An exciting opportunity has become available for a Commercial / Regulatory Lawyer to provide legal advice and support on a wide range of matters relevant to the company’s business.  

The person appointed to this post will divide his/her time working on various commercial contracts, outsourcing and business transactions and supporting our Wholesale/Retail Services and Developer Services and Regulatory work, including advisory work, drafting, negotiating and settling various forms of regulated contracts, and managing in-contract regulatory and commercial legal issues and disputes.

Whilst this role will ideally be based at our HQ in Worthing, West Sussex in the future, there is also flexibility for this role to be performed from home, or from our office in Falmer (Brighton).

Responsibilities include:

• To provide focused accurate, effective and timely legal advice, analysis and support to the relevant business functions to enable those business functions to meet /manage their objectives.
• To responsively advise senior management on developments and issues which may impact the functional business area, and to proactively notify and inform the senior management team of key matters, risks, developments, providing on-going briefing on that advice/issue.
• To identify areas of risk for the company and either directly provide or work with others to implement solutions to manage these risks.
• To advise on the legal ramifications and structuring of a wide range of arrangements relating to the company’s statutory relationship with land developers/developments, and the diverse commercial projects, transactions and contracts relevant to this area;
• To draft, negotiate and settle various forms of regulated commercial and quasi-commercial contracts, which may include those relating construction and engineering industry contractual documentation;
• To liaise with and work closely with the relevant civil litigation and competition law specialists in advising on and managing commercial and non-commercial legal issues and disputes arising from developer services matters;
• To lead by example, developing standards and practices for the General Counsel team, and motivating and informing other lawyers within the team, to provide the best possible legal advice and support to the company.

What you will bring to the role

As a qualified Solicitor, Barrister or FILEX, this role will make excellent use of your general knowledge of law, court/tribunal procedures and legal precedents as well as your previous experience working on similar legal issues.

Recent understanding and experience of the UK utilities industry and its regulatory and quasi-commercial relationships with property developers, NAVs and SLPs (working on any side of these transactions) would be advantageous but is not essential.

In this role you will be able to demonstrate your intellectual capability, your excellent communication & interpersonal skills as well as your proactive, positive and motivated approach to work.

Please note: If you are a current Southern Water employee, please confirm within your application that you have informed your Line Manager of your application for this vacancy.

It’s an exciting time to be a Southern Water employee.

To tackle the challenges we face, we’re changing, at pace, to become brilliant at the basics – to deliver clean, safe water, through a reliable, future-proof network, at a price everyone can afford, and with great customer service at every step.

At the same time, we’re innovating across all areas of our business, from improving how we deliver services, to leading the way on issues such as single-use plastics.

We’re building an inclusive culture. Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We are creating a workplace where all people feel welcomed, respected, supported and appreciated, no matter who they are or where they come from.

We are committed to creating an inclusive environment and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds and do not discriminate on the grounds of age, cultural background, disability, gender, marital status, nationality, political belief, race, religion or sexual orientation.

All applicants must be eligible to live and work in the UK. You will need to provide evidence of eligibility (e.g. a passport or long birth certificate and proof of NI) and current proof of address (dated within the last 3 months), will be required as part of the recruitment process. If you do not meet these criteria, your application will not be considered

By submitting your details to this position at Southern Water, you are also agreeing to share your details with Gattaca PLC who are the managed service provider for all recruitment with the Southern Water Business. Should you wish to see the Gattaca PLC privacy policy please go to https://www.gattacaplc.com/help/privacy-statement