Legal Counsel

POSITION DESCRIPTION
Legal Counsel


Title: Legal Counsel
Location: New York, NY


POSITION SUMMARY:
The General Counsel's Office provides proactive legal counsel to the board, management and staff of IAVI. The Legal Counsel is responsible for all legal issues, business development activities, risk management and compliance. Legal Counsel will work under the guidance of Associate General Counsel and work with other attorneys in the group to provide legal support across a wide range of legal, regulatory and ethical issues.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Provide legal support to IAVI’s R&D programs, including interactions with research laboratories, pre-clinical and clinical translational development activities (e.g., CDAs, MTAs, research agreements, clinical trial agreements, collaboration agreements, license agreements, etc.), the establishment of vaccine development collaborations, and provide support to regulatory and quality activities and functions;
• Draft, review and negotiate contracts with partner organizations (pharma and biotech companies, universities, NGOs and governments), and provide business focused legal advice;
• Work in a coordinated and integrated fashion within IAVI’s General Counsel’s Office, and with the Business Development and intellectual property management functions, to support IAVI’s R&D programs; and
• Work with R&D team in ensuring the success of the business and in the support of its translational development activities.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS:
• JD degree and New York bar admission;
• 5 years relevant work experience preferred;
• Transnational experience, including contracts and intellectual property issues relating to pre-clinical and clinical research activities and business development activities;
• Proactive, action oriented, and collaborative;
• Strong project management skills;
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills;
• Strong drafting skills; and
• Strong analytical skills.

• Receptive to and takes positive action on feedback, recommendations and requests;
• Listens actively and communicates effectively with others;
• Clearly articulates viewpoints and respects others’ ideas;
• Takes proactive steps to collaborate with members from other teams/departments;
• Strives for excellence and seeks solutions to system/process failures; and
• Fulfills commitments; and is accountable for outcomes.

Work Environment and Physical Demands:
The work environment and physical demands described here 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.

• Mobility to perform the essential functions of the position
• Hearing and speech sufficient to verbally communicate in person and on the telephone constantly (66-100%)
• Typical office environment
• Occasional travel off-site for team meetings with collaborators, as needed (up to 20%)
• Ability to travel to IAVI offices in New York
Other Duties:
• Perform other duties as assigned

Organizational Overview:

IAVI is a nonprofit scientific research organization dedicated to addressing urgent, unmet global health challenges including HIV and tuberculosis. Our mission is to translate scientific discoveries into affordable, globally accessible public health solutions. Through scientific and clinical research in Africa, India, Europe, and the U.S., IAVI is pioneering the development of biomedical innovations designed for broad global access. We develop vaccines and antibodies in and for the developing world and seek to accelerate their introduction in low-income countries.

IAVI programs and partnerships are grounded in the regions of the world where the disease burden is the greatest, and our approach emphasizes sustainability. Our network of clinical research center partners in Africa and India helps strengthen in-country research capacity and supports the training and education of the next generation of scientists. The global impact of our science includes fundamental contributions to understanding the biology of HIV infection, which IAVI and others are applying toward advancing vaccine science and immunology. 

IAVI accelerates scientific discovery and development by fostering unique collaborations among academia, industry, local communities, governments, and funders to explore new and better ways to address public health threats that disproportionately affect people living in poverty. 

Our global reach, including a clinical research network in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in India, has allowed us to make fundamental contributions to understanding the epidemiology, transmission, virology, and immunology of HIV. This work played a key role in facilitating the design of promising HIV vaccine candidates, as well as the discovery of broadly neutralizing antibodies that are now being advanced as promising approaches for HIV prevention. Our integrated capabilities in vaccine and antibody discovery, development, and clinical research take advantage of bio-pharmaceutical industry expertise to accelerate the development and testing of prevention methods for HIV and other diseases. Through the Product Development Center, we support external researchers with technical and scientific expertise to accelerate the development of their own products.

IAVI IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER actively committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive global organization. IAVI believes that diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a representative candidate pool. At IAVI, we celebrate the spectrum of colleagues’ experiences and believe that dedication to our mission above all is essential to our success as a scientific global non-profit. IAVI upholds these principles through IAVI’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee. 

IAVI has zero tolerance for discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, national origin, home language, ancestry, religion, marital or civil partnership status, age, physical or mental disability, HIV status and any other medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, and veteran status, in addition to any other status protected under the law in any of our locations worldwide.