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Director, Corporate Counsel – Job Description

Position Overview:

• You will perform the critical tasks of managing a broad range of Legal matters, including but not limited to drafting, reviewing, negotiating, helping close, and maintaining commercial and intellectual property agreements for the dynamic, innovative and high growth Biosciences Division, part of Life Sciences and Laboratory Products Group within Thermo Fisher Scientific, a global industry science leader.
• You will work with business partners and teams to develop, draft and negotiate various agreements with large industry-leading pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, research and manufacturing companies and institutions that enable the Biosciences Division to sell products and perform services; exploit opportunities based on technology owned by our Company or third parties; purchase raw materials and services, and resolve commercial or other Legal disputes.
• You will work with business development teams to strategize, develop and structure business deals and transactions.
• You will support the Division Counsel and work with cross-divisional Legal colleagues and others in the Legal Department to provide Legal advice and guidance to the business on a broad range of substantive Legal areas.
• You will manage a team of two or more Legal colleagues with the Biosciences Division.

Essential Functions:

• This position oversees the Legal functions and needs for the Sample Preparation, Molecular Biology Tools, and Nucleic Acid Therapy business units and their sites within the Biosciences Division.
• You will draft and negotiate with third-parties OEM and supply contracts, service agreements, technology in-licenses and out-licenses, quality agreements, distribution agreements, and other commercial agreements of varying complexity as needed.
• You will provide exceptional Legal support for business partners to meet customer demands and commitments to enable business growth.
• You should be able to drive a transaction from start to completion in an efficient and strategic manner, while managing risk and protecting the Company, maintain strong commercial awareness of business needs and legal issue affecting business objectives.
• You will perform analysis on legal rights, obligations, risks and strategies to help the Company achieve its commercial goals and objectives.
• You will provide training and best practices initiatives to commercial teams to facilitate consistent agreement negotiation processes, use of/access to commercial information and negotiation strategies for commercial engagements.
• You will participate in due diligence and other activities relating to M&A and integration activities.
• You will work with supporting functions such as purchasing, accounting, sales, product management, quality regulatory, intellectual property and marketing to resolve of a wide range of business, contractual, IP, quality, regulatory, financial and operational issues.
• You will work with functional leaders to increase commercial effectiveness through process improvement strategies and initiatives.
• You will be responsible for overseeing and managing a Legal team of two or more individuals. You are expected to provide guidance oversight, direction and advice to Legal team members, while promoting an environment that fosters collaboration, trust and inclusion by encouraging open communication.

Nature and Scope:

• This position interacts with personnel at all levels of the Company as well as with external customers, and requires the ability to understand and frame legal and related business issues to successfully prepare, review and negotiate commercial agreements, and resolve disputes.
• This position performs duties independently with minimal instruction given on new projects or assignments.
• Job requires ability to work through and resolve problems of highly diverse scope and moderate to high complexity, across multiple jurisdictions.
• Multiple tasks must often be performed contemporaneously, involving commitments of moderate levels of funds or other resources, and requiring understanding of issues surrounding personnel, finance, contracts, corporate structure, intellectual property and technology.
• Simplify complex Legal issues and offer suitable solutions to business partners.
• Attention to detail is an essential skill required for success in this role.
• The ability to recognize when to seek advice from or escalate matters to the Division Counsel, General Counsel, other Company personnel, or external consultants is important.

Education and Experience:

J.D. degree and admission to state bar is required. A degree or significant experience working in life sciences is preferred, as is a basic working knowledge of patent law. This role requires a minimum of 10 years of relevant Legal experience including contract preparation, negotiation and related activities resulting in a thorough working knowledge of contract law. Commercial experience and working knowledge of standard business processes is essential. Excellent interpersonal, writing and negotiation skills are required. Build relationships with Legal colleagues and business clients to understand business objectives and Legal issues in connection with Biosciences Division.

Working Conditions:

Works in an office environment. May, on a continuous basis, sit at desk, work on a computer, and/or speak on a telephone for long periods of time. The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate and occasional travel may be required. The demands described above are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.