Director - General Counsel

The General Counsel is responsible for the vision and leadership of the Company’s global legal strategy and the comprehensive management of all legal matters, and will serve as a hands-on, trusted legal advisor, providing pragmatic, risk-balanced, results-oriented, business-focused counsel to the Company and its leaders, with a full “seat at the table.” As the General Counsel, the successful candidate will be a key member of the senior leadership team and will report directly to the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Planning with a dotted-line reporting to the Company President. In addition, the General Counsel will serve as a key liaison with the Company’s parent company. The successful candidate will also manage corporate governance and compliance, and oversee the administration of corporate records.

This position requires an attorney with a strong business orientation. The individual must be self-motivated and have a drive to learn and understand MonoSol’s business, and to contributing in a meaningful, practical and efficient way to achieving its strategy and long-term strategic goals. In addition to possessing the requisite skills, the successful candidate must approach this role from an experienced and pragmatic business perspective and demonstrate a high degree of ethics, integrity and credibility, as well as having strategic and conceptual thinking and problem-solving capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide legal counsel to the CEO, Senior Leadership Team and other senior leaders of the Company.
• Lead and provide guidance on negotiations and structure major contracts/commercial arrangements, including complex sales, supply and IT agreements, joint development agreements, and other business transactions.
• In collaboration with the Company’s Vice President, Research and Development, manage and protect the Company’s Intellectual Property, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets.
• Lead and provide guidance on environmental, safety and health (including sustainability) regulatory and compliance matters.
• Provide guidance on employment and labor issues, particularly related to employee relations/EEO, collective bargaining, and related issues.
• Lead and provide guidance on trade and logistics matters.
• Manage corporate governance and compliance matters; oversee the administration of corporate records.
• Develop, lead, and mentor a small legal team commensurate with the Company’s size and needs, setting strategic priorities for the department, including budgeting/cost management and responsibility allocation, reporting, and setting administrative procedures designed to maintain and improve office and corporate efficiency, and communication.
• Judiciously choose and manage outside counsel (although the Company’s legal department, led by the General Counsel, should be the primary source of legal services and advice for MonoSol, in certain circumstances and for particular issues, outside counsel expertise likely will need to be retained).
• Manage and provide strategic legal counsel for litigation matters, including all arbitrations and disputes.

In all the above, build and foster relationships and partner with line business functions to achieve respective goals, assessing, planning for and managing appropriately risks to maximize upside and minimize downside for MonoSol.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school.
• Admitted (or able to qualify) and in good standing to the bar of either Illinois or Indiana.
• 10+ years of experience as a practicing attorney, with 5+ of prior in-house experience, and previous firm tenure.
• A broad range of strong generalist experience, including IP and technology-related transactions.
• Experience in managing legal staff and outside counsel.