Solicitor

4,000 professionals, 0 days wasted, 1 incredible purpose. Together we are beating cancer.

Solicitor

Salary: £70,000 - £80,000 per annum depending on experience plus benefits

Reports to: Director of Legal for R&I Legal

Department: Research & Innovation

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week (Other flexible-working requests will also be considered)

Location: Stratford, London (high flex - we would expect you to be in the office 1 to 2 days per week)

Closing date: 22 April 2024

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That's why we're looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Solicitor to provide effective legal support to Cancer Research Horizons (CRH) across the full spectrum of activities, ensuring the effective delivery of the organisational strategy. This role involves high-quality and fast-paced work in a collegiate environment and with a high degree of autonomy. It offers a unique range of work across academia, charity and commercial research, within a team dedicated to translating CRUK's pioneering scientific breakthroughs into life-changing cancer treatments.

What will I be doing?

• Work independently to provide timely, proactive, pragmatic, high quality and commercial legal advice and solutions to the organisation.

• Review, draft, and negotiate a broad range of legal agreements relating to collaborative research and the protection and commercial exploitation of intellectual property.

• Build an excellent understanding of CRH's business areas, building rapport and good working relationships across CRH and CRUK, as well as with internal and external clients.

• Identify, advise on and ensure good contract management practice, in particular to embed the various policies and programmes designed to ensure contractual, corporate and legislative compliance.

• Advise on spin-out activity and drafting and negotiating relevant agreements.

• Develop and deliver training sessions to business managers.

• Develop and maintain know-how and legal resources including through the intranet, such as template agreements and guidance notes on common issues/questions.

• Manage potential / actual disputes and instruct and manage external legal advisers.

• Assist CRUK in formulating policy in relation to its translational research activities and intellectual assets.

• Proactively identify, monitor, address, and report on legal (and where appropriate other business) issues of significance.

• Keep abreast of legal and regulatory changes, sharing relevant insights within the Research & Innovation (R&I) Legal Team and contribute to legal know-how resources.

• You'll be reporting directly to the Director of Legal for R&I.

What skills are you looking for?

• Qualified lawyer with sound legal training in a well-regarded legal practice, and relevant post-qualification experience in-house and/or in private practice.

• Strong knowledge of intellectual property law (particularly patents), contract law and company law; ideally working knowledge of competition law and the regulatory environment relating to pharmaceutical product development.

• Good drafting skills with experience of drafting agreements.

• Solution-focused and pragmatic and able to apply legal knowledge and good practice in day-to-day work.

• Able and prepared to quickly develop a good understanding of new legal areas and issues which affect the organisation.

• Able to identify, concisely articulate and evaluate key issues and risks, taking ownership of providing solutions and practical guidance to clients.

• Able to recognise when more complex and serious issues arise and escalate appropriately.

• Ability to work independently to manage a diverse and extensive workload under pressure to meet short deadlines.

• Team player - ambitious for the R&I Legal Team with a real desire to see it excel.

• Manages and organises own time effectively to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines to manage clients' expectations and demands.

• Good relationship skills and ability to build effective external and internal networks for collaboration and knowledge sharing.

• Works to understand and support the commercial objectives of internal customers. Proactive, and able to take the initiative.

• Good interpersonal and communication skills in all media.

• A familiarity with clinical trial regulation would be beneficial.

What will I gain?

Every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that's impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies, and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don't forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work - from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy - will change the world. It's exciting to be part of our team.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won't be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.