Legal Associate, Intellectual Property

A new role in the organization, this position will be an integral part of advancing the practice and policy side of our work.  Our ideal candidate is a mission-driven legal practitioner who thrives in a fast paced environment managing multiple work streams. We are looking for someone to work collaboratively with our programs team and other colleagues as a real thought partner, shaping our capacity to inform the design of policy solutions to create equity in the medicines system.

Reporting directly to Tahir Amin, CEO, and working in close collaboration with the communications and technical teams, this role will be integral to enhancing I-MAK’s ability to successfully navigate the intellectual property landscape, in particular patents, both in terms of legal program implementation and legal strategy development. This position offers an opportunity to lead and grow during a pivotal time for the organization and for the movement for health equity. 

The Legal Associate will: 

• Monitor developments to inform programmatic work in the following areas: U.S. drug pricing and patent policy developments (Congressional, administrative, agency), U.S. and global intellectual property (IP) trends, regulatory and antitrust laws that impact drug pricing, global institutions that impact IP laws (WTO and other trade related aspects), U.S. institutions/bodies that are important to how IP policy is shaped (International Trade Commission, FTC, FDA, etc). 
• Oversee and conduct substantial legal research and research projects, including drafting research briefs and memos on a variety of patent, legal, and economic policy issues and contributing to the preparation of broader written work products, donor proposals, and impact reports.
• Support I-MAK's technical work of patent landscapes, validity assessments, and related efforts, including:  
• Conducting patent searches and reviewing patent landscape analyses (read, review, and code patents) for I-MAK’s original research. 
• Reviewing patent challenges filed and litigation conducted by various stakeholders including generic companies in different jurisdictions (including the European Patent Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office). 
• Preparing memorandums summarizing and analyzing matters relating to patents and public health in the U.S., including reviewing any questions from I-MAK related to strategy, law, procedure, and prior art identified by partners. 
• Conduct ongoing research to ensure the team has a clear understanding of the U.S. and global policy environment in order to refine, adapt, and evolve policy recommendations, create appropriate tools, and document findings.
• Review potential new bills and legislation to advise stakeholders and policymakers. 
• Serve as the first point of contact to answer questions, fact check, and review legal content in documents such as social media posts, newsletters, research briefs/reports, funder proposals and reports, press inquiries, legislative and regulatory inquiries, etc.  
• Review public responses to I-MAK’s reports, data, and policy recommendations, including: 
• Gathering the arguments that have been made against I-MAK’s reports, data, and policy recommendations. 
• Reviewing submissions to FDA, PTO listening/commenting sessions that have cited or critiqued our data.
• Reviewing IP blogs that have mentioned our data either in a positive or negative light.

• 100% employee coverage for our “gold-tier” health plan, dental plan, and vision plan.
• Monthly technology and office supply stipend of $75/month and computer reimbursement up to $2,000 every three years.
• Ability to participate in I-MAK’s retirement program and an employer match of 2%.

Given the diverse and inclusive nature of I‐MAK’s global team and work, employees are given PTO to tailor to their personal needs, beliefs and/or priorities, which may or may not align with U.S. federal holidays. I-MAK provides its employees with 17 days of vacation and 6 sick days per year. Additionally, I-MAK annually closes its office for two weeks per year: the last week of December and the first week of July.