Interim Senior Legal Counsel (12 month maternity cover)

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Job Title: Senior Legal Counsel - 12 month maternity cover
Location: London
Job Type: Contract

Please note that applications will be accepted until January 31st, 2025. Interviews to start February 7th, anticipated start date for this role will be 10th - 17th March.

Agencies: We will only work with recruitment partners on our preferred supplier list and will not engage with speculative CVs submitted.

Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role:

This interim role sits within our legal team and is responsible for being the legal business partner for a variety of assigned teams within LifeArc, including specific Translational Challenges (for example Childhood Cancer, and Rare Diseases) and other internal stakeholders as required. The role will provide specialist legal support on a wide range of strategic collaborations, structuring and delivering complex grant funded and multi-party projects.

The Senior Legal Counsel will advise on a range of commercial, intellectual property, charity law, data protection and life science /medical research related legal matters

You will be a trusted professional advisor and counsel to senior leadership and operational staff, especially senior members of the Partnerships Team, including Business Development project leads, Funding and Alliance Management teams and Translational Challenge leaders.

About you:

You will be responsible for the following:

• Being the Strategic legal business partner to assigned teams (including specific Translational Challenges and teams within the Partnerships Team), proactively seeking out information to anticipate and deliver all relevant legal support whilst building relationships of trust and confidence with key stakeholders.
• Develop strategies for delivering that legal support to help LifeArc's significant investment in areas of high patient need in line with LifeArc's risk framework, including triage and delegation within the Legal team and obtaining and pragmatically applying advice from external counsel, as appropriate.
• Oversee legal aspects to structure and set up new collaborations, grant funding initiatives, licences and other contractual arrangements by advising on the structure/terms of these projects and by drafting and negotiating agreements.
• Advise and provide legal support for ongoing funding projects and collaborations and management of legal issues as they arise.
• Lead and/or support Legal team initiatives, including training to the business.
• Manage competing priorities whilst balancing the needs of the team and the organisation.
• Develop and apply an understanding of relevant law to advise the business and mitigate related risks (including data protection, IP and charity law).
• Advise on developments in legislation and legal practice as they impact commercial, IP and other activities in LifeArc; as appropriate, cascade that information into the organisation.
• To be a member of cross-functional teams to review and shape project proposals, participate in governance review and approval processes and find solutions for delivering strategic objectives.
• To work closely with contract managers in the Legal team to coordinate and manage the contractual needs of the organisation, including delegation and supervision.

Education required:

• A solicitor or barrister qualified to practice law in England and Wales.

Skills & abilities:

• Significant post qualification experience advising on a range of legal matters, including experience in Intellectual Property, grant funding/collaborative arrangements and general contract/commercial law.
• Experience of (i) charity law and/or working with charity or not-for-profit clients and/or (ii) advising on life sciences and/or medical research matters highly advantageous.
• Highly proficient at drafting and negotiating complex agreements and delivering tailored and pragmatic advice in line with risk appetite and organisational objectives.
• Strong emotional intelligence with ability to build strong relationships of trust and confidence and work in a fast-paced and dynamic organisation
• Highly proficient in managing multiple workstreams, willingness to learn on the job and to provide/procure specialist legal advice as required

About us:

At LifeArc, our ambition is to make life science life changing. We do this by advancing scientific discoveries beyond the lab, faster, so that they can shape the next generation of diagnostics, treatments, and cures.

Working at the cutting edge of translational science and as the early-stage translation specialists, we progress scientific discoveries on their journey to becoming a medicine, diagnostic or intervention that improve patients' lives. Our work begins by seeking out innovative science, then helping to develop this to a point where there is a clinical and commercial pathway for others to invest the time and money to take it further forward.

What we can offer you:

Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of 'putting patients at the centre of everything we do'.

We are dedicated to creating a diverse, flexible, equitable and happy work environment so our colleagues can thrive as their truest selves. We act with courage, curiosity, care & commitment to deliver quality & excellence for our patients and each other Join us, and you'll be given the scope to develop your professional skills and experience in a safe, supportive and challenging environment

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you're excited about this role but your experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles.

We all have potential. At LifeArc, you'll discover what you can really do with it.