Director, Legal, Life Sciences

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We are looking for a highly motivated lawyer to join our team to support the OMERS Life Sciences investment team in Toronto. Established in 2016, OMERS Life Sciences provides non-dilutive financing solutions to the life sciences industry, with a focus on royalty monetizations. The program leverages specialized sector knowledge and industry relationships to gain exposure to attractive biopharma assets to generate a reliable source of absolute return with low correlation to the broader financial markets. OMERS Life Sciences has committed more than US$3.7 billion across 27 financings since inception, while generating strong returns for OMERS. The program’s focus is on revenue-generating, commercial-stage assets but includes select exposure to pre-approval opportunities.
As a member of the broader OMERS Private Capital Legal Team, reporting to the Senior Managing Director & Head of Legal, you will advise on a variety of royalty financing transactions, including the purchase and sale of existing pharmaceutical royalty streams, synthetic royalties, and other royalty monetization and royalty-based financing transactions. You will be involved in all legal aspects of the investment process, including due diligence, negotiation of transaction agreements, and related governance agreements, regulatory review, internal investment approvals, and closing mechanics. You will liaise with and instruct external legal and other professional advisors, as well as internal teams in finance, investment operations, compliance and tax.
The Director, Legal will be the primary legal partner to the OMERS Life Sciences team in Toronto, and a key member of a small, specialized and highly collaborative team. Working alongside the investment team, the Director, Legal will play a critical role in the continued growth of the Life Sciences platform at OMERS.
**As a member of this team, you will be responsible for**:
Providing transactional legal support on OMERS Life Sciences investment pursuits, including liaising with external legal counsel and other professional advisors, and assisting the deal team through the investment process, as well as participating in the due diligence process.
Negotiating a wide range of investment documents, including preliminary transaction documents (LOIs, NDAs, MOUs), transaction agreements, and related governance agreements.
Providing legal advice with respect to the structuring of investment transactions (including through bankruptcy-remote vehicles) and compliance with applicable pension, corporate and tax legislation.
Providing legal support to investment professionals with respect to credit facilities and assets under management (e.g. reorganizations, fundings, financings, follow-on acquisitions and exits).
Providing legal advice on a variety of legal, regulatory and compliance matters, as well as on-going operational matters, such as contract reviews, advice on developing issues, and providing a legal perspective on internal reports and strategy documents.
Developing and building relationships with external law firms and other professional advisors.
Liaising with OMERS legal, tax, finance, compliance and other areas within the OMERS enterprise.
Participating in OMERS enterprise legal-related initiatives, projects and activities, including review and advice on internal policies, guidelines and procedures.
**To succeed in this role, you will have/be**:
At least 6 years of post-qualification corporate/commercial experience in lending, private equity and/or M&A, gained in a top tier global law firm and/or in-house.
Trained and qualified in Canada or US.
Direct experience at, or a high degree of familiarity with, analyzing and executing transactions across different legal jurisdictions, including in the US and Europe.
Specific experience in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotech sectors, including commercial licensing, will be an asset although not essential.
Established negotiation and drafting skills.
Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
Strong interpersonal and communication skills to be able to lead legal workstreams and interact with a broad range of professionals.
An intellectually curious team player with a desire to unde