Litigation Counsel

Legal Counsel – Litigation & Disputes

Legal Counsel LATAM, Global Litigation & Disputes, to support Latin America litigation work with an emphasis on patent matters but also including other litigation as needed.

The position reports to the Director Litigation Americas. The successful candidate will work with a team of attorneys and other legal professionals, liaising closely with Nokia’s in- and out-licensing teams in the field of patents, and also with professionals from various other functions across the entire Nokia organization.

The candidate will initially be involved mainly in Nokia’s patent related litigation and lobbying, but will have an opportunity to get involved in the broad and varied Nokia portfolio of litigation and disputes, including commercial litigation with customers, suppliers and others, complex regulatory and investigative matters, tax, labour and employment, antitrust, and more. The candidate will primarily focus on Latin America matters but may also be called to assist in matters arising in other regions.

The person selected will be expected to play an active role in not just maintaining but strengthening Nokia’s litigation function. This should include a rigorous ‘early case assessment’ process, a hands-on approach with outside counsel, close oversight of budgets and spend, maintenance and cultivation of relationships with business and functional leaders across the company, effective use of state of the art litigation management tools and dashboards, creative use of alternative fee arrangements, and more.

While Nokia will always consider settling disputes when it is in the company’s best interests to do so, our mindset will always be that we are prepared to try cases in court and take cases on appeal. Accordingly, the ideal candidate will have experience of litigation in Latin America, preferably particularly in the field of patents.

To the extent necessary, the candidate will also be expected to support Nokia’s local lobbying efforts, and to establish and maintain relationships and create local lobbying messages as part of a cross-functional lobbying and policy team.

The person selected should be able to function in a matrixed organization where hierarchy is minimized. The successful candidate will be boundary-less and will possess the ability to work collaboratively with numerous stakeholders and to identify those who should be consulted or apprised of significant events or developments. The candidate must be adept at managing work across many time zones while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Qualifications

Experience & Qualifications

• Legally qualified in a LATAM jurisdiction or, alternatively, in another jurisdiction but with significant experience of LATAM matters.
• Business fluent in English.
• Minimum of 3 years post qualified experience predominantly in Intellectual Property litigation matters.
• Experience may be in a global law firm, in-house position, or government, or any combination.
• As many of the disputes involve highly complex patent disputes, a high level of interest in technology or science is essential.
• Ability to think strategically and to serve as a trusted business partner with senior business leaders.
• Can develop relevant and creative solutions to meet current and evolving business needs.

Location & Travel

• Location flexible within LATAM.
• Must be willing to travel as role involves regular travel within the South East Asian region.

Responsibilities

• Identify, develop and implement effective and cost-efficient strategies to obtain optimal outcomes in each case.
• Effectively manage outside counsel relationships and control costs and external spend.
• Implement effective early case assessment procedures.
• Implement effective case management systems and advanced dashboards for reporting on litigation matters for a wide range of interested stakeholders.
• Partner effectively with business leaders to obtain maximum results balanced with sensitivity towards business disruption and impairment of key customer and supplier relationships.
• In collaboration with other functions including Finance, Internal Audit, Ethics & Compliance, Health & Safety and more, respond to government and regulatory agency inquiries, investigations and claims.
• Apply strong social and communication skills, and be able to build a network of relationships both within Nokia and with external stakeholders, such as industry organizations, legal community members, regulators and other government officials.
• Work closely with, and be a resource to other members of the Legal & Compliance team including professionals with special experience in compliance, regulatory, IPRs, software, hardware and other product related issues.
• Proactively identify and solve the most complex problems and think beyond existing solutions to create sustainable competitive advantage.