Paralegal

Salary for this Role:

From £33,000 per annum plus benefits, subject to skills and experience

Job Title:

Reports to:

Closing Date:

Job Description:

Job title:                 Paralegal

Reports to:               Senior Contracts and Legal Operations Manager

Contact term:          This is a full-time, fixed term (6 months) position on Crick terms and conditions of employment.

Summary

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Crick is a leading centre of biomedical research and innovation. It promotes connections between researchers and disciplines and between academic institutions, healthcare organisations and businesses. Dedicated to research excellence, the Crick has the scale, vision and expertise to tackle the most challenging scientific questions underpinning health and disease. It has a strong national role — training scientists and developing ideas for public good.

The Role

In this role, you will be helping the Crick deliver its scientific strategy in compliance with legal, charitable and regulatory requirements.  You will be part of the Crick’s Legal, Governance and Compliance team (also known as LGC) - a team of lawyers, co sec managers and contract specialists responsible for legal, contractual, regulatory, data protection and company secretarial matters.  We provide legal advice and transactional support to all parts of the Crick. 

This is a busy role in a friendly team where collegiality, professionalism and attention to detail are key.  You will provide legal administrative/Paralegal support for the Crick Legal team.

Key responsibilities:

These are the key areas and you may be asked to undertake other relevant tasks, in line with organisational requirements:

Legal operations contract management:

• Creating new contract records, uploading contracts and maintaining accurate information from existing contract folders (Dropbox, Sophia, Sharepoint) onto our on-line contract lifecycle management systems (HighQ).

• Ad hoc support drafting and negotiating Material Transfer Agreements and Data Access Agreements from start to finish on our on-line contract lifecycle management systems (HighQ).

Client care & executive administrative support:

• Take instructions, manage expectations and keep internal clients briefed on progress. Maintain excellent relationships.

• Scheduling and general administrative support to the two Company Secretariat Managers

You will be working with:

Science teams - Group Leaders, Scientists, STP leads, Translation, Grants, Biological Research Facility and research administration staff.

Operations teams – Grants, Finance, Sourcing, IT&S, Building Services, Public Engagement, Human Resources.

Key experience and competencies:

The post holder should embody and demonstrate our core Crick values:

Bold; Open; Collegial in addition to the following:

• A graduate in Law or a relevant discipline or equivalent experience.

• Experience of providing effective support as a Paralegal or Legal Assistant in a busy department.

• Enthusiastic, capable and confident user of technology (e.g., Microsoft, document management, Dropbox, Sophia, Docusign, Slack)

• Strong organisational and administrative skills, able to prioritise competing demands and tight deadlines. Methodical approach to work and excellent attention to detail.

• A confident self-starter who is able to work with some supervision.

• Strong interpersonal skills (e.g., tact, integrity, confidentiality, patience) and able to work well with all levels of staff.

• A team player who is flexible, motivated and resilient and works effectively in a collegiate environment. Acts authentically and consistently.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

We welcome applications from all backgrounds. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, pregnancy, age, disability, or civil partnership, marital or family status. We particularly welcome applications from people who are Minority Ethnic as they are currently underrepresented in the Crick at this level.

Diversity is essential to excellence in scientific endeavour. It increases breadth and perspective, leading to more innovation and creativity. We want the Crick to be a place where everyone feels valued and where diversity is celebrated and seen as part of the foundation for our Institute’s success.

The Crick is committed to creating equality of opportunity and promoting diversity and inclusivity. We all share in the responsibility to actively promote dignity, respect, inclusivity and equal treatment and it is our aim to ensure that these principles are reflected and implemented in all strategies, policies and practices.

Read more on our website: https://www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-study/life-at-the-crick/equality-diversity-and-inclusion

For more information on our great pay and benefits you can read more here: https://www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-study/life-at-the-crick/pay-and-benefits