About us
At National Grid, our commitment to a cleaner, greener energy future is powered by the dedication and ingenuity of our people. Join our team as an Environmental Senior Counsel and be a part of something bigger—where your unique skills and passions can make a real difference. Together, we are superpowered!
National Grid is hiring an Environmental Senior Counsel for our Legal Department. This position can be located in Brooklyn, NY or Syracuse, NY.
Job Purpose
Responsible for representing the business and providing top level professional legal advice and guidance on environmental legal matters to support the New York and New England businesses in achieving their objectives, mitigating risks, and ensuring compliance. Effective cross-matrix leadership of a high performing multi-disciplinary project team working on complex federal and state superfund sites.
Key Accountabilities
• Provide legal advice and counsel on matters before environmental regulators in New York.
• Ability to effectively advocate the company’s position in complex environmental proceedings with regulators and other external stakeholders.
• Understand and apply complex legal, market, political, and regulatory aspects of our business. Proactively build, maintain, and utilize internal and external networks to understand, absorb, and influence legal, market, and regulatory best practice within own area of responsibility.
• Deliver subject matter expertise and guidance on environmental matters of concern to the NY business or to complex business operational areas for the business to find effective resolutions.
• Exercise independent judgment on complex and strategic legal matters to VP level or higher-level clients.
• Constructively challenge and provide legal guidance on business initiatives where significant risks exist or have not been identified to mitigate risk for the business.
• Proactively engage in business and departmental initiatives with company-wide significance, making informed, authoritative legal and business recommendations to improve business performance in the medium and longer term.
• Identify significant corporate risks in business matters; provide legal guidance to business and constructively challenge risk issues; work with Assurance and the business to develop appropriate mitigation measures.
• Demonstrate National Grid's leadership qualities; manage cross-matrix team to high performance and success; ensure adherence to Company's core values.
• Provide authoritative and commercially oriented legal advice and support to meet and support business objectives.
• Provide solutions which have a significant impact on business performance in the short and longer term.
• Ensure all projects are appropriately assessed, designed, planned, resourced, and scheduled in a timely and cost-effective manner to ensure best value for National Grid.
• Evaluate policy legislation standards to determine probable impact on National Grid.
• Review and challenge existing policies and processes to ensure they are fit for purpose and drive best value for the business.
• Manage outside counsel to provide excellent service and significant value; challenge outside counsel to staff matters appropriately; assume role of relationship manager for law firms, as appropriate.
• Coach and challenge matrix project team: Create meaningful development plans designed to advance substantive and leadership capabilities of personnel; reward performance; effectively manage underperformance and develop a high performing team.
• Ability to bring creative and innovative legal approaches for the benefit of the business client.
• Ability to establish high level confidence with senior executives, business clients, and external stakeholders.
• Ability to manage numerous, complex matters efficiently and effectively.
Qualifications
• Juris Doctor Degree along with admission to, and in good standing with the New York state bar.
• Significant experience within environmental regulatory matters and demonstrates the ability to assemble complex ideas, issues, and observations into clear and simple explanations.
• Demonstrates proven ability to create the future by communicating strategic context for business priorities.
• Experience of managing and integrating the work of a functional discipline and demonstrates the ability to provide direction, the appropriate structure, and effective resourcing to enable the team to perform at their best.
• In-depth and broad ranging knowledge of legislative/environmental issues affecting the industry.
• Demonstrates the ability to peel back multiple layers of a problem and balance the value of different solutions.
• Demonstrates knowledge of working practice relevant to environmental law, particularly regarding CERCLA, RCRA and CWA issues, with particular focus on complex sites with multiple responsible parties and several different regulatory authorities.
• Demonstrates the ability to pull together disparate pieces of information and make judgments about what is learned and how it could impact your organization.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Exhibits high personal standards of commitment and integrity.
• Ability to bring creative and innovative legal approaches for the benefit of the business client.
• Strong record of providing strategic leadership and planning.
• Demonstrate ability to work collaboratively with the business and be viewed as a leader in facilitating achievement of business objectives.
• Ability to establish high level confidence with senior executives, business clients, and external stakeholders.
• Strong sense of teamwork; ability to work effectively on multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrates a strong commitment to the Company’s corporate values including the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles.
• Demonstrate highly proficient legal research and analytic skills; flexible and strategic decision making; and the ability to manage and oversee work of the team.
Salary
$226k - $266k a year in Brooklyn, NY.
$188k - $221k a year in Syracuse, NY.
This position has a career path which provides for advancement opportunities within and across bands as you develop and evolve in the position; gaining experience, expertise and acquiring and applying technical skills. Candidates will be assessed and provided offers against the minimum qualifications of this role and their individual experience.
National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.
