The Lifescape Project
Lawyer – Protection of Wild Land (6 months FTC, remote working)
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Summary
We are seeking an experienced lawyer on a full-time (or 0.8) 6-month contract to cover maternity leave within our legal team. We are particularly interested in lawyers with experience in Real Estate, Environment, or Planning teams, ideally at 5+ PQE to senior associate level. Ideally, the candidate would be able to start from mid- to late- January 2027.
To apply for this role, please email a cover letter and CV (each a maximum of 2 pages) to sarah.hyslop@lifescapeproject.org by 5pm on 30 October 2026.
About Lifescape and Rewilding Law Projects
We're a small but growing UK-registered charity which undertakes projects that protect and restore wild landscapes, helping to provide a future for all life on earth. We use the skills and expertise of our multi-disciplinary team (spanning science, law, economics, technology and culture) to develop projects that protect and restore wild, natural landscapes.
Our legal work, through our Rewilding Law programme, focuses on removing legal barriers to nature restoration and developing legal mechanisms that secure the long-term protection of wild land.
Find out more about our mission and our team on our website: https://lifescapeproject.org/rewilding-law/
Role Background
In Autumn 2024, Lifescape became a Responsible Body under the Environment Act 2021, enabling us to enter into conservation covenants for biodiversity net gain and other purposes.
We are developing a portfolio of high-quality, ecologically focused conservation covenants with landowners undertaking large-scale nature restoration.
This role will involve working closely with our Managing Lawyer, Stephanie Smith, and wider Rewilding Law team, taking an active role in this growing programme whilst also contributing to wider projects addressing legal barriers to rewilding and nature recovery.
This is an opportunity to work at the intersection of real estate, planning, environmental and regulatory law, while gaining first-hand experience of the emerging nature-recovery and environmental markets sectors.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
The Role
The precise balance of work will depend on the lawyer's experience and Lifescape's priorities, but is likely to include:
- Meeting (online) with landowners interested in conservation covenants and helping to develop those relationships.
- Preparing proposals and quotations and negotiating heads of terms.
- Developing business and marketing plans to grow covenant workstreams.
- Supervising legal and financial due diligence.
- Working with our ecologists on ecological due diligence.
- Drafting and negotiating conservation covenants.
- Managing and monitoring existing covenants.
- Advising on property, planning and environmental issues affecting nature-restoration projects.
- Developing other legal mechanisms for the long-term protection of wild land.
- Contributing to research and policy work aimed at identifying and removing legal barriers to nature recovery.
- Supporting engagement with government, regulators, landowners and environmental organisations.
- Preparing blogs, briefings and other legal content.
- Participating in presentations, conferences, stakeholder forums and other events.
- Task-managing junior lawyers and trainee secondees where appropriate.
About You
We would welcome applications from lawyers with experience in one or more of:
- Real Estate
- Planning
- Environmental law
- Rural land
- Conservation covenants
- Biodiversity net gain
- Related land-use and regulatory work
Previous experience of conservation covenants is desirable but not essential. We are equally interested in lawyers with strong transferable property, planning, or environmental experience and an enthusiasm to develop specialist expertise.
We are particularly interested in lawyers who are technically strong, curious about emerging areas of law, confident working independently, comfortable dealing directly with clients and stakeholders, and enthusiastic about networking, writing, presenting, and developing their professional profile.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
The role would suit someone of 5+ PQE level.
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are important principles for The Lifescape Project as reflected in our EDI statement: https://lifescapeproject.org/equity-diversity-and-inclusion/
We want to make a career in nature conservation accessible to everyone. We welcome all applicants who meet most of the essential competencies regardless of their identity or background, and we're striving to create an inclusive team.
We acknowledge that candidates from some backgrounds may be reluctant to apply for jobs unless they meet all of the job specification criteria. We encourage anyone to apply who can demonstrate the variety of skills and experiences relevant to meeting the requirements of the role.
Location
This is a remote working position and will involve some UK travel. The nature of the work means that we are in very regular contact on Teams etc, ensuring strong connections amongst the team.
Applicants must be resident in the UK.
To Apply
To apply for this role, please email a cover letter and CV (each a maximum of 2 pages) to sarah.hyslop@lifescapeproject.org by 5pm on 30 October 2026.
Interviews will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams on either 6, 9, or 10 November.
If you would like to talk to someone about the role before you apply, please contact Sarah in the first instance.
While the official closing date for applications is 30 October, we will be reviewing applications as they come in.
The role will ideally commence from Monday 18 January.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Location