Assistant Counsel - R&D Legal, Science, Technology & Innovation

Job content

Site Name: Belgium-Wavre, UK - London - Brentford
Posted Date: Jul 13 2021

The R&D Legal – Science, Technology and Innovation team provides legal support to a range of departments within the Pharma and Vaccines R&D organisations, together with the Specialty/Respiratory and Oncology Global Therapy Areas. The team supports the scientific and innovation activities that underpin the discovery, development and use of our medicines and vaccines. They have deep understanding of the R&D business and science and are legal subject-matter specialists on the regulatory landscape affecting these activities.

Activities supported are centred around our data, compound, biological material and technology platforms and include a broad range of innovative subjects such as functional genomics, AI/ML, cell and gene therapy, companion diagnostics, medical innovation and vaccines innovation projects as well as medicines discovery and early stage development. Lawyers in the Science, Technology and Innovation team may be asked to provide support across all of our client groups and act as a primary point of contact for specific areas of the R&D organisation to ensure the delivery of appropriate legal support.

This role would suit someone looking to build up their experience level and will provide the opportunity to work across a range of clients supported by the team.

This role reports to the Assistant General Counsel, Science, Technology and Innovation team leader and will be based either at GSK House or Wavre, Belgium.

Responsibilities Include Some Or All Of The Following

This role will provide YOU the opportunity to lead key activities to progress YOUR career.

• Deliver high quality legal services to enable Pharma and Vaccines R&D to deliver their objectives working with some degree of autonomy and displaying maturity and individual accountability to make decisions and provide strategic legal advice, working closely with line manager as needed.
• Be the principal point of contact to certain groups within Pharma and Vaccines R&D as the need arises.
• Advise on, draft and support negotiations of bespoke agreements for research services, clinical studies, licensing and data-related R&D agreements as well as for the procurement of strategic services. The role also interacts with the Legal Contracting Network function providing second-line support for contracting activity led by that team.
• Anticipate and proactively support the prevention and management of legal risks facing the company in the aligned business areas, including through collaboration with Global Ethics and Compliance and Global Regulatory Affairs where needed to develop new policies and internal controls.
• Act as subject-matter guide on one or more legal topics, providing specialist input to other legal functions such as due diligence in business development transactions and input into model agreements.
• Engage with other legal functions (such as Digital, Tech & Privacy and Dispute Resolution & Prevention) to provide a single aligned view on specific matters including early analysis of potential disputes.
• Engage and own the activities of external legal counsel where appropriate.
• Provide training to clients and Legal colleagues.
• Support knowledge sharing and business process improvement activities and provide assistance to less experienced attorneys and paralegals and contribute to their development.
• Engage with other GSK functions and partners (e.g. Compliance, Audit and Assurance, Tax, Finance, Business Development etc. both centrally and locally) to ensure appropriate communication and consideration of relevant issues.
• Review and interpret pending or new legislation or regulatory rules impacting the business to ensure compliance or strategy changes as well as collaborating with R&D Policy on responses to new legislative proposals.
  
  

Why you?

Basic Qualifications

We are looking for professionals with these required skills to achieve our goals:

• University degree qualification or equivalent tertiary education qualification.
• Qualified legal practitioner admitted to practise in England and Wales with a current practising certificate or a qualified foreign lawyer who can be admitted to practise in England and Wales via the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme Assessment (passing this assessment within a prescribed timeline will be a condition of any recruitment) or qualified to practise in Belgium as an in-house lawyer.
• Relevant private practice and/or in-house experience in the Life Sciences sector.
• Strong legal skills, particularly in identifying and counselling on legal risks and issues, combined with high integrity and sound commercial acuity.
• Ability to operate optimally in an international team environment and collaborate within a matrix structure, liaising with legal colleagues in Belgium, UK, USA and elsewhere, and to engage proactively across a broad range of client groups.
• Ability to engage proactively, influence and interact effectively with Legal colleagues, commercial clients and senior management, demonstrating the GSK Values, Expectations and business partnering and guardian capabilities.
• A self-starter with the ability to work independently and in a team and run numerous matters and challenging priorities optimally.
• Proficient in English with excellent communication, facilitation and negotiation skills.
• Willingness to undertake domestic and international travel as required
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

If you have the following characteristics, it would be a plus:

• Experience advising clients active in the discovery and development of medicines, vaccines and/or medical devices including some experience of advising on one or more of the following legal topics: clinical and commercial contracting, data privacy, regulation of clinical trials and other human subject research, regulation of medicinal product approval and promotion and regulation of medical devices
• Experience of data privacy as applied to human subject research.
• Experience supporting R&D licensing, collaborations, commercial contracts and other business development transactions in the life sciences / healthcare sector.
  
  

Why GSK?

GSK is a place where outstanding people do amazing things. As a science-led global healthcare company, we exist to help people do more, feel better, live longer. This special purpose – along with our goal of being one of the world’s most innovative, best performing and trusted healthcare companies – helps us attract some of the best and brightest minds in the world.

We take pride in providing access to all and continually focus on our opportunity and obligation to do more to improve inclusion and diversity: for our people inside GSK; in the way we do business; and in the communities where we operate. 

We want our company to be a place where diversity of people and thought is valued everywhere and where we’re all able to be ourselves and feel a sense of belonging. An inclusive organization where we all feel valued, engaged and supported, knowing that our work makes an important contribution to our mission. Reinforced by our clear values and expectations, it is part of our DNA. Together we achieve extraordinary things for our patients and consumers, who rely on us each and every day.

As a company driven by our values of Patient focus, Transparency, Respect and Integrity, we know inclusion and diversity are essential for us to be able to succeed. We want all our colleagues to thrive at GSK bringing their unique experiences, ensuring they feel good and to keep growing their careers. As a candidate for a role, we want you to feel the same way.

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we are open to all talent. In the US, we also adhere to Affirmative Action principles. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, colour, national origin, religion, gender, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, disability, genetic information, military service, covered/protected veteran status or any other federal, state or local protected class*(*US only).

We believe in an agile working culture for all our roles. If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to discuss any adjustments to our process which might help you demonstrate your strengths and capabilities. You can either call us on 0808 234 4391, or send an email ukdiversity.recruitment@gsk.com

As you apply, we will ask you to share some personal information which is entirely voluntary. We want to have an opportunity to consider a diverse pool of qualified candidates and this information will assist us in meeting that objective and in understanding how well we are doing against our inclusion and diversity ambitions. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to complete it. Rest assured, Hiring Managers do not have access to this information and we will treat your information confidentially.

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