Senior Counsel, Project Development - Brisbane, CA or Houston, TX

About Us 

All across the world, from the azure pools of Turkey and Oman to the travertine terraces of Yellowstone, our planet quietly pulls carbon dioxide from the air and turns it to stone. For eons, Earth has relied on this process to balance its carbon cycle. What if it could be harnessed? What if we could do it faster, in larger quantities, and at a low enough cost to make it an effective tool in the fight against climate change? 
At Heirloom, we are turning that into reality. We use the natural carbon capture properties of abundant minerals to pull CO2 from the air, and store it permanently underground. We come to work every day to slow climate change, and are united behind a single, common goal - to remove 1 billion tons of CO2 from the sky by 2035, and to not stop before we get there.  
We bring together the precise recipe of science, technology, know-how, and strategy necessary to make low cost, high quality carbon removal a reality. If we’re successful, we will directly mitigate climate change, build a world we can proudly hand over to our children and grandchildren, and catalyze an industry that will rival the largest the world has ever seen. If you want to change the planet, come join us. 

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

As temperatures continue to rise, individuals from marginalized communities will face the harshest impacts of climate change.  We believe wholeheartedly that building a diverse company is critical to Heirloom’s success.  To accomplish this, we’ve put recruiting, hiring and retaining individuals from underrepresented groups at the top of our priority list. 
We encourage you to apply if you identify as Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Hispanic or Latino, LGBTQ+ – or with any other underrepresented group – even if you don’t tick all the boxes in the description below. 

About the Role

The Senior Counsel role will report to the Head of Legal. This attorney will be responsible for drafting, negotiating, and closing transactions. This attorney’s primary focus will be closing deals with customers to support the commercialization team as well as closing other transactions such as manufacturing and supply agreements, engineering, procurement, and construction agreements, power purchase agreements, licensing agreements, and a host of other contracts to support the development, construction, commissioning, financing, and operation of our direct air capture facilities.  This role will have, to start, several components:

(1)  Support commercial team and project development by closing deals;

(2)  Develop long-term library of market-making form contracts;

(3)  Support the legal team in operationalizing legal requirements.

This is an incredible opportunity for an attorney to build out their transactional skills, transition to an in-house role, and be a critical part of developing the legal function at Heirloom. There will be myriad opportunities for professional growth for the high performer.

Our legal team values problem solving (not just issue spotting), quality (not perfection), integrity, and efficiency. This is an opportunity for you to both dive into the weeds and develop your legal technical skills and take a step back and exercise your tactical and strategic thinking.

This role can be based in either Brisbane, California, or Houston, TX. 

What you will bring

You are mission driven.

We need to close a lot of deals. You are a strong transactional attorney, a “closer” by nature, with a focus on problem-solving and minimizing transaction friction. Your client’s success in getting a deal done that works for them is more important to you than winning points.

We do a lot, fast. You are productive – not sloppy, but also not consumed with perfection, facetime, or appearing busy. 

We are developing a brand-new asset class and technology, which makes us market-makers. You prefer to apply your critical thinking skills in a deal in lieu of simply cutting and pasting from precedent or arguing “market.” You want to write the narrative, not be reactive to what other people say.

We are an operating company. Our executed contracts are used primarily by non-lawyers. You are committed to drafting plain English contracts that are easily accessible without legal interpretation. You are empathetic to other people and ready to adjust your legal practice to make the legal team work better for your colleagues.

We value excellence over ego. You are a teammate first. You are not afraid to admit mistakes or when you don’t know something.  You’re curious and like learning new areas of law. You can operate with minimal supervision and are comfortable exercising your judgment.

In turn if you are hungry to grow and be better, we will invest in you.

You have a sense of humor.

The boring stuff: You are a licensed attorney in good standing. You are licensed to practice law in either Texas or California. You have at least 7 years of experience practicing law, ideally in energy project development or a related area of law such as construction.

Our Principles

Radical Honesty means we are open, transparent, and inclusive in everything we do. We aren't scared to challenge each other, but bring clear motives and our best intentions when we do.

Persistent Optimism means we carry an infinite amount of optimistic energy with us on our journey, constantly chipping away at what may seem insurmountable.

Maximize our learning rate means we're always in discovery mode.  Compounding knowledge is our key to victory - we continuously hone our crafts, seek the fastest paths to new learning, and are quick to absorb new knowledge.

Why you should join Heirloom

• We are solving the engineering problem of our generation.  Climate change is an existential threat, and we need as many of the world’s motivated minds as possible to help. There is no greater challenge or opportunity than fighting climate change. 

• We have done this before.  We’re engineers, scientists, and concerned humans from a variety of backgrounds and experiences who are pooling our knowledge and skills to collectively build a more equitable, prosperous future for all.

• We are a united, resilient, and optimistic bunch.  We are all here for the same reason - to slow climate change. We recognize the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us, and believe we can solve it. We can see a hopeful future where we eventually reverse climate change. It won’t be easy, but we won’t quit.

• We are backed by the best climate partners in the world.  We’re well funded by investors from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ahren Innovation Capital, Carbon Direct, Microsoft, Lowercarbon Capital, ARPA-e and the National Science Foundation. Our early customers include Stripe, Shopify, and Klarna, and we’re building durable partnerships that enable us to tackle this decades-long problem.

Perks and Benefits

• Robust health coverage.  Excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by Heirloom. FSA option.

• Generous parental leave.  16 weeks paid leave for all Heirloom employees, regardless of primary/secondary caregiver status.

• Generous stock options.

• Flexible time off.  Unlimited PTO for exempt (salaried) employees & 120 hours for full time non-exempt (hourly)  employees.

• 401(k).

• Stay healthy.  Monthly health and wellness reimbursement.

• Learn on the job.  Robust annual education and conference budget, including airfare and hotel costs.