Assistant General Counsel, Corporate Transactions & Business Development

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals!

As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People.

At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights.

Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

Your Role: Assistant General Counsel, Business Development

As Assistant General Counsel, you will be a key member of the Elanco Legal team, supporting business development and certain other key functions (including finance and tax). You will be responsible for supporting complex domestic and international distribution in agreements, complex licensing and collaboration agreements, M&A and related transactions as well as finance transactions and other key initiatives. In this role, you will also have a unique opportunity to support the development and implementation of process improvements leveraging internal and external AI tools .

Your Responsibilities:

• Provide legal counsel on business development, commercial, and general corporate laws inclusive of contract law, regulatory frameworks relevant to a global business.
• Work with business development and other partners to successfully execute asset divestitures, strategic partnerships and other corporate transactions on a worldwide basis, ensuring transactions are consistent with business strategies and reflect appropriate legal risk positions.
• As a critical member of a cross-functional deal team, work on legal due diligence, develop and negotiate key deal terms, draft asset purchase and other agreements of varying complexity, ensure compliance with regulatory and other requirements, and manage post-closing integration and other activities.
• Advise on various finance, tax and treasury related initiatives.
• Leverage thought leadership and external networks to conduct training and other professional development activities for Elanco’s global legal and business development organizations, ensuring continued understanding of material developments related to corporate and transactional law.
• Assist with the selection and engagement of outside counsel to provide critical support on complex legal, regulatory, and business issues.
• Collaborate with and create business solutions with other members of both legal and business teams to mitigate risk to Elanco, optimize service levels, and minimize the utilization of outside counsel where practicable.
• Leverage legal expertise and business acumen to support Elanco in achieving its objectives.
• Support the identification of process improvements and the development and implementation a comprehensive strategy for systematically optimizing how the business development and overall legal team works including, but not limited to the use of technology, AI, development of internal workflows, processes, and playbooks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to address legal issues in new and existing initiatives with an eye towards automation through technological advancements and opportunities to insource legal work.
  
  

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• Education: Juris Doctor (JD) degree from an accredited law school; admission to at least one U.S. state bar.
• Experience: A minimum of 5 years of experience in business development, corporate law, preferably in a corporate or law firm setting – significant experience drafting, negotiating and executing (multi-jurisdictional) deals.
• Top Skills: Strong understanding of business development and general corporate law; demonstrated ability to handle multiple projects in a complex, fast-paced environment and exercise sound legal judgement and capable of providing legal and strategic guidance to senior management and functional organizational leadership.
  
  

What Will Give You a Competitive Edge (preferred qualifications):

• Experience in the animal health or pharmaceutical industry.
• Familiarity leading and executing fast paced business development deals with business acumen.
• Excellent interpersonal, strategic thinking, communication, and organizational skills and innovative hands-on problem-solving mentality.
• Strong ability to develop visual ideas and communicate messaging and guidance to senior leaders with a dedicated following.
• Familiarity with specialized subjects that arise in transactional matters, including securities laws, tax, IP, antitrust, employment, finance, data privacy, regulatory and technology.
• Familiarity with the utilization of technology including AI in a legal team.
  
  

Additional Information:

• Travel: Up to 15% annually.
• Location: Indianapolis HQ
  
  

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status