

What You'll Have

Qualified Solicitor or Barrister with specialist experience in health and safety and environmental law, acquired in private practice and/or in-house (with at least 5 years PQE).
You will have strong knowledge of health and safety and environmental law (including criminal procedure and practice) and ideally some civil personal injury experience.
Your experience will cover core regulations, but you will be expected to turn your hand to a wide range of regulations and technical issues encountered in the electricity distribution and transmission industries.
You will be able to respond and advise confidently in emergency situations if a serious incident occurs, helping to deal with investigating regulators, being involved in incident investigations to identify root causes and contributory factors, and helping to articulate lessons learned. You will be able to communicate these matters to management, corporate affairs and the workforce.
You will have strong analytical skills and an ability to find practical and efficient solutions, whilst considering reputational matters.
Have a real desire to learn about our assets and infrastructure, to equip you with the technical knowledge you may need to help our colleagues.
Excellent communicator, verbally and in writing, able to listen effectively in a team or business environment.
Effective project manager with the ability to deliver solutions and influence a broad range of internal and external stakeholders.
Sound commercial awareness of the regulated environment in which we operate.
Ability to manage and deliver against competing priorities.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At National Grid, we are committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace for everyone. So, if you’re excited about this role but your experience or qualifications don’t match the job description exactly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be the right person for our growing business in this role or another one.

What You'll Get

Competitive Salary dependent on experience

Plus:

Up to 20% Annual Bonus (based on personal and company performance).
28 days annual leave, plus eight statutory days in addition.
A full electric company car or cash alternative.
Private Medical Insurance.
The option to buy additional or sell holiday days every year.
A generous contributory pension scheme - we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%.
Financial support to help cover the cost of professional membership subscriptions.
Life Insurance 10 x base salary.
Access to benefits such as a share incentive plan, salary sacrifice car and technology schemes, support via employee assistance lines and matched charity giving to name a few.
Family care benefits including a back-up care service for when your usual care arrangements fall through (six paid days each year as standard with the option to purchase further days).
Access to apps which support health, fitness and wellbeing.

Further Information

This is a hybrid working role from our Warwick or Bristol office with circa 2 days in the office. The closing date for this vacancy is Midnight 6 Dec 24, with interviews due to take place w/c 16 Dec 24 onwards. We encourage candidates to submit their applications as early as possible and not to wait until the published closing date. National Grid’s recruitment periods can and may vary. We reserve the right to remove this advert or close it to further applications at any point during the recruitment process.

About us

National Grid Electricity Transmission plc (“NGET”) is responsible for delivering 17 major new infrastructure projects to connect more clean, low-carbon power to the transmission network in England and Wales. Once constructed and operational, these projects will form part of the transmission network, and as a legal team, we need to prepare for this transition. NGET's existing infrastructure covers over 3,000 hectares of operational land, over 300 substations, 22,000 pylons, plus 7000km of overhead line plus underground cable. The size and complex nature of both the operational and strategic infrastructure businesses mean that we and our contractors must

At National Grid, we work towards the highest standards in everything we do, including how we support, value and develop our people. Our aim is to encourage and support employees to thrive and be the best they can be. We celebrate the difference people can bring into our organisation, and welcome and encourage applicants with diverse experiences and backgrounds, and offer flexible and tailored support, at home and in the office.

Our goal is to drive, develop and operate our business in a way that results in a more inclusive culture. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, the innovation from diverse teams & perspectives and business need. We are committed to building a workforce so we can represent the communities we serve and have a working environment in which each individual feels valued, respected, fairly treated, and able to reach their full potential.

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