Head of Legal

Joining AbbVie means you will be part of a team of outstanding professionals dedicated to making a remarkable impact on patients lives. At AbbVie we conduct groundbreaking science on a global scale every day. AbbVie Canada is one of the Best Workplaces in Canada.

When choosing your career path choose to be remarkable.

AbbVies mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on peoples lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology oncology neuroscience vision care virology womens health and gastroenterology in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.

We have a new opportunity for Head of Legal to lead our Legal Affairs team. Based in Montreal this role reports to the Area Counsel Intercontinental and sits on the Affiliate Management Team (Team Canada).

As Head of Legal you will be part of the management team in Canada and manage three direct reports. You will provide strategic direction and leverage excellent business acumen to counsel and support the VP & General Manager Canada and leadership team. As a strategic business leader the successful candidate will focus on continuously building an effective and highperforming legal team and function addressing the most pressing legal challenges in Canada and enabling/protecting the business in a proactive and creative way. To ensure success you will need to unlock opportunities expertly deal with risk and display exceptional interpersonal and leadership skills.

 Key responsibilities:

• Serve as the lead counsel for AbbVies Canada affiliate addressing highly complex and innovative legal regulatory and compliance matters
• Manage an effective legal team and foster an energizing work environment with a strong focus on development and culture
• Drive legal strategy and successfully steer the Affiliate Management Team on business solutions in areas of promotion patient support payer access gotomarket strategies and collaboration models.
• Deliver proactive leadership offering business oriented sustainable and compliant solutions for core strategic business challenges with a strong sense for appropriate risk tolerance
• Contribute or colead workstreams within the Global Legal therapeutics team on strategic matters or projects in novel areas of law or business transactions. 
• Continuously develop a solid knowledge of AbbVies business and organization and knowledge of the broader business impact of decisions made.
• To the extent that complex problems or specific technical expertise is required select and direct the work of outside counsel. 
• Find solutions and unlock opportunities for business clients consistent with the law policies/procedures and AbbVies Code of Conduct.
• Represent AbbVie externally to customers suppliers competitors government agencies and industry associations.

Qualifications :

Education / Experience required:

• Law degree from a recognized university.
• Licensed to practice law in Canada and a member of the Quebec Bar.
• Minimum of 15 years of relevant legal experience ideally as part of a global pharmaceutical company.
• Experience in supporting and establishing rapport with senior business leaders and key stakeholders.
• Successful team management skills
• Strong expertise in various aspects of drug development and local regulations with a general understanding / experience in antitrust and competition law general corporate and criminal/antibribery law privacy. intellectual property and compliance.
• Solid knowledge of market access and relevant Canadian legal landscape.

Essential skills and abilities:

• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook PowerPoint Excel Word etc.
• Must be at ease with technology (the use of various tools/systems to perform daytoday tasks).

Key leadership competencies:

• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills an inquisitive mind and strong work ethic.
• Strong business partnership demonstrating maturity and awareness to strike the right balance between facilitating enabling and challenging the business
• Ability to zoom in and zoom out as appropriate; strong strategic thinking with a sense of the bigger picture yet be handon when necessary
• Trusted and collaborative team player leading by example with proven leadership skills to inspire champion change and drive innovative thinking
• Confident and resilient leader with gravitas and executive presence who cares about the teams success and growth
• Demonstrate ability to be versatile and driven while maintaining effectiveness and efficiency in a matrixed work environment both at affiliate and corporate level.
• High ethical standards and integrity acting as a role model and legal business leader within the Canada affiliate and the broader organization.

AbbVie strives to provide a French working environment for its employees in Quebec. Although as part of its francization program has taken all reasonable steps to avoid imposing the following requirement advanced amount of knowledge of English / Fluency in English is an essential requirement for the position of Head of Legalincluding but not limited to for the following reasons:

1. English speaking employees outside the province of Quebec.
2. English speaking clients outside the province of Quebec.
3. Anglophone region outside the province of Quebec.

Additional Information :

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and encourages women Aboriginal people persons with disabilities and members of visible minorities to apply.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity driving innovation transforming lives serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVies policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race color religion national origin age sex (including pregnancy) physical or mental disability medical condition genetic information gender identity or expression sexual orientation marital status status as a protected veteran or any other legally protected group status.

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Work :

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