Senior Legal Counsel, Asia Area

Job content

You are an intellectually curious lawyer with significant knowledge of commercial and corporate law. You are ready to take on a senior level legal remit with a world-leading biopharmaceutical company, working in a collaborative environment. You are entrepreneurial and you want to make a difference working in a rapidly growing set of markets, such as in Asia. And you are seeking to grow and contribute in a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life changing medicines. Then AstraZeneca might be the company for you.

About Astrazeneca

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person.

BUSINESS AREA

Asia Area comprises of nine markets including India, ASEAN, Taiwan and South Korea. In our dynamic and complex markets, it takes entrepreneurial thinking to stay at the forefront. Fusing our diverse minds with local ownership we’re empowered with everything we need to shape a new future for AstraZeneca, our markets and our patients.

The legal function in AstraZeneca values flexibility, creativity, and a willingness to stretch and accept new challenges. We focus on professional and personal development and place a premium on providing lawyers with broad exposure and the opportunity to counsel diverse stakeholders on legal risks.

What You’ll Do

Senior Legal Counsel, Asia Area will provide commercial and corporate legal advice and support to AstraZeneca Asia Area businesses, with a primary focus on Taiwan market.

The Senior Legal Counsel will report to the Asia Area Legal Director (“AALD”). Based in AstraZeneca office in Taipei, the Senior Legal Counsel will work under the functional direction and oversight of the AALD, but will have the experience and judgment to be able to work independently. The Senior Legal Counsel will need to provide skilled, objective, professional, business-focused legal advice and will also need to work closely with other functions within the Asia Area and/or Global Legal Department, as necessary.

As the Senior Legal Counsel, Asia Area, the range of work you will manage includes:

• Commercial Legal Advice. provide pro-active, value-added and practical legal advice on commercial matters, including: (i) distributor and distribution chain arrangements; (ii) local business development matters; (iii) regulatory, market access, tendering and pricing matters; (iv) the negotiation and drafting of agreements; and (vi) working collaboratively with the AZ IP and AZ IP Litigation teams to support them on patent and patent litigation matters.
• Litigation, Disputes, Investigations. manage and provide legal advice to the business in connection with: (i) non-IP litigation / disputes initiated by or against AZ; and (ii) any significant internal investigations and all external investigations, including “dawn-raids as well as assisting markets in developing / implementing appropriate Standard Operating Procedures to effectively manage such investigations.
• Training. develop and provide training to relevant stakeholders, covering key legal risks areas.
• Developments in the Legal Environment. proactively: (i) monitor legislative and regulatory changes in areas relevant to the commercial business; (ii) monitor enforcement trends of key external authorities in such areas; (iii) provide value added analysis and advice to key stakeholders on the potential impact to the AZ business of such changes and trends in order to allow the business to make more accurate risk assessments and informed decisions.
• Managing External Counsel. retain and manage external counsels related matters, including ensuring that the business seeks guidance from external counsel on the appropriate matters, the legal advice is of high quality and each retainer is set up and managed in the most cost-effective manner.
• Risk Management. assess, advise on and manage effectively, all manner of legal risks as they apply to the current business strategy and the activities undertaken by the company, as well as to the medium to long-term strategy and decision making. Provide support in assisting with and closing any issues identified in any internal or external audits.
  
  

Essential For The Role

The successful candidate will have a recognized law degree and be a qualified lawyer with at least 7 years of experience as a lawyer in a major law firm or a lawyer in an internal corporate counsel role with an international company (preferably in a regulated industry). He or she will be required to work collaboratively as part of a team, while appropriately assessing and advising on legal risks and offering creative solutions to complex legal problems. More specifically, he or she will possess the following skills:

• Expertise in Managing Commercial Legal Matters. The successful candidate will demonstrate a track record of having managed the legal aspects of complicated commercial matters of the type encountered in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Excellence in Managing Litigation and Investigations. The candidate will have a demonstrated ability to effectively manage litigation and investigations in various jurisdictions and to effectively manage external counsel in a cost-effective manner.
• Experience in Managing Corporate Risk. He or she will have shown excellence in assessing and managing corporate risk, including managing organizational compliance with the requirements of a regulated industry.
• Business Acumen. He or she will possess strong business acumen, including understanding how the various functional areas are working within the strategic and operational parameters of the company.
• Proactivity/Team Skills. He or she will have demonstrated an ability to act independently, yet work collaboratively with others to get things done, with an inquisitive versus critical approach, and to lead his or her corporate peers to ensure material risks are identified and assessed effectively and efficiently.
• Communication Skills. The successful candidate will possess excellent communication skills in English (oral and verbal) in order to interface successfully with a broad range of stakeholders and build consensus while protecting the best interests of the company.
  
  

Desirable for the role

• The ability to communicate professionally (oral and written) in both English and Chinese are highly preferred. Ability to communicate in other Asia Area market languages is an advantage.
• Strong interpersonal and team leadership skills, demonstrating flexibility and a proven ability to deal with complexity under high intensity and time pressure situations.
• A flexible, team orientated attitude, willing to contribute one’s own skills to deliver AZ priorities.
  
  

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen, because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being entrepreneurial - finding those moments and recognising their potential. Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering cutting edge methods and bringing unexpected teams together. Interested? Come and join our journey.

Where can I find out more?

Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

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