Executive Director & Senior Litigation Counsel

Job Description Summary

The Executive Director & Senior Litigation Counsel is senior member of the Global Litigation and Investigations team and is responsible for managing group material and other important litigations/legal disputes, internal investigations and government investigations against Novartis or a Novartis entity globally. The role supports the Global Head of Litigation and Investigations in providing legal guidance to the Chief Legal Officer and senior management on litigation, investigative and governmental risks and exposures and key mitigation initiatives. The role develops and delivers dispute resolution, litigation, investigation, and settlement strategies in line with company requirements to reduce risk; negotiates high impact/high profile settlements; manages and coordinates internal and external teams; and exe-cutes on litigation/investigation work plans. The role also provides expert advice and guidance to ERC, Audit and ISC. The role will support other key initiatives requiring litigation and investigations expertise on an ad hoc basis, such as in the context of M&A due diligence and divestment activities.

Location: This role will be based out of East Hanover, NJ and follow a hybrid work schedule. #LI-Hybrid.

 

Job Description

Major accountabilities:

Global Litigation:

A senior role within the global litigation team handling group material and/or important litigation around the world.

Evaluate cases and formulate litigation and investigative strategies.

Advise the Global Head of Litigation and Investigations as well as other members of senior management on dispute and risk exposure, and strategies for minimizing adverse consequences and reputational risk.

Oversee and facilitate complex disputes and manage cross-border discovery requests and analyses.

Collaborate with and support the legal discovery process and forensic techniques. 

Manage outside litigation counsel, discovery vendors, litigation hold processes, our RFP process for new matters, engagement terms, and billing policies.

Proactively counsel our legal and business partners on litigation risk assessments and mitigation measures. 

Remain current regarding trends and developments in litigation and enforcement and provide advice regarding same.

Global Internal Investigations

A senior role within the Global Legal investigations team handling group material and other important legally privileged internal investigations around the world.

Advise the Global Head of Litigation and Investigations, and the Head of Legal Investigations, regarding risk exposure, and strategies for minimizing adverse consequences and reputational risk.

Manage interactions with Whistleblowers or other confidential reporters/informants.

Manage high-risk internal investigations and evaluate findings and develop mitigation and remediation strategies.

Evaluate legal necessity of disclosing findings to government authorities, including strategies to maximize credit for self-disclosure.

Support remediation activities and local investigations globally to mitigate future risk and position the Company to receive remediation credit and avoid adverse consequences (e.g. compliance monitors) in the event of government inquiries.

Conduct best practices investigative and enforcement trends trainings.

Support the team in ensuring alignment with internal functions (e.g., SpeakUp, Global Security, Audit, etc.) on best practices to conduct investigations and mitigate risk through assurance activities.

Manage outside investigative counsel, discovery vendors, litigation hold processes, our RFP process for new matters, engagement terms, and billing policies.

Government investigations

Working with the Global Head of Litigation and Investigations and the Head of Legal Investigations, manage the defense of/response to government investigations initiated against a Novartis entity world-wide.

Assess factual, legal, and policy responses to government investigations and develop strategies to maximize receipt of cooperation credit and to mitigate risk of penalties, compliance monitors, and other sanctions.

Evaluate complex multi-jurisdictional/multi country government investigations for resolution.

Assess factual, legal, and policy responses to government investigations and develop strategies to maximize receipt of cooperation credit and to mitigate risk of penalties, compliance monitors, and other sanctions.

Support the negotiation of high impact/high profile settlements with government regulators/prosecutors.

Work closely with our public policy colleagues to analyze and respond to regulatory matters

Minimum Re