Senior Legal Counsel ? GCC- IMI

Job Description

Bringing life-changing medicines to millions of people, Novartis sits at the intersection of cutting-edge medical science and innovative digital technology. As a global company, the resources and opportunities for growth and development are plentiful including global and local cross functional careers, a diverse learning suite of thousands of programs & an in-house marketplace for rotations & project work. With a strong medicines pipeline our current transformation will not just deliver growth for our business but continue to allow us to bring innovative medicines to patients quickly.Your responsibilities will be as defined below.GCC Country Group continues to drive robust governance structures pushing functions to have in place sustainable business partnering models leveraging synergies between Gulf and KSA Clusters. In fact, there is an urgent need of having a resource dedicated to all GCC countries with appropriate seniority (+7PQE) who is able to drive initiatives independently within GCC, MEA and/or APMA and deal directly with leadership teams as well as regional or global stakeholders.The senior counsel will work hand-to-hand with Country Legal Heads and MEA Legal Head on Novartis stra-tegic priorities in the region. It is expected that the senior counsel is able to lead initiatives assigned from early planning to execution, properly represent the legal function without Country Legal Heads or MEA Legal Head involvement and support the Legal team as a whole including the coordination of various activi-ties with global and local junior lawyers. In addition, the GCC senior counsel will continue streamlining the legal work across the GCC region (and MEA and APMA regions where possible), develop best practices across the countries, drive simplification initiatives, oversee activities carried out by junior lawyers, lead innovative and digital projects within the Legal function.The senior counsel should be passionate about what we do and always maintains hands-on attitude. The role entails a very diverse range of activities, without limitation, from the review of a simple agreement or creation of a template to applying proper legal judgment and advising the business after a thorough under-standing of facts, law and risks.The major accountabilities of this role will be:Act as a Business Partner to GCC cross-functional teams and senior leaders providing timely and efficient legal advice on various matters including without limitation complex contract drafting and negotiation, corporate matters, launch and access initiatives, partnerships and collaborations, procurement matters, patient and clinical related initiatives, regulatory and tendering matters.2. Drive independently any commercial and/or operational matters across UAE CPO, KSA CPO and NPhS countries. The senior counsel should be well versed with Novartis set up in GCC countries and be able to provide promptly legal advice on commercial, operations, pricing, supply-chain and tendering topics as well as Anti-Trust and tax matters (seeking support from Group Anti-Trust and Tax whenever needed). Ongoing collaboration with Country Heads and NPhS team is key for a successful performance.3. Lead legal workstream and facilitate rapid roll-out of cutting-edge gene therapy treatments with complex supply constrains across GCC countries. Senior counsel should excel on project and people management skills, teamwork, drafting and negotiation (complex transactions).4. Lead strategic initiatives across the region assigned by Country Lawyers or MEA Legal Head including Launch Initiatives, Patient Support Programs, BD&L, Disruptive Models, Digital Initiatives, PPP and New Commercial Partnerships e.g. Population Health UAE and KSA.5. Lead independently ongoing and/or future initiatives assigned by GCC Legal Heads and/or MEA Legal Head including Internship Program, Contracts Champion, KIM Tool implementation and APMA Working Groups (IP, Digital, Contracts). Senior counsel will also monitor and coach lawyers assigned to such initiatives.6. Support GCC and MEA Legal Team on the maintenance of corporate registries and sharepoints across the region. Take the initiative in suggesting plans and programs to boost the effectiveness of the Legal function and preempt risk in the GCC and MEA region, including without limitation creation of standard guidelines, playbooks and training agendas.7. Take a proactive approach in relation to Contract Management and Templates. New templates creation and amends to current templates are recurrently required considering Novartis? pace. Senior counsel should aim always to (i) simplify and standardize what we have, (ii) keep templates up to date from local laws? perspective and Novartis requirements.8. Support data privacy initiatives across GCC and MEA in coordination with Head of Data Privacy, MEA. GCC and MEA lawyers are required to have appropriate knowledge of data privacy topics and Novartis data privacy standards in order to properly support our Head of Data Privacy based in Dubai. Although the accountability rests with Country Lawyers it is expected that the senior counsel will take the lead on several regional/local initiatives.10. Co-lead the MEA IP Working Group along with MEA Legal Head. Good understanding of IP matters, legislative and regulatory environment and recent trends are crucial to the role. Senior counsel will also support Global IP Attorneys and Country Lawyers with general IP-related matters.11. Lead implementation of Digital Platforms for MEA?s Legal Department, whether to drive more efficiencies within the department, manage internal or external risks or create legal awareness and disseminate legal knowledge to non-legal associates.13. Drive Legal agenda in close collaboration with regional/senior ERC members. This includes without limitation successful collaboration on the Triple-Win roll-out, NPhS Do?s & Don?ts, audit planning and execution. Appropriate knowledge of TPRM, P3, Code of Ethics, Anti-Bribery and FCPA is essential to the role. A mindset of risk identification, mitigation, monitoring and creation of alternate solutions should be maintained during day-to-day activities.14. Support P&O in regard to employment related queries, advice and nationalization projects. Support P&O and ERC with internal and external investigations, Speak- up cases, and coordination in all kinds of audits.16. Manage litigation/dispute via external legal counsel. Select and retain a set of external counsels for the GCC ensuring that legal advice is of high quality and most cost-effective. Support Country Lawyers and MEA Legal Head with budget exercises.17. Streamline the work with Global Drug Development and Trial Monitoring Team across GCC (and/or MEA) including without limitation creation of standardized templates, development of negotiation guidelines, addressing gaps/needs identified and implementing solutions. Minimum RequirementsEducation: Excellent legal education background, preferably from a common law jurisdictionLanguages: English speaker (Arabic is an asset but not a must)Experience: University degree and Bar admission essential> 7 years? experience in legal practiceMNC in-house counsel experience;Experience in the pharmaceutical industry preferredAble to work fully independent, apply proper judgement and take decisions ?on-spot?Ability to network and create relationships with clients and associatesExcellent skills with contracting management and draftingProactivity and ability to deal with senior stakeholdersAble to support stakeholders across a functionally dispersed organizationExcellent verbal and written communication skillsExcellent negotiation and project management skillsAbility to work with a vast range of stakeholders on various mattersAbility to manage a busy agenda/schedule and work under

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