Legal & Governance Manager

**Legal Manager**:
Permanent, full-time

Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW

**About us**:
The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (the Institute) is dedicated to finding cures for cardiovascular disease and is one of the most respected heart research facilities in the world. Renowned for the quality of its breakthroughs, the Institute was established in 1994 and has grown to a team of more than 200 researchers from around the globe, working across five divisions.

A global centre-of-excellence, it integrates Cardiac Physiology and Transplantation, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Molecular Cardiology and Biophysics, Structural and Computational Biology, as well as Vascular Biology. At the Institute, we translate our discoveries into new diagnostics, prevention, and treatment of cardiovascular disease - reducing the incidence, severity, and impact of heart disease.

**The role**:
The Governance and Legal Manager is the Institute's primary legal advisor and is responsible for the provision of a broad suite of legal advisory and governance (both research and corporate) support.

Reporting to the Deputy CEO, the position will work closely with the Institute's Faculty and Operations Managers on a broad range of matters. The role will also interact with a range of external stakeholders including UNSW, Sydney, our precinct partners (including the Garvan and St Vincent's hospital), AAMRI, other Medical Research Institute's, external legal counsel, and consultants.

This is a leadership role, providing training and supervision to one direct report (Legal Officer).

At a high level, the Governance and Legal Manager will be responsible for:

- Negotiating, drafting, and reviewing contracts involving the Institute
- Mitigation and management of corporate risk, including compliance
- Management and implementation of the Institute's policies and protocols
- Advising on research integrity and research governance compliance
- Advising on intellectual property issues and privacy obligations

**About you**:
You are an accomplished lawyer with experience gained from a combination of private practice and in-house roles, with experience in general commercial law, privacy and intellectual property. This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to move into a true in-house corporate legal advisor role to help us in our next stage of growth.

**What we will trust you with**:** Governance and compliance - corporate governance and research governance**
- Maintaining, communicating, advising on, and monitoring compliance with the Institute's research governance polices including the Institute's Research Code of Conduct, and Policy for Managing and Investigating Potential Breaches of the Research Code of Conduct, as well as all associated guidelines covering authorship, publications, and research data management.
- Working with researchers to ensure compliance with ethics research obligations.

Legal
- Providing high quality advice on a range of legal and regulatory issues
- Negotiating, drafting, and reviewing contracts involving the Institute, including but not limited to, the following:

- Collaborative Research Agreements
- Service Agreements
- Funding and fundraising agreements
- Licensing Agreements
- Material Transfer Agreements
- Intellectual Property Agreements
- Confidentiality Agreements
- Memoranda of Understanding and other miscellaneous agreements
- Advising on the Institute's privacy obligations
- Assisting in the management of the Institutes intellectual property rights and obligations
- Monitoring changes and developments in the legal and regulatory environment in which the Institute operates
- Assisting in the management of legal disputes
- Providing training on relevant legal topics to staff as appropriate
- Assist with administrative functions for Company Secretarial and Board

**Does this sound like you?***:

- Tertiary qualifications in law and admitted to practise as a solicitor in NSW, holding a current practising certificate
- Extensive experience in reviewing, drafting, and negotiating contracts, and advising on general corporate matters, advising on research and corporate governance and broader risk management issues
- Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines whilst maintaining attention to detail, seeing the big picture and a strong focus on quality
- Exceptional writing skills, including in relation to reports, letters, policies, deeds, agreements, contracts, internal and external communications
- Excellent oral communication skills expressing complex concepts and presenting complicated issues clearly, concisely and succinctly, being readily understood by a variety of audiences
- Strong problem solving, analytical skills, and strategic thinking with the ability to be flexible and adaptable in the face of changing organisational priorities and ambiguous external environments
- Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work autonomously, in small teams, and with a wide range of varying st