Senior Pharma Counsel for Listed Life Sciences Business
Background
Our client is a listed UK pharma company focused on developing pioneering immunotherapy treatments for allergic disorders. With operations spanning several countries across Europe, the company established itself as a market-leading international business in the immunology sector.
Following a period of strategic growth, the company’s General Counsel sought to strengthen the legal function by appointing a senior pharma lawyer. This role would be crucial in supporting the growing demands of the business as it continued to expand its portfolio of products and international market presence.
The legal team had high visibility across the organisation, with direct access to the board and senior management. The new appointment would play a vital role in managing the Group’s legal matters both domestically and internationally, requiring a commercial lawyer with specific pharmaceuticals expertise who could hit the ground running.
Challenge
The recruitment of a senior pharmaceuticals lawyer presented several distinct challenges.
- Firstly, the pharmaceuticals legal talent pool is relatively small when there is a particular need for company secretarial experience, commercial contracts expertise and exposure to a variety of other legal matters.
- The position demanded a UK-qualified solicitor with a robust understanding of pharmaceutical regulation and commercial contracts.
- Additionally, the remote nature of the role, meant geographical flexibility was important. The successful candidate would need to be comfortable working remotely while maintaining effective collaborative relationships with stakeholders across multiple European offices, including London.
- Perhaps most significantly, the client required someone who could demonstrate not only technical legal expertise but also the commercial acumen to support a PLC operating in a highly regulated environment.
Finding candidates with this specific combination of skills and experience, particularly with experience in life sciences, would require a targeted approach.
Solution
Our strategy began with a comprehensive briefing from the General Counsel as the main stakeholder, to clearly define the role requirements and understand the current international team dynamics. We developed a detailed candidate profile focusing on solicitors with in-house legal experience pharmaceuticals or biotechnology – with particular emphasis on commercial contracts expertise and company secretarial knowledge within a listed environment.
We implemented a multi-channel approach, combining targeted headhunting of pharma lawyers from our extensive network with carefully placed advertising to attract passive candidates, alongside a number of individuals who were already actively seeking legal career opportunities in the UK. Our detailed briefing document highlighted the company’s purpose-driven mission to transform patients’ lives, which proved particularly compelling for candidates seeking meaningful work in the life sciences sector.
The search produced a strong shortlist of 9 candidates with varied pharmaceutical legal backgrounds. Six candidates were selected for the first round of interviews in a thorough selection process which included competency-based interviews and assessments. The client appointed an experienced senior pharma lawyer with both the technical expertise and commercial mindset needed to thrive in this high-visibility role.
The successful candidate brought valuable pharmaceutical industry experience, strong contract law knowledge, and company secretarial skills developed in another listed environment—precisely the combination of attributes the client sought. The appointment of another highly competent senior in-house lawyer, has allowed the GC to start to build a robust legal and compliance function capable of supporting the company’s ambitious growth plans.
