Legal Counsel - UK and Irish Hub

Together, we’re on a mission to make good health more affordable and accessible, to help millions around the world enjoy healthier lives. It’s a mission that bonds our people across nearly 60 countries and a rich, diverse variety of nationalities and backgrounds. Working here means working with the world’s leading manufacturer of innovative and generic medicines, and the proud producer of many of the products on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List. Today, at least 200 million people around the world take one of our medicines every single day. An amazing number, but we’re always looking for new ways to continue making a difference, and new people to make a difference with.

We are looking for a Legal Counsel to support the Senior Legal Counsel (Commercial Speciality) and wider legal team, including the General Counsel UK/SE and NL-Nordics, in the provision of a high quality and commercially focused legal service to the UK and Irish commercial business units.

As a member of the UK and Irish hub legal team you will be a key integrated member of the business teams, working on interesting and diverse matters within a very collegiate and supportive environment. You will have your own areas of responsibility, working directly with business colleagues of all levels of seniority as well as exposure to the wider EU Legal Leadership team and UK Leadership teams.

Flexible location: we are happy to consider candidates located in a commutable distance to our sites in Harlow or Castleford (with travel between sites as required). We have a hybrid approach to home-working!

A Day in the Life of a Legal Counsel...

• You will be business partnering with UK & Ireland commercial business units to provide pragmatic legal advice.
• You will have exposure to senior members of business and legal teams and also local Leadership Teams, with support from the wider UK legal team.
• You will be responsible for supporting customer facing teams, including Pharmacy, Wholesalers, Dispensing Doctors, Hospitals, OTC and NHS procurement and Tendering.
• You will be partnering with business colleagues on initiatives to strategise and develop new ways of building relationships and business opportunities with customers, with a particular focus on pharmacy customers.
• You will be responsible for drafting, negotiating and advising on contractual arrangements with customers and third parties.
• You will provide contract law and strategic advice on a range of contract categories including, marketing and supply, Wholesaler, service agreements, consultancy agreements, patient support programmes, NHS collaborative working agreements.
• You will be working with NHS tendering teams to understand changes to procurement processes and contracts.
• You will be supporting Senior lawyers in team on general procurement projects and contracts.
• You will anticipate internal and/or external business challenges and/or recommending process and service improvements.
• You will manage legal risk in a manner that supports and facilitates their continued commercial success.
• You will support external and internal project teams to achieve milestones and objectives.

Who we are looking for

Do you have...?

• Law degree
• Post-qualification Law experience within the UK of circa 3 year PQE (other levels of qualification will be considered depending on experience)
• Strong technical contract law knowledge with experience of negotiating commercial contracts is key.
• A commercial mindset, with a desire to make a difference and work with senior members of commercial and legal teams.
• A desire to work as part of a close-knit team and to support other legal team members as and when required.

Are you...?

• A broad thinker, with the ability to think outside of the box and apply a business focused and value-add mind-set to new projects and initiatives.
• Excited by opportunities to work with senior colleagues in a supportive environment.
• Looking for a new challenge with a wide range of work exposure and the ability to develop your stakeholder skills at all levels within an organisation.
• Agile and able to embrace change and continuous learning.
• Able to put customers at the heart of decision making.
• Innovative, creative and solution focused.

Enjoy a more rewarding choice

• Enjoying time with your families (25 days of annual leave, Flexible approach to home working, Pension scheme, car or car allowance)
• Looking after your health (Life & Critical Illness Insurance, Private health insurance for you and your family, Sports and Health Programme – including health days and nutritional counselling, On-site Canteen)
• Recognizing your value (Recognition programs to reward our employees with our company bonus scheme)
• Well-being and D&I focused company

Reports To

Senior Legal Counsel UK/Irish hub, with exposure to all members of legal team including the General Counsel UK/SE and NL-Nordics.