Launching a drug development company with novel technology from academia
Our corporate group has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs at this stage to help them optimally and efficiently select and form the appropriate legal entity
Job Opening
Corporate Associate (Junior)
Boston Area | posted
Overview
Faber Daeufer & Itrato is a dynamic, independent law firm providing sophisticated, customized, transactional counsel for life sciences clients in the US and globally. Since its founding in 2003, we have built a premier boutique practice working with over 2,000 companies, research institutions and investors. Our firm includes 28 lawyers and 11 contracts specialists and paralegals and has primary offices in Boston, New York and the San Francisco Bay area.
Our firm is a growing and diverse team of professionals whose collective experience handling life science business transactions, in many cases leveraging prior in-house operational knowledge, is extraordinary in a law firm. We will maintain our established standards of excellence by hiring individuals with the highest professional capabilities and potential, a dedication to client service and an enthusiasm for contributing to our unique culture.
We have an extensive practice devoted to counseling our clients on company launch, equity incentive plans, venture financing, research foundation financing, royalty financing, and M&A transactions. We are seeking an individual to join this practice as a junior Associate. We require candidates who will work from our office in Waltham, MA several days per week.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities for this role include, but are not limited to :
· providing counsel to entrepreneurs and senior management as they form and grow businesses;
· assisting with development and negotiation of term sheets and capitalization tables for venture financings;
· drafting primary and ancillary agreements for financing transactions, including convertible notes, SAFEs and preferred stock financings based on NVCA model documents;
· advising senior researchers in academia on industry consulting agreements; and
· drafting disclosure schedules and ancillary agreements for merger and acquisition transactions.
Qualifications
Education :
JD degree required, and admission to practice in Massachusetts.
Experience And Substantive Background :
At least 2 years’ experience working in a corporate practice at a private law firm (with strong training/supervision), primarily concentrated in venture capital financings and other corporate support of venture-backed companies. Familiarity with leading venture capital firms is preferred. Familiarity with intellectual property licensing practices and biotechnology business development practices is preferred.
Technical Skills :
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Word and Excel is critical. Facility with common technology tools is expected, including other components of Microsoft Office, PDF document usage, document comparison software, document management systems, and teleconference and videoconference tools. Familiarity with transaction management software and/or Carta, Shareworks or similar web-based equity tracking systems, is preferred.
Essential Capabilities
The ideal candidate should have:
· strong attention to detail;
· mature project management skills;
· sophisticated written and verbal communication skills and the comfort and confidence to interact directly with senior management at venture capital firms and biotech and pharmaceutical companies; and
· ability to prioritize and manage multiple tight deadlines in a frequently high-paced environment.
We are a firm of former biotech in-house counsels and business leaders, venture capital professionals and pharmaceutical contract specialists.
Working at Faber
Faber was founded by senior lawyers and contracts specialists who'd worked for Millennium Pharmaceuticals who now sought an independent professional working environment, and a business model that optimized four key elements – financial reward, professional time commitment, working environment and culture, and intellectual challenge.
We have adopted an individualized approach to return to office, with employees and supervisors working together to create employee specific hybrid work schedules, so that employees may split their time between a firm office and their home office. We have a strong in-house IT team and provide equipment, furniture, smartphone and internet service, and/or other reasonable accommodations needed to be fully-functional from home.
We compete for talent with the few “big firms” that have sophisticated transactional practices in the life sciences. We determine title, regular billing rate, annual salary, and target bonus for our lawyers based on the relevant skills and experience of each employee. We also provide additional bonus opportunities based on allocations of business origination and retention credit (and, in 2021, 100% of our lawyers with at least 2 years tenure at the firm qualified for additional bonus through this program). Comprehensively, we believe we provide our lawyers a pay/benefits opportunity that, when adjusted for actual billable hours, is higher than at competitor “big firms.”
We provide our employees very competitive salary and bonus compensation, exceptional benefits, strong mentoring and professional development support, and work-life balance.
We understand the value of flexible working arrangements such as reduced hours schedules, flex-time, compressed workweek schedules, and an annual billable hours target (1600 for full-time lawyers and 1440 for full-time contracts specialists) that is lower than “big firm” billable hours minimum requirements. We work with our employees to find mutually beneficial solutions to work balance needs, including part-time and flexible schedules.