Commercial Legal Counsel

Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Midland Road, London

Short summary  

We are seeking an experienced Commerical Legal Counsel to join on an interim basis of 6-12 months to provide to provide maternity cover. 

In this role, you will be helping the Crick deliver its scientific strategy in compliance with legal, charitable and regulatory requirements.  You will be part of the Crick’s Legal, Governance and Compliance team (also known as LGC) - a team of lawyers, co sec managers and contract specialists responsible for legal, contractual, regulatory, data protection and company secretarial matters.  We provide legal advice and transactional support to all parts of the Crick.  We oversee data privacy compliance jointly with the Information Technology team and provide a full secretariat service to the boards and committees of the Crick and its subsidiaries. 

The work is varied reflecting the range of activities at the Crick and the different types of relationships with commercial and academic organisations.

Key Responsibilities

• Stakeholder management: Develop and maintain excellent working relations with senior and/or key internal and external stakeholders
• Advisory: Provide or procure appropriate advice on laws and regulation (including those pertaining to research, philanthropic and charitable activities), commercial/contract law matters, contract disputes, laws and regulations, taking into account internal policy, process and governance.
• Transactional support: Support contracts and or other legal matters, as lead lawyer or working with another team member
• Legal services innovation: Develop new ways of working for LGC, improve legal operations and delivery of legal services.
• Legal operations: Oversee day-to-day operations so that workflows and caseloads are managed effectively, accurately and in a timely manner. Use systems and software to optimise the contracting process for both Crick Research and Crick Operations.
• Other: Support and supervise junior team members. Instruct, help select and manage external law firms. 

About us

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL, Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility in one building in Europe.

The Francis Crick Institute will be world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy. 

• If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via our website.
• Closing date is 08.03
• All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.