About This Role
Guiding the company through its transition to a public company is the core of this General Counsel role, leading the legal function and serving as a senior legal advisor. This highly hands-on position suits a business-minded attorney who can be a trusted partner to leadership as the company scales.
Responsibilities
- Serve as chief legal advisor to the CEO, executive team, and Board on legal, governance, and compliance matters
- Advise the Board and its committees on their duties and public company best practices
- Draft, review, and negotiate core agreements, including clinical trial, CRO and site, CDMO and supply, consulting, NDAs, and vendor contracts
- Lead licensing, collaboration, and partnering deals, financings, M&A, and other strategic transactions, including IP diligence
- Build and own public company infrastructure, including SEC reporting and disclosure, insider trading policy, Reg FD, and exchange listing requirements
- Partner with the CFO on SOX controls
- Advise on the legal side of clinical trials, including informed consent, trial registration, and data privacy (HIPAA, and GDPR where it applies)
- Partner with clinical and regulatory teams on FDA interactions
- Serve as Chief Compliance Officer, building a compliance program that fits the company’s stage and covers anti-kickback, HCP interactions, and transparency reporting
- Oversee patent strategy with outside patent counsel, covering filings, prosecution, and freedom-to-operate
- Protect trade secrets
Requirements
- JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing
- 12+ years of legal experience, including time at a top-tier law firm and in-house at a life sciences company
- Hands-on public company experience, including SEC reporting and board governance
- Strong track record negotiating clinical and commercial agreements (CTAs, CRO, CDMO, licensing)
- Working knowledge of FDA regulation and healthcare compliance
- Sound judgment, clear and practical advice for non-lawyers, and comfort working as a team of one, from strategy to redlines
Nice to have:
- Prior General Counsel or Deputy General Counsel role at a clinical-stage biotech
- Experience taking a company public, or leading legal through a reverse merger or follow-on offering
- Background in pharma licensing and partnering deals, and in IP and patent portfolio strategy
- Experience building a legal function, including hiring, budgets, and outside counsel management
About the Company
Slate Medicines is a clinical-stage biotechnology company committed to advancing innovative new therapies that may broaden the treatment paradigm and potentially improve outcomes for people with migraine and other headache disorders. Slate is advancing a portfolio of potentially best-in-class therapeutics, led by SLTE-1009, a clinical-stage anti-PACAP/VIP monoclonal antibody designed to enable subcutaneous, infrequent dosing.
