Senior Commercial Lawyer, Energy & Infrastructure in Southampton

Fully remote | Retainer, three days per week — designed to grow.

A&H Legal is a modern, forward-thinking and agile legal consultancy — not a traditional law firm. Founded in 2018 to provide pragmatic, flexible and cost-effective legal and compliance services, we have grown rapidly into a team of consultants with different backgrounds, expertise and passions. We believe people do their best work when they can be themselves: no face-time culture, no office politics, no billable-hours theatre. Just talented people, trusted with serious work.

And the work is serious: high-profile, financed projects and multi-million-pound deals across the world — the UK, Europe, South Africa, Central Asia and beyond — for global energy majors, international renewable-energy developers, major infrastructure operators and industrial groups. Our clients use us as day-to-day support to complement their own teams, and as specialist support at critical times: live transactions, project financings, and deals that make the news in their sectors.

We are now building for the next stage of that growth. Our consultancy already runs on two layers — senior specialists and a strong delivery team — and the founder is moving from day-to-day delivery into developing the practice. This role adds senior commercial strength at the top of that structure, working directly with the founder, and is the most important hire of our growth plan.

The role involves joining as a senior consultant in our commercial practice, taking over senior-level delivery on live client accounts from day one and working directly with the founder. In line with our commercial offering, you will support clients through the full lifecycle of a contract:

• Reviewing and drafting complex commercial contracts (PPAs, EPC, O&M, supply and services agreements)
• Supporting and, in time, leading contract negotiations
• Due-diligence analysis and reporting
• Handling complex day-to-day legal requests from sophisticated clients

You will be trusted with real responsibility for household-name clients immediately. This is not a support role.

What we offer:

• A guaranteed monthly retainer — this is a retainer role: reliable, predictable income that is rare in the contract legal market, starting part-time (three days per week) and growing over time into a full-time engagement as the practice expands.
• Genuine progression — a clear path to full-time, with the opportunity to grow into a leadership role at the senior layer of the consultancy, helping shape the team and the practice as we expand.
• Fully remote, flexible working — and room to be yourself — we are built as a team of consultants; everyone works remotely, we care about delivery rather than hours at a desk, and we want people who bring their own personality, background and way of working to high-profile deals.
• A specialist niche — deep commercial work with a client base concentrated in energy, renewables and infrastructure, some of the most active and fast-growing legal sectors, with direct client contact at senior level.
• High-calibre clients and genuinely interesting work — financed projects and multi-million-pound deals of the kind usually only available inside large law firms or multinationals, without the culture that comes with them.

What we ask:

Our promise to clients is pragmatic, flexible and responsive service — so we are direct about what that means for this role: it demands flexibility, hard work, the ability to handle pressure, and the ability to meet urgent and short-notice deadlines. Our clients operate on live transactions and real-world project timelines; work can arrive at short notice and must be excellent when it leaves. The other side of that coin is the reason people do this work: the projects are genuinely interesting — real deals, real financings, real consequences — and you will never be a small cog processing routine paper. In exchange for the intensity, you get guaranteed income, complete flexibility in how and where you work, and some of the best work available to an independent lawyer.

About you:

• Qualified lawyer with significant post-qualification experience (7+ years or equivalent) in commercial/contract law.
• Substantial experience drafting and negotiating complex contracts in energy, infrastructure, construction or oil & gas (FIDIC, NEC, EPC, O&M, PPA or equivalent) as lead lawyer — this is essential.
• Confident negotiator and precise drafter in English, able to be operational on complex documents immediately.
• Experienced in due diligence on commercial transactions.
• Self-sufficient, responsive and comfortable working remotely with minimal supervision.
• Able to contract as an independent professional (UK candidates: through your own limited company).

We welcome applications from anywhere: we are actively considering candidates in the UK and internationally, including South Africa, the Philippines and other jurisdictions with strong common-law commercial lawyers.

To apply: send your CV and a short note covering: your most relevant transaction or matter, your current availability (days per week and earliest start), and your rate expectations. Learn more about us at https://ahlegal.uk.