Job Description
About Latham & Watkins Latham & Watkins is one of the world’s leading global law firms advising the businesses and institutions that drive the global economy. We are the market leaders in major financial and business centers globally and offer unmatched expertise and resources to help you grow from an intellectually curious self-starter into an exceptional lawyer. If you aspire to be the best, this is where you belong. About the Practice Group This is an opportunity to join the Environment, Land & Resources Practice Group of the Corporate Department in New York. The practice includes more than 60 dedicated environmental practitioners, supported by a global network of over 225 practitioners who advise clients on a wide spectrum of environmental matters. We are a top tier practice, as reflected by our numerous Chambers Band 1 rankings including Global Market Leaders in Climate Change, and USA Nationwide in Environment, Environment Transactional, and Climate Change. Drawing on broad capabilities and a deep bench of experienced practitioners, the group counsels and represents multinational corporations, project developers, investors, and lenders throughout the world in every kind of environmental matter, from air and water quality, chemical products and product regulation, contaminated properties, climate change and the energy transition. Many of our lawyers are active in legislative, regulatory and policy developments at regional, national, and global levels. The team includes numerous practitioners who have served as senior government officials in various capacities, including with the White House, the Council on Environmental Quality, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Department of the Interior, and the US Department of Justice. We routinely draw on this experience to help clients navigate complex agency rulemakings, win approvals for infrastructure projects, obtain new chemical and product approvals, and resolve environmental investigations, compliance, enforcement, and litigation matters across industries. Our permitting and entitlement team regularly negotiates on behalf of clients with federal, state, and local regulators, consults with American Indian tribes, and helps clients manage complex stakeholder relationships. We engage federal and state government leadership on policy and permitting relating to conventional and renewable energy projects and infrastructure siting issues of all kinds, including power generation, transmission, pipelines, and transportation projects. For transactional clients of the firm, we work directly with our corporate, finance, and tax colleagues to structure transactions in the manner most appropriate to the level of environmental risk involved. We draw on a wide range of experience with contaminated sites, permitting and approvals, occupational safety and health, as well as process safety. We have developed specialized industry knowledge of chemistries and complex goods and supply chains as well as the overlay of the agendas of regulators, activists, and the plaintiffs’ bar. We have a deep stable of consultants with whom our practitioners regularly collaborate to perform analyses, modeling, and other projections that can inform our clients in valuing assets, structuring transactions, and to minimize liabilities and risks. We advise clients on the most complex matters and transactions supporting the energy transition. For example, we have worked with clients on some of the largest and most significant carbon capture and sequestration, low carbon fuel and carbon credit transactions in the market. Our work in this area is global and in the past 12 months we have worked with clients on projects located in the United States, Brazil, Columbia, Cote d’Ivoire, Philippines and Saudia Arabia. About the Role The Environment, Land & Resources Practice is seeking a highly qualified associate with a minimum of 2 years of experience to join the 2nd year associate class in New York. The associate will support various attorneys and Partiers in New York and will likely work in three areas: (1) environmental issues in commercial transactions, (2) contaminated properties, and (3) energy transition including climate change and carbon credit transactions. Language skills (Spanish or French) and prior policy, business, legal or government experience in the environment, energy or climate sectors are not required but a plus.
