Land rights in-house lawyer

Cape Town, Western Cape

R 500000 ZA Per annum

About the Company

Since its establishment in 2008, Mulilo has grown into one of the leading Independent Power Producers (IPP) in Southern Africa. Mulilo is majority owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, the world’s leading private equity investor in renewable energy assets, through its New Markets Fund I. Mulilo has concluded numerous PPA's in both the Department of Mineral Energy's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP) and with several large corporate energy users. Mulilo currently operates 450 MW of wind and solar PV projects and has a further 500 MW of projects under financial close. Having adopted a strategy that aligns with the company's long-term vision, Mulilo has accumulated a pipeline of projects exceeding 25 GW, and is now positioned as a key player in the renewable energy sector.

Mulilo places strong emphasis on its human capital and prides itself in providing a world class working environment for all its employees, thereby placing huge value on career progression and personal growth.

Mulilo is guided by strong ethical principles and adheres to its environmental, social and governance responsibilities.

About Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP)

Founded in 2012, CIP is the world’s largest dedicated renewable energy fund manager and a global leader in offshore wind. CIP currently manages over 20 billion Euro’s, with a target of having 100 billion Euros under management by 2030. The funds managed by CIP focus on investments in offshore and onshore wind, solar PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, transmission and distribution, reserve capacity, storage, advanced bioenergy, and Power-to-X.

About this role

The Land Rights Department, which sits within the project development department of Mulilo, needs the assistance of a newly qualified Afrikaans speaking attorney, to support the Land Rights Manager and the land origination and acquisition team, with the preparation of, drafting of, negotiating specific clauses, finalising option contract drafts, and finalising draft Notarial leases using company approved precedents.

The role is mainly to liaise with the land acquisition team, understand their commercial requirements, apply your legal acumen and then draft the necessary amendments to company contract precedents, with a view to assisting the team to close the deals and get the option agreements signed.   Thereafter, the signed contracts need to be vetted, checked for the necessary authority, resolutions followed up and vetted, contracts appropriately stored, and loaded onto a contracts management database system

Duties and responsibilities

Interact with the Land Rights Manager (LRM) regarding company precedents, and adapting or populating these for specific land transactions; and

Interacting with the land agents to assist in drafting and populating option contracts and notarial leases with a view to secure acquisition and lease agreements of required land;

Support the land agents from a legal perspective, in line with company policy and the guidance of the LRM; and

Pick up on any commercial risks from the negotiation process between land agents and land owners and inform the LRM management of any potential property related risks and proposals on how to mitigate same;

Make proposals on how to amend precedent agreements to enhance their legal efficacy, and assist in better closing transactions; and

Drafting authorising resolutions and getting same executed in line with legal requirements; and

Contract management – following up on paperwork trails, getting documents correctly signed, executed, stored, and loaded onto a contracts management system; and

Assist in maintaining, updating the contracts management database system

Any other related legal tasks which support and assist the LRM in delivering on its remit to the company.

Required skills and education background.

English and Afrikaans speaker, with  experience drafting both English and Afrikaans contracts

LLB qualified

Must have completed articles at a law firm and passed the attorneys bar exam

2 years post article experience at least, but additional is a plus.

Specific experience drafting, negotiating and reviewing commercial contracts, with experience in land transactions, complex negotiations, dealing with attorneys on the other side of a negotiation,

Experience in negotiating and closing out on transactions, following up on all loose ends, concluding, executing, filing of contracts and all relevant authority documents;

Sound knowledge of contract law and

Other general legal practice experience such as conveyancing, litigation etc is a plus.

Prior experience in Renewable development is a plus, but not a specific pre-requisite.

Desirable attributes

The ideal candidate would have a passion for the Renewable Energy sector and personality traits would include a high level of diligence, determination, resilience, and agility.

Mulilo is an employer of choice and is offering an extremely competitive total remuneration package for this position.

Additional Information

Able to work overtime according to operational needs.

The position is based at the offices of the company, but travel may be required occasionally.

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