Description:

Role Summary:
The Associate Counsel, Contracting reports to the Senior Counsel - R&D, Contracting & Strategy and provides practical, business-oriented contracting legal support across all U.S. business and corporate functions of Servier Pharmaceuticals and Servier Bio-Innovation, with a primary focus on R&D-related contracting and related development activities.

The role will independently draft, review, negotiate, and manage routine to moderately complex agreements, while identifying and escalating higher risk matters as appropriate. In addition, the role will support efforts to develop, operationalize, and improve contracting workflows, templates, playbooks, and third-party engagement processes that advance business objectives while managing legal, compliance, privacy, regulatory, and operational risk.

Primary Responsibilities:

Provide practical, business-oriented contracting legal support across all U.S. functions within Servier Pharmaceuticals and Servier Bio-Innovation, including R&D, Medical Affairs, Commercial, Market Access, Patient Services, Finance, Procurement, IT, and other corporate functions, with particular emphasis on R&D-related contracting needs.
Draft, review, negotiate, and finalize a broad range of agreements supporting all business functions, with particular focus on R&D-related agreements, including CDAs, consulting agreements, MSAs, SOWs, clinical trial agreements, sponsored research agreements, research collaborations, material transfer agreements, vendor and CRO agreements, work orders, change orders, sponsorships, grants, data use and transfer arrangements, privacy and data processing agreements, SaaS/IT licenses, amendments, and other business-critical contracts.
Support negotiations by identifying key legal, compliance, privacy, regulatory, intellectual property, operational, and business risks and working with internal stakeholders to reach timely, practical, and risk-appropriate resolutions.
Advise, counsel, and educate business stakeholders on legal and risk management considerations arising from their activities, including appropriate contracting pathways, approval requirements, confidentiality obligations, indemnification, termination rights, and other material contract terms.
Monitor, manage, and report on the status of contracting matters to the Senior Counsel, including matter volume, priority matters, turnaround times, recurring issues, and opportunities to improve contracting processes and stakeholder experience.
Partner with business clients to understand strategic objectives, operational needs, timelines, and risk tolerance, and provide solutions-oriented legal guidance.
Identify and escalate significant legal, compliance, privacy, intellectual property, regulatory, or business risks to the Senior Counsel and other appropriate stakeholders, with recommended approaches for mitigation.
Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives for the contracting function, including the development and updating of contract templates, playbooks, guidance materials, intake and triage workflows, CLM processes, knowledge management resources, metrics and reporting, process enhancements, and stakeholder training and education.
Collaborate closely with other members of the U.S. Legal, Privacy, Ethics and Compliance, Procurement, Finance, as well as Global Legal and other global functions, on issues of shared responsibility.

Education and Required Skills

JD or LLM from an accredited US law school
Admitted to practice in a recognized US jurisdiction and registered with the MA Board of Bar Overseers as Massachusetts In-House Counsel if not admitted in MA
4-7+ years of relevant legal experience, including experience in the biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or life sciences industry, with demonstrated experience drafting and negotiating a broad range of agreements across business functions and preferred experience with R&D, clinical development, or research-related contracting.
Strong interpersonal & presentation skills, along with the ability to communicate and build relationships with others at all levels of the organization
Ability to clearly, and concisely, explain complex legal principles and positions to business audiences
Ability to independently manage, prioritize, and follow through on a high volume of contracting matters, set appropriate priorities with internal clients, balance competing deadlines, and deliver results efficiently
Willingness and proven ability to support a broad range of business functions while developing deeper expertise in R&D, clinical development, privacy, healthcare compliance, and technology contracting topics.
Tenure at a top-tier law firm practicing in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotech, digital health, and/or healthcare practice areas, a plus

Travel and Location