Principal Legal Counsel at United States International University - USIU Africa

Job summary:

The ideal candidate should be a qualified lawyer with a minimum of 10 years’ legal experience, the first 3-4 years should preferably have been gleaned in private practice in a well - established law firm. A strong background in intellectual property rights and research is desired to provide the necessary legal and technical support required to steer the university in its quest to become a teaching and research institution.

This position will report to the Director, Legal Services and Governance, and the primary emphasis will be on legal aspects of the university’s sponsored research programs, including compliance with legal and regulatory requirements as well as intellectual property and technology transfer matters.

Key Responsibilities/Tasks/Duties:

The selected candidate will have responsibility for providing support to the Director-Legal Services, research administrators, and for recommending and working with external counsel when needed. Key requirements for this position include experience in the management of:-

• Sponsored projects compliance, including administrative requirements, cost principles, audit requirements, special terms and conditions, contracts, and sponsor audits;
• Substantive research compliance areas, including human subjects’ research, animal care and use, research misconduct, and export controls;
• Conflicts of interest in the research context;
• Research-related agreements, such as sponsored research agreements, non-disclosure agreements, teaming agreements, research collaboration agreements, data use agreements, material transfer agreements, and sub-awards, including negotiations with sponsoring agencies;
• Procurement issues related to sponsored projects;
• Intellectual property and technology transfer and licensing matters, including familiarity with the negotiation and review of intellectual property terms in sponsored research.

The selected candidate will also work with the Partnerships & External Linkages Department, respective Schools and the Research office on the following matters: -

• Review of legal templates for SLAs, MoUs and sub-awards.
• Corporate sponsored research, joint ventures, and strategic alliances;
• Start-ups, start-up equity, government commercialization funding;
• Conflicts of interest.

The ideal candidate will also have experience in the following areas: -

• Privacy, including access to data and other legal requirements for research purposes, and protection of data collected in the course of performing research;
• Familiarity with copyright law, including drafting and negotiating copyright licenses and assignment agreements, advising on fair use and other copyright law exceptions; understanding of copyright law issues with respect to the online environment; &
• Familiarity with trademark law, including trademark clearance and prior art searches and the ability to assist with trademark applications and renewals.
• Familiarity with Budgeting, including assisting with development of long-term integrated and cross-functional operational plans.
• Familiarity with Strategic Planning with ability to operationalize strategy into action for the Legal Function.
• Familiarity with company secretarial work, including advising Boards on Strategy, Compliance and Governance issues.

Academic & Professional Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s Degree in law (LLB) and a CPS (K).
• An Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with a valid Practising Certificate and a member in good standing with the Law Society of Kenya;
• A certified Public Secretary with a valid Practising certificate and a member in good standing with the Institute of Certified Secretaries (ICS).
• Experience working in-house and additional qualifications in Organisational Development and/or Strategic Planning will be an added advantage.

Key Competencies

• Have proven interpersonal skills;
• Executive disposition;
• Management and leadership qualities;
• Possess excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Computer literate;
• Good organizational skills;
• Discretion for working with confidential information; &
• Ability to work independently within established procedures and policies.