Position Summary
The Senior Counsel, Research Innovations provides lead transactional legal support for the organization's research enterprise, with primary responsibility for structuring, drafting, negotiating, and managing complex research and innovation-related agreements. This is a specialized role for an attorney with deep expertise in federal research compliance, sponsored programs, and the legal and regulatory frameworks unique to academic medical centers and their affiliated research institutions. The…
role carries a sophisticated, high-stakes practice spanning federal grant law, technology transfer, academic medicine with significant exposure to health system collaborators, and a broad range of institutional stakeholders.
This role serves as a trusted advisor to faculty investigators, innovation partners, and administrative stakeholders, and operates with substantial autonomy on high-impact matters. The Senior Counsel supports institutional priorities across the research enterprise, including collaborations with academic institutions, industry sponsors, foundations, and government agencies.
Key Responsibilities
Research Transactions Leadership
- Serve as lead attorney on complex research agreements, including but not limited to:
- Sponsored research agreements (industry and foundation)
- Clinical trial agreements
- Collaboration and consortium agreements
- Data use and data sharing agreements
- Material transfer agreements (MTAs)
- Confidential disclosure agreements (CDAs)
- Independently negotiate sophisticated contracts and escalate novel or high-risk issues appropriately.
- Advise on transaction structures that balance research integrity, compliance obligations, intellectual property considerations, and institutional risk.
Process Improvement & Mentorship
- Lead developing and improving templates, playbooks, and contracting workflows for research and innovation related agreements.
- Support training initiatives for investigators and research administrators regarding contracting best practices and risk awareness.
Collaboration & Governance Support
- Coordinate with outside counsel on specialized or international research transactions as appropriate.
- Assist the Deputy General Counsel with institutional initiatives, policy development, and complex negotiations involving academic medical center relationships.
- Function as a member of a highly collaborative, collegial in-house team, addressing other legal issues prompted by the research and innovation enterprise as they arise.
Strategic & Cross-Functional Advisory
- May provide guidance on issues involving:
- Human subjects research and regulatory obligations
- NIH and other federal agency requirements, including federal grant and sponsored-programs law
- Intellectual property alignment and publication rights
- Data privacy and security in research collaborations
- Identify emerging legal and regulatory trends affecting academic research and innovation related transactions and proactively advise stakeholders.
Minimum Qualifications
- Juris Doctor from an accredited law school.
- Maintain licensure to practice law in the State of Ohio.
- 5 years of legal experience, with substantial experience in research and innovation transactions in an academic medical center, research institution, healthcare system, life sciences company, or major law firm.
- Demonstrated experience negotiating complex agreements in a high-volume environment.
- Substantial and demonstrated expertise in two or more of the following: federal sponsored research and grants regulation; research compliance (NIH, NSF, DOD, or similar federal agencies); government contracts; academic medicine or health system affiliation agreements.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting biomedical, clinical, or translational research.
- Familiarity with NIH funding mechanisms and federal research compliance frameworks.
- Prior in-house experience at an academic medical center or research foundation.