Corporate Counsel or Associate General Counsel

Department: Legal
Position Classification: Full Time / Exempt
Location: Yardley, Pennsylvania

The Corporate Counsel or Associate General Counsel position will be a critical member of the Legal Department. Depending on prior experience, the incumbent will be responsible for providing legal and strategic advice to the Company on a wide variety of corporate and transactional matters, including contracts, federal and state regulatory requirements, litigation, intellectual property, product liability, securities, mergers and acquisitions, advertising and promotion, health and safety and employment law. This “hands on” position will work independently and in conjunction with the Legal team to provide legal counsel and support to senior management and colleagues throughout the Company and its subsidiaries.

Key Responsibilities

  • Draft, review, analyze, structure and negotiate a broad range of agreements including those involving consultants, vendors, confidentiality, clinical trial, support services, software licensing, research, and other corporate agreements for domestic and international operations.
  • Assist in corporate development activities, including participation in due diligence.
  • Provide counsel regarding commercial transactions and global clinical trials.
  • Work with business counterparts, both domestically and internationally, to identify and provide advice regarding legal risks and issues.
  • Assist senior members of the legal department with other legal needs of the company as necessary and contribute to the overall Legal function.
  • Develop/disseminate legal forms, policies, and processes to scale with the organization.
  • Develop a thorough understanding of and familiarity with the Company’s business, its people, products, technology, markets, facilities, customers and competitors in order to assist the company in meeting overall business objectives.
  • Provide training and make presentations to company personnel regarding legal issues.
  • Research and ensure compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations, including HIPAA and privacy/data security.
  • Supervise non-lawyer staff and manage outside counsel as necessary.

Qualifications

  • A record of outstanding academic achievement at the undergraduate and graduate levels
  • A Juris Doctorate degree from an accredited and challenging academic program
  • Admission to practice law in at least one state – strong preference for PA licensure
  • Minimum of 5-10 years of relevant industry legal experience, preferably in a pharmaceutical/life sciences company legal department and/or at a law firm supporting the life sciences industry
  • Pragmatic judgment, particularly in determining the significance of legal matters and effectively measuring and balancing legal and business risks
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
  • Effective organizational skills in order to prioritize and manage multiple time-sensitive projects simultaneously
  • Strong, hands-on work ethic with willingness to assume heavy workload to meet timing and project needs
  • Demonstrated adaptability with small company lean-resourced environment
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills, with ability to synthesize complex legal issues to essential elements for clients throughout the organization with different abilities and responsibilities
  • Strong interpersonal skills, including optimism, diplomacy and flexibility, and the ability to interface effectively with management and colleagues at many different levels throughout the Company and with customers and other business partners
  • High level of integrity and ethics
Click here to go to the Optinose Career Center to apply.

About Optinose

OptiNose Inc. is a global specialty pharmaceutical company on a single-minded mission to improve lives. Launched in 2010 on the foundation of a first technology acquired from Norway, and headquartered in Yardley, Pennsylvania, today Optinose is comprised of highly motivated and highly accomplished professionals working from offices in the U.S., U.K., and Norway. Optinose has both a proven record of successful product development and a promising pipeline of new products.

The Company’s first products are based on a patented closed-palate breath-enabled technology called Optinose Exhalation Delivery Systems. This technology is a platform for developing novel treatments that create meaningful new clinical benefits by enabling high and deep intranasal deposition of carefully selected medications. Optinose successfully developed a first product in the neurology therapeutic area (approved and launched as ONZETRA® Xsail®) and licensed North American commercialization rights to Otsuka (Avanir subsidiary).

In September 2017, Optinose received FDA approval for a product indicated to treat nasal polyps. In 2018, we plan to initiate additional clinical trials to seek a follow-on indication. Optinose is actively growing its team to support this exciting product, including commercial, supply chain, compliance, quality assurance and other key team members.

Looking further ahead, Optinose has other pipeline products targeting large markets with significant unmet needs. These include nose-to-brain applications in the central nervous system therapeutic area (such as OPN-300 for autism) and multiple opportunities in the ENT and allergy therapeutic areas.

Dedicated professionals at Optinose are building a new kind of organization from scratch without the encumbrances of a company with legacy systems and beliefs. Our team is unified by a shared mission: to improve lives. We will do this while creating great value for the healthcare system and great outcomes for investors. As innovators in every aspect of our work, we will pursue faster and less costly product development, explore evolving commercial business models, and actively seek innovative ways to be more effective and efficient. We will operate with an unwavering and overarching commitment to doing what is right. We are committed to working together as a team that chooses to live every day by core company values that guide our daily behaviors, creating a foundation for future success. These include friendship, possibility thinking, fearless conversations, openness, authenticity, perseverance, and one mission.