Clinical-Stage Life Sciences Organization Focusing on Novel Nerve and Neurological Treatments

The Client

Clinical-Stage Life Sciences Organization Focusing on Novel Nerve and Neurological Treatments

Industry

Life Sciences

Location

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Project Duration

10 months

Placement Turnaround Time

Three weeks

The Challenge

The client’s new general counsel was slowly and thoughtfully building their legal team. However, while they were planning their appropriate team structure, they wanted to ensure compliance in their marketing and promotional program to avoid triggering federal investigations or requests for information and sought an experienced “plug and play” candidate for medical legal and regulatory affairs review (MLA) to relieve the deputy general counsel the added duties of training and constant supervision of someone inexperienced.

The Solution

While in a prior role at a large, international pharmaceutical organization , the general counsel had worked with MLA Interim Legal Talent, so they knew our capabilities and depth of expertise, particularly in the life sciences space. Our client needed a specialized skill set in compliance for their advertising and promotional materials and was open to both local and remote candidates. Within three days of launching the search, two potential candidates were selected for interviews. Within 24 days (timeline included background check and on-boarding), a placement was made.

The chosen candidate had a background in ad/promo compliance for emerging drugs, along with high emotional intelligence and expertise as a law/compliance professor.

The Results

Using MLA Interim Legal Talent allowed the client to carefully consider direct placement hiring options and find an excellent candidate who matched both the substantive requirements and emotional intelligence needed for a compliance role. The client was also able to avoid the costs associated with using an outside law firm and training an inexperience law firm associate secondee. The interim advertising and promo counsel established a reliable process with checks and balances until a permanent compliance counsel could be hired.

Based on the successful filing of this role, the general counsel asked MLA Interim Legal Talent to also assist with an Interim Contracts Counsel Role a few weeks later. The client plans to continue using interim coverage for specialized skill sets as they try to justify head count and take their time in finding a direct placement candidate.