Application Guide
How to Apply for Legal Counsel, Hardest-to-Reach Amplify
at Acumen
🏢 About Acumen
Acumen is a pioneering impact investor that combines business principles with moral imagination to tackle poverty in the world's hardest-to-reach communities. Unlike traditional investment firms, Acumen focuses on building sustainable markets and scaling companies that serve low-income populations, having impacted over half-a-billion lives since 2001. Working here means joining a mission-driven global community of entrepreneurs and innovators committed to creating a more just and inclusive future through early-stage clean energy investments.
About This Role
As Legal Counsel for Hardest-to-Reach Amplify, you'll provide critical legal support for complex banking and finance transactions that fund clean energy projects in underserved communities across Africa. This role involves structuring debt financing, navigating cross-border lending restrictions, and ensuring regulatory compliance to enable Acumen's investments to reach the most marginalized populations. Your work directly enables the deployment of capital that transforms energy access for low-income communities at scale.
💡 A Day in the Life
A typical day involves reviewing and drafting financing agreements for clean energy projects, advising investment teams on regulatory compliance for cross-border transactions, and collaborating with lenders and portfolio companies to structure deals that balance risk with impact. You might spend mornings negotiating terms with international banks, afternoons analyzing FX exposure for Kenyan solar projects, and evenings preparing for upcoming closings—all while ensuring legal frameworks enable rather than hinder access to energy for low-income communities.
🚀 Application Tools
🎯 Who Acumen Is Looking For
- A mission-aligned corporate lawyer with 8+ years of hands-on experience in banking/finance law, specifically with debt financing structures for emerging markets or impact investments
- Proven track record handling complex transactional work with lenders, borrowers, or investors, preferably with exposure to investment funds, banks, or credit funds operating in frontier markets
- Practical knowledge of lending-related regulatory frameworks including financial services licensing, cross-border lending restrictions, FX risk management, and KYC requirements in African contexts
- A creative, pragmatic problem-solver who can balance legal rigor with the flexibility needed to structure deals in challenging environments while maintaining kindness and respect in a fast-paced team
📝 Tips for Applying to Acumen
Quantify your 8+ years of banking/finance law experience with specific examples of complex transactions you've led or substantially contributed to, especially those involving emerging markets or impact investing
Explicitly connect your legal background to Acumen's mission by highlighting any experience with clean energy, financial inclusion, or poverty-alleviation projects in your resume and cover letter
Demonstrate your understanding of the 'hardest-to-reach' context by mentioning specific regulatory challenges you've navigated in African markets or similar frontier economies
Address the part-time structure directly by explaining how you'll manage the 3-day in-office requirement and maintain availability during transaction closings and periods of increased workload
Showcase both your technical legal skills AND your alignment with Acumen's values by providing examples of being 'creative, kind, pragmatic, and respectful' in high-pressure transactional environments
✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter
["Your specific experience with debt financing structures in emerging markets and how it prepares you for Amplify's complex transactions in Kenya and across Africa", "Demonstrated commitment to social impact and alignment with Acumen's mission of using business to break the cycle of poverty, with concrete examples if possible", "How you balance legal rigor with pragmatic problem-solving to enable deals in challenging regulatory environments while protecting all parties' interests", "Your approach to working in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment and how you'll manage the part-time schedule while maintaining essential availability for transaction timelines"]
Generate Cover Letter →🔍 Research Before Applying
To stand out, make sure you've researched:
- → Acumen's specific investments in East Africa's clean energy sector through their portfolio companies and Amplify fund structure
- → Kenya's regulatory environment for cross-border lending, financial services licensing, and clean energy investments
- → Acumen's leadership philosophy and 'moral imagination' framework as articulated by founder Jacqueline Novogratz
- → Recent Amplify transactions or partnerships in hard-to-reach communities to understand their specific deal structures and challenges
💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics
Based on this role, you may be asked about:
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Presenting as a traditional corporate lawyer without demonstrating understanding of or passion for impact investing and Acumen's specific mission
- Failing to address the part-time nature of the role and how you'll manage the hybrid schedule while maintaining transaction availability
- Using generic banking/finance experience examples without connecting them to the complexities of emerging markets or mission-driven organizations
📅 Application Timeline
This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.
Typical hiring timeline:
Application Review
1-2 weeks
Initial Screening
Phone call or written assessment
Interviews
1-2 rounds, usually virtual
Offer
Congratulations!