Corporate Counsel for South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Northwest Africa

POSITION SUMMARY:

  

 The Corporate Counsel will provide legal support for Zoetis operations across South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Northwest Africa. Reporting to the Senior Director, Legal (APAC & Africa), this full-time role is ideal for a lawyer seeking to build a career in a leading US-based pharmaceutical company. The role involves supporting a variety of business groups, including commercial operations in India, an insourced IT capability centre in India, distribution markets in South Asia and Africa and conduct of a multi-year project in Africa.

This role is full time. It would suit a lawyer who wishes to embark on a career in a US-based pharmaceutical company on a full time basis. It would also suit a mid-level lawyer with South Asian experience who wishes to expand their experience by supporting African markets.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The lawyer is expected to maximize, enable, guide and protect Zoetis in those markets and to help advance business objectives of Zoetis in those markets.

The lawyer has responsibility for providing legal support for the local Zoetis operations in:

• South Asia including India and the distribution markets of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal

In India and South Asia markets, the primary requirement is provision of commercial advice and legal support to the Commercial business organisation. Support is also required for an insourced IT capability centre. Additionally, there is a requirement to assist the US-based R&D legal team from time to time where local support is required for the R&D business organisation based in Mumbai.

• Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and Northwest Africa (NWA) including distribution markets across the African continent (excluding Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan in the north and excluding South Africa and neighbouring countries in the south).

In Africa, the legal support is required for distribution activities across Africa and, additionally, conduct of the African Livestock Productivity and Health Advancement project (ALPHA). This project is also supported by the Gates Foundation. The project aims to improve livestock health and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa by: (i) expanding access to veterinary medicines and services; (ii) training farmers and veterinary professionals; (iii) supporting sustainable livestock farming; (iv) focusing on cattle, poultry and other livestock.

This position will report into the Senior Director, Legal (APAC & Africa) currently based in Sydney, Australia. The lawyer would be expected to work alongside a company secretary (also based in Mumbai) as a peer. The lawyer would form part of a small legal sub-team of APAC & Africa legal colleagues comprising another lawyer and a paralegal (both based in Southeast Asia) and that team is part of a larger legal team supporting Zoetis’ International Operations (excluding the Americas) that the position will also be a part of.

This position will support the following functional leads:

commercial lead for South Asia (based in Mumbai); commercial lead for SSA and NWA (based in Belgium); commercial lead for ALPHA (based in Belgium); and lead of an insourced IT capability centre (based in Hyderabad).

This position would also be expected to partner with the US-based R&D legal team from time to time where local support is required for the R&D business organisation based in Mumbai. This means that the position offers a level of support to the lead of that R&D organisation (based in Mumbai).

Key responsibilities include:

• Support the Senior Director, Legal (APAC & Africa) as legal business partner on a variety of legal matters for the commercial, finance, tax, HR and other business support teams within the region.
• Negotiate and draft a range of agreements, including distribution, supply, service, consulting, marketing and sales agreements and various other agreements.
• Draft correspondence and corporate documents, including supporting 3 legal entities in India (2 entities with operations based in Mumbai (Commercial and R&D) and 1 based in Hyderabad (insourced IT capability centre)).
• Provide general commercial advice and legal support to the Commercial business organisations and the insourced capability centre as needed and partner with the US-based R&D legal team from time to time where local support is required for the R&D business organisation based in Mumbai.
• Prepare and provide compliance trainings to the business on a variety of compliance topics (anti-bribery and anti-corruption, competition (or anti-trust) law, privacy and similar), including drafting and updating Standard Operation Procedures and similar.
• Counsel and advise respective marketing teams, provide regulatory law support and, on occasion, review promotional materials.
• Manage providing litigation support.
• Must be resilient and able to work autonomously.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & LANGUAGE SKILLS:

Language skills: Excellent command of English, both written and verbal.

Education: Law degree and admission to practice required. Qualified to act as a company secretary.

Experience: At least 5 years of legal experience required in private practice at a reputable law firm or in a high quality in-house team. No knowledge of or experience in life sciences clients is necessary.

TECHNICAL SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS:

• Strong capacity for teamwork to achieve Zoetis legal and compliance objectives.
• Highly organized and detailed oriented, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and independently.
• High-energy self-starter who can function autonomously is receptive to feedback and continuous improvement mindset and completes deliverables on time and well.
• High inter-personal skill level required across diverse cultures and stakeholder levels and manner.
• Ability to exercise independent thinking while communicating in a collaborative manner.
• Excellence in MS PowerPoint and Word.
• A dynamic work ethic.
• Committed to the highest ethical standards, integrity, and transparency.

PHYSICAL POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

• The position is based in Mumbai, India.
• Work hour flexibility is required due to calls with the US and EU.
• Hybrid work model.  It is expected that the person will work in the office no less than 2 days a week and, initially, more than this as they get to know the colleagues and the business.
• The position may require some travelling within the region of responsibility and occasionally outside the region.

Full time

Regular

Colleague

Any unsolicited resumes sent to Zoetis from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to a Zoetis mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Zoetis employees, or to Zoetis resume database will be considered Zoetis property. Zoetis will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.

Zoetis will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.