Senior / Principal Associate - Projects & Infrastructure (Birmingham)

We have an opportunity for a Senior / Principal Associate to join our Projects & Infrastructure team in Birmingham to support our strong portfolio of domestic government project work and energy and infrastructure project work.

About the team

Due to a strong pipeline of UK project mandates, our Projects & Infrastructure (P&I) team (one team, operating out of Birmingham, London and Dubai) is looking to recruit an adaptable Senior / Principal Associate in Birmingham to support our strong portfolio of government project work and developer-side project development work in the UK. The team is recognised in major legal directories for the strength of its projects practice and has won recognition in recent years in a number of industry awards.

Our P&I partners and associates have a mixture of specialist skills and experience. As well as having the core commercial contracts competence, some have a procurement specialism, others project finance experience, others construction contract expertise or specialist sector knowledge in defence or nuclear. We are a flexible and adaptable team – drawing on the support of other specialist teams where needed. This means this opportunity will be an exciting prospect for all sorts of lawyers, including those in private practice or those who may be currently in in-house roles, such as in government or, perhaps, in the nuclear or defence sector.

The team advises on government projects and the project development aspects of energy and infrastructure projects both domestically and internationally - particularly in Africa, Central Europe and in and around the United Arab Emirates.

About the role

The role will involve advising on a range of UK domestic energy, infrastructure and defence projects.

The team has a broad mix of work advising government clients and sponsors/developers on all aspects of project development from procurement, through the project contract and construction and operation arrangements.

Examples of current work you could be involved in:

• Advising Highways England on the flagship A303 Stonehenge project to deliver a tunnel in a World Heritage Site
• Advising the UK Ministry of Defence on nationally significant defence programmes
• Advising on a number of nuclear decommissioning mandates in the UK
• Advising on PFI and PPP projects re handback

About you

The ideal candidate for this role will be a qualified Solicitor – minimum 4 years PQE.

You will have:

• Experience of advising on project agreements, including some or all of: PPP/PFI, PPAs, EPC contracts and O&M Agreements
• Experience of UK public procurements (PCR) and running competitive procurements is desirable, but not essential
• Experience of negotiating contracts in a single source environment (SSCR) is desirable but not essential
• Government and / or nuclear sector experience (including in-house) is also of interest, given the nature of some of the P&I team's clients and work
• Project management skills
• A willingness to get involved in business development.

What we can offer you

The opportunity to work for a firm which has been recognised as one of the top 10 best places to work in the UK and has been ranked by Great Place to Work for 26 consecutive years.

• A hybrid approach to office and remote working
• Excellent benefits, including:
• Lawyer bonus
• 25 days annual leave, with the option to buy up to a week's extra annual leave
• Private medical insurance, and the option to add family members
• A generous pension allowance
• Life assurance covering four times your annual salary
• Maternity, paternity and adoption leave schemes
• A range of health and wellbeing programmes
• Opportunities to flourish in your role through training and personal development

Many of our people work flexibly in some way. If you would like to explore your own flexible working arrangements with us, we are happy to discuss this during the recruitment process.

Equal opportunities

Gowling WLG is committed both to promoting equality and diversity in the firm and to Equal Opportunities in employment. The firm believes in equality of opportunity regardless of race or racial group (including colour, nationality, ethnicity, national origins), religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, sex, gender re-assignment and gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy, maternity and paternity. This also includes any incidents of perceptive or associative discrimination and harassment.

At Gowling WLG we seek to attract and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures, to create an exciting and rewarding place to work. Our aim is to fulfil everyone's potential and together to achieve personal and business goals.

Any offers we make will be conditional subject to clearance by the SRA, evidence of eligibility to work in the UK and DBS clearance.

If you have any queries in relation to this position or would like to see a full job description please contact

If you have any queries in relation to this position or would like to see a full job description please contact Nana Panti-Amoa on

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