Environmental Lawyer
Job description
COMMON SEAS
Organisation: Common Seas
Role title: Environmental Lawyer
Salary: Common Seas offers competitive salary consistent with the
experience and performance levels expected
Hours: 3 month initial contract (full – time or 4 days a week) – with
possibility of moving to a permanent role.
Responsible to: Common Seas Managing Director
Location: Common Seas has a London office but a lot of our work takes
place in fishing communities around the coast, in particular the West Country.
ORGANISATION OVERVIEW
Common Seas mission is to inspire and demonstrate new ideas, practices and business models to ensure healthy marine environments, resilient communities and flourishing economies.
Our goal is to achieve this mission whilst placing wildlife at the center of our work.
Common Seas is a Community Interest Company formed in May 2013. We developed from the Pig Shed Trust, which is a philanthropic fund committed to reducing mankind’s impact on the sea, as well as working to ensure a sustainable healthy source of food for a growing global population.
We are looking for a passionate and experienced environmental lawyer to act on behalf of sea creatures and the wider marine ecosystem. You will join a building team comprising of skills to include marine and social science, business strategy and creative systems design-- all are ocean lovers and explorers.
ROLE OVERVIEW
Your work would focus on promoting the protection, maintenance and restoration of healthy coastal and ocean ecosystems. This includes using the tools of law to work towards creating flourishing fisheries, fish stocks and habitats.
The initial legal geographic focus would the UK and EU.
It is important that you are excited to work towards creating a more flourishing marine environment. This includes preventing overfishing, supporting sustainable
fishing, reducing marine pollution and achieving marine wildlife protection.
It is not essential that you have prior experience of marine policy, but it is critical that you quickly become familiar with the EU habitats directive, and the Water Frame Work Directive as we feel sea creatures around the UK coast need your support today.
You could be partnering with government agencies to develop new environmental protections, or help mobilize various community groups or leaders to promote environmental justice.
Furthermore, you could be working to pursue environmental justice by litigating against companies who do not comply with environmental regulations.
Common Seas partners with community and NGO projects that share similar moral tastes. We hope that you will be able to assist these partner organisations to achieve their aspirations. This could involve venturing into other legal frameworks from corporate law to human rights.
You will be the sole lawyer at Common Seas although we do work very closely with ClientEarth, and their legal team will be happy to support you as you start your journey with us.
We consider ourselves a direct action group, in that we focus our work on stopping the damage at the point where it is occurring – in this case the coastal waters around England. We seek solutions to make environmentally destructive systems obsolete. Working in collaboration across disciplines is very powerful in our quest to design new models through a process of creative systems thinking. Please do contact us if you consider yourself as a multidisciplinary person and/or enjoy working with people who bring diverse understandings to problem solving.
KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
• To act on the behalf of marine wildlife
• To creatively use law as a tool to bring about change to protect the environment
• To make complex legal issues accessible and relevant to wider audiences
• To seek out legal opportunities that could provide greater protection and support to the marine environment
• To actively look for ‘open doors’ in existing policy to ensure greater protection for the marine environment
• To help Government agencies understand their legal responsibilities and draft measures to discharge them
• To ensure that Government agencies are enforcing the law appropriately
• To ensure that new bylaws proposed and supported by Common Seas are properly drafted
• To ensure that contracts entered into by Common Seas are properly drafted
• To ensure the marine environment is receiving the protection that it should with regards to legal frameworks
• To contribute to the process of creative systems thinking
• To openly share understandings and knowledge with the Common Seas team
• To support members of the team – which might involved wearing different hats now and again
• To contribute to Common Seas newsletter and blogs
PERSON SPECIFICATION (E=essential D=desirable)
We are about empathy for people, sea creatures and for disciplines beyond one’s own. We try to be open, curious and optimistic. We are practical, doers, and loyal. We really want to share our journey with people who seek these values.
• Proven expertise and experience in environmental law D
• Passionate about environment and social justice E
• Academic qualification relating to environmental or social justice law E
• Habitats Directive experience D
• Water Frame Work Directive experience D
• At least 3 years experience in legal work D
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills E
• Strong desire to make the world better E
• Very organized and self managed E
• A get things done type of person E
• Strong research skills E
• A strategic thinker E
Please feel free to call Jo Royle, managing director, on 07803131589 to find out more about this role or send a CV and cover letter to: jo@commonseas.com
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