Head of Legal India Subcontinent

Job Title

Head of Legal India Subcontinent (ISC) Zone

Job Description

Job Summary

To lead the legal team in the India Subcontinent (ISC) Zone of the International Region and provide guidance and legal counsel on all legal matters of the ISC Zone, including commercial, corporate, statutory, quality, regulatory and compliance matters. The role is to ensure that Philips in ISC Zone always operates within the law, to limit risk exposure, and to act as an effective guardian of the organization.

You are responsible for

• Working independently on all levels of complexity as a recognized leader in the legal community to support all legal and compliance matters of the Zone.
• Overseeing and managing the Zone legal team, mentoring and developing talents, and ensuring a healthy succession pipeline.
• Providing strategic legal and compliance advice to the management of the Zone as a member of the Zone management team, including strategic legal advice required to secure the license to operate in relation to all Philips activities in the Zone.
• Contributing to legal and compliance aspects of long-term winning strategies against competition.
• Interacting internally and externally with executive-level management on legal and compliance topics, negotiating critical matters in relevant areas.
• Providing a key contribution to developing and implementing legal policies, including localizing global policies, implementation and compliance with Philips Business Principles.
• Driving compliance of Philips India Limited and other legal entities of the Zone with legislation governing corporate affairs, including servicing/managing a board of directors & shareholder meetings, interacting with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, and interacting with statutory auditors on legal and compliance matters.
• Developing and implementing compliance programs for the Zone in alignment with the Group Legal Compliance Team, localizing and implementing policies and training programs, supporting internal investigations in the Zone.
• Managing major internal legal projects as the most senior legal expert in the Zone.
• Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating agreements and other legal documents related to Zone activities, including negotiating with customers.
• Providing legal support on privacy matters specific to the Zone, overseeing and monitoring the implementation of privacy rules, privacy compliance framework, and applicable data protection laws.
• Managing external counsel and relevant budget in line with applicable KPIs, managing litigations and claims related to the Zone, ensuring relevant reporting, provide training on related matters.
• Advising, when needed, on local aspects of regulatory matters (e.g. strategic advice, advice on how to ensure compliance with a certain requirement), advising on local legal aspects of QMS-related activities, including Recalls/Field Safety Corrective Action (FSCA) involving potential liability claims and relevant interactions with local regulators.
• Leading or being the top legal contributor on projects that impact Zone and Region, advising as a top individual contributor on impactful strategic business opportunities.
• Driving key changes in the organization in close alignment with Zone and Regional leadership.
• Maintaining and extending in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of applicable regulations to ensure that the company’s practices are in line with current legal requirements applicable in all countries of the Zone.

To succeed in this role, you should have the following skills and experience

• 15+ years of proven work experience in a law firm or in-house legal department of a multinational company, preferably active in medical device, pharmaceutical, or other highly regulated industries, with responsibilities to oversee secretarial, corporate affairs, governance, statutory, and administrative affairs/requirements of the company.

• Bachelor of Laws/Master of Laws degree and Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

• Ability to demonstrate maturity, judgment, and functional expertise when solving legal issues, safeguarding compliance, navigating matrix organization, regulatory matters related to medical devices, commercial contracts, tendering, litigation, privacy, and corporate matters.

• Ability to work across diverse and cross-functional teams, Experience in interaction with stakeholders across geographies.

• Well conversant with corporate laws with special emphasis on companies’ acts and shareholder management, should be well conversant with CSR roles and regulations and interface with CSR committee of the board and internal stakeholders.

• The candidate should be well-versed in drafting agreements, contracts, and other legal documents, should have independently handled company law matters and compliance with corporate governance.

• Fluent in English.

About Philips
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If you’re interested in this role and have many, but not all, of the experiences needed, we encourage you to apply. You may still be the right candidate for this or other opportunities at Philips. Learn more about our commitment to diversity and inclusion here.