Lawyer, Governance

Salary:€61,525 gross per annum
- Location:Madrid
- Contract Type:Indefinite
- Hours:Full Time
- Closing Date:9 October 2025
- First Interview Dates:Week beginning 20 October 2025

**About the role**:
We are hiring in our G&LS team The Global Governance & Legal Services (G&LS) Department is ClientEarth’s in-house legal team driven to enable ClientEarth to deliver innovative legal strategies while managing risk and legal & regulatory compliance in a manner consistent with our organisational values. The postholder will provide legal expertise and support to ClientEarth, its in-house lawyers, programmes & impact teams, and other staff in a variety of global matters including contracting and partner due diligence, governance, and risk & compliance.

**Meet your Manager**

In this role, you will be managed by Liesbet Nysen, Senior Lawyer*, Head of Legal Services (*Company Lawyer, member of IBJ-IJE in Belgium). Liesbet supports ClientEarth's global governance and oversees its risk & compliance, and legal service standards, policies and best practices, and provides legal support to the organisation. Prior to joining ClientEarth in 2019, Liesbet practiced as a lawyer in a law firm in Brussels and was an in-house legal advisor of an international company, focusing on contracts, litigation, and mediation with a commercial law angle.

Main Duties
- Support the ClientEarth entity in Spain and, in general, Programmes & Impact colleagues litigating in Spain with litigation requirements, including navigating the litigation approval processes, securing Powers of Attorney or Board Resolutions, etc., and providing peak capacity support and in-country expertise
- Identify opportunities, including legal tech solutions, for improvements and efficiencies in the contracting process (and related processes, e.g., procurement processes, partner due diligence) and contract templates, propose pragmatic solutions, and support projects to implement those solutions
- Review draft contracts and contract-related documentation, including contracts with partners, grant agreements, tender documentation, due diligence documentation, etc.
- Engage in regular, proactive contact with Programmes & Impact, External Affairs, and Business Services teams to assess whether contracting processes are understood and embedded and to enhance awareness of risks and mitigations
- Identify areas of risk associated with contracts and with the organisation’s activities, and propose mitigation actions and other solutions to mitigate risk

See the job description (below) for a full list of duties for this role.

Role requirements
- Law degree/Legal qualification in Spain (essential)
- Some experience working as a lawyer in Spain, e.g., worked in a law firm or in government or as an in-house company (or other NGO) lawyer in Spain (essential)
- Demonstrable experience in contract law and contract review/drafting, including specifically contracts under Spanish law (but familiarity with other European contract laws would be useful); understanding of contractual language, key contractual issues, and the contract lifecycle (essential)
- Proven experience with risk exposure and compliance (corporate and/or non-profit) and the ability to research and analyse potential implications for the organisation and in particular for the activities of the Spanish ClientEarth entity (legal, regulatory, financial, operational, reputational) (essential)
- Fluent (**CEFR Level C2**) in Spanish (essential)

See the job description (below) for a full list of requirements for this role.

Further Information

**Have a question about this job?** Please visit **our Careers site** for advice on applying, FAQs, and more.

**Flexible working**: We are proud to be a **Flexa** accredited Employer. Visit our **Flexa Employer page** for more information on our approach to flexible working. Our flexible working policy allows our people the choice to decide to work from home/another location in the country where their contract of employment is issued for 80% of their month, with the other 20% of their month being office-based **See our Benefits page for more**as well as **our flexible working FAQ.**

Please note that ClientEarth is only able to employ those who have the pre-existing legal right to work in **Spain**.

ClientEarth is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice or legal services to third parties.