Position Summary
The Senior Legal Counsel/Legal Counsel will be a true legal generalist on a team that supports the needs of every function. Legal leadership will involve you inthe Company's most important and varied work, and this position will own the legal support and guidance from beginning to end. Rather than focusing on a narrow practice area, the role will have diverse and expansive breadth across the entire enterprise, rotating through projects and support areas with the rest of the legal team.
The Senior Legal Counsel/ Legal Counsel will report to the Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer.
Primary Responsibilities
- Strategic transactions: Support M&A, in-licensing and out-licensing, research and development collaborations, co-development and co-commercialization deals, option agreements, asset purchases; assist with diligence, term sheets, negotiation, and drafting
- Commercial and clinical contracting: Draft and negotiate CRO, CDMO, clinical trial, master services, supply, consulting, and material transfer agreements; build templates and playbooks that accelerate the business
- Corporate governance: Support board and committee meetings, prepare resolutions and minutes, manage equity and entity matters, and advise on governance best practices
- Financings and securities: Support equity financings and public company matters, including SEC reporting, disclosure, insider trading compliance, and investor-related matters
- Intellectual property strategy: Partner with patent counsel on licensing terms, ownership and inventorship questions, and IP diligence
- Regulatory and compliance: Work with Regulatory Affairs, Clinical, and Quality teams on legal questions touching FDA requirements, privacy and data protection, anti-kickback and transparency rules, and healthcare compliance
- Whatever comes next: Employment questions, a dispute, a new policy, a novel issue with no precedent. When leadership needs someone to figure it out, that will often be you
Competencies
- Highly motivated and self-directed, with the drive to see matters through from beginning to end
- Takes ownership of business outcomes, not just legal outcomes; operates as a true business partner rather than an advisor on the sidelines, with a stake in the success of the strategy and accountability for the results
- Impeccable integrity and sound ethical judgment
- Driven to simplify complexity; able to distill complex legal and business issues into clear, practical guidance and give recommendations, not just options
- High learning agility; quickly masters new areas of law and business and applies sound judgment to novel issues without precedent
- Embraces ambiguity rather than merely tolerating it; thrives where there is no clear answer or established playbook, brings structure to undefined problems, and moves forward decisively with incomplete information
- Entrepreneurial, low-ego approach: no task is too small, no problem is someone else's, and a focus on the Company's success, not just doing the legal work well
- Utilizes technology and AI tools effortlessly to work smarter, faster, and more efficiently, and to scale the impact of a lean legal team
- Strong negotiation, drafting, and business judgment, including knowing which issues matter and which do not
- High attention to detail when useful, and the ability to move beyond detail when necessary
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; articulate, direct, and forthright
- Highly collaborative, customer-centric problem solver who partners effectively with diverse internal and external stakeholders while protecting the best interests of the Company
- Comfortable with ambiguity and able to manage rapidly shifting priorities and multiple projects in a fast-paced environment, delivering accurate results under tight timeframes and with limited resources
- A reputation as the person colleagues call when they do not know who else to call
Experience
- Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school and an active bar license in good standing in any U.S. state, with the ability to obtain a limited in-house counsel license in the state where you will be based
- 4+ years of legal practice; large law firm experience and/or experience with life sciences clients or companies preferred
- Hands-on experience with M&A, licensing and collaboration agreements, corporate governance, or other strategic transactions in the life sciences sector
- Exposure to public company matters, including SEC reporting, disclosure, or financings
- Prior in-house experience at an emerging or high-growth biotechnology or pharmaceutical company (preferred)
- Familiarity with the drug development lifecycle, from discovery through clinical trials to commercialization (preferred)
EEO Statement:
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.
Benefit Statement:
All regular-status, full-time employees of Geron are eligible to participate in the Company’s comprehensive benefit program, pursuant to plan terms and conditions. Plan choices include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, flexible spending accounts, disability insurance, supplemental health insurance, a 401(k) retirement savings plan, and an employee stock purchase plan. Geron also provides regular-status, full-time employees with a generous time off program that includes the eligibility to accrue 160 hours of vacation during each full year of employment, 64 hours of sick leave, 9 standard paid holiday days off, and paid leave for certain life events. Geron recognizes that its employees work in many different states and therefore may be affected by different laws. It is Geron’s intention to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws that apply to the Company’s employees.
Salary Statement:
Offered compensation is determined based on market data, internal equity, and an applicant’s relevant skills, experience, and educational background.
General Salary Range: $215,000 to $300,000
