Legal Counsel - UK

Unilabs Group; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Unilabs is seeking a commercially minded and pragmatic Legal Counsel to support the Head of Legal with UK matters, focusing on medical claims, NHS framework and commercial agreements. The role demands strong litigation experience and the ability to advise on data privacy, regulatory, and commercial risk within healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceutical environments.

The successful candidate will be qualified in England and Wales (or equivalent) with about 5 years PQE, and will work from

Qualifications

• Qualified England and Wales lawyer (or equivalent) with UK experience.
• Strong litigation experience in the UK, including medical claims and disputes.
• Experience advising on regulatory, compliance, data privacy and commercial risk in healthcare or life sciences.

Responsibilities

• Support the Head of Legal in managing contentious matters, with a focus on UK medical claims and inquests.
• Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements and data privacy arrangements.
• Instruct insurers and external counsel; coordinate with clinical and operations teams.
• Provide practical legal guidance to reduce risk and support compliant decision-making.
• Advise on regulatory and ethical considerations relevant to healthcare interactions.
• Manage external counsel and budgets, ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Skills

Legal drafting

Litigation management

Regulatory/compliance

Data privacy

Stakeholder management

Commercial contracts

Job description

About Unilabs

Headquartered in Geneva and part of the A.P. Moller Group, Unilabs is one of Europe’s leading medical diagnostics companies, offering a complete range of laboratory, pathology, genetics, and imaging services to patients across 14 countries. Unilabs invests heavily in technology, equipment, and people - using digital technologies in its state-of-the-art laboratories and imaging institutes - to improve the lives of close to 100 million people every year.

About the Role

We are seeking a commercially minded and pragmatic Legal Counsel to support the Head of Legal with a broad range of contentious and non-contentious legal matters across the UK business. The role will focus primarily on medical claims, NHS framework and commercial agreements, legal risk management, data privacy, and engagements with pharmaceutical companies.

The successful candidate will be qualified in the UK, or another common law jurisdiction, or an EU jurisdiction when they have relevant UK legal experience. They will bring strong litigation and claims-handling experience, ideally including medical claims in the UK, together with the ability to advise confidently on commercial, regulatory, compliance and data privacy matters in a healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceutical environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the Head of Legal in managing contentious matters, with a particular focus on UK medical claims, complaints, internal medical and quality investigations, pre-action correspondence, litigation strategy, Coroner's inquests, dispute resolution and related risk mitigation.
• Handle and support the defence and resolution of medical claims in the UK, working closely with internal stakeholders, insurers, insurance partners, external counsel, clinicians, quality and operational teams and other relevant parties.
• Instruct insurers' external law firms in relation to medical claims and contentious matters, ensuring instructions are clear, timely and aligned with the company’s legal, commercial and risk management objectives.
• Attend Coroner's inquests on behalf of the organisation, coordinating with internal stakeholders, insurers, external law firms and relevant clinical or operational teams as appropriate.
• Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements, including services agreements, consultancy agreements, confidentiality agreements, collaboration arrangements.
• Advise on legal risk across the business, identifying potential exposure and providing practical, business-focused recommendations to reduce risk and support compliant decision-making.
• Provide expert legal support on pharmaceutical matters, including advising on engagements with pharmaceutical companies and negotiating, reviewing and drafting agreements with pharmaceutical companies, with consideration of commercial structuring, contractual arrangements, compliance requirements, conflicts of interest, data privacy and legal risk management.
• Advise on data privacy matters, including UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 considerations, data processing arrangements, data sharing, confidentiality, breach management and privacy risk assessments.
• Support the development, review and implementation of legal and compliance policies, templates, processes and training materials.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across legal, compliance, operations, medical, commercial, procurement, finance and other business functions.
• Manage external counsel effectively, including scoping instructions, reviewing advice, monitoring budgets and ensuring advice is practical and aligned with business objectives.

• Qualified lawyer with approximately 5 years’ post-qualification experience.
• Qualified in England and Wales, another common law jurisdiction, or an EU jurisdiction with demonstrable and relevant UK legal experience.
• Strong litigation experience in the UK, including experience managing disputes, pre-action matters, court processes, settlement strategy and external counsel.
• Experience handling medical claims in the UK, ideally within healthcare, diagnostics, clinical services, life sciences, insurance or a related sector.
• Experience with insurance law and insurance-related claims handling, including working with insurers, insurance partners and external panel law firms.
• Proven experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements.
• Experience advising on legal risk and providing practical, proportionate and commercially aware legal guidance to business stakeholders.
• Experience in, or very strong exposure to, the pharmaceutical, healthcare, diagnostics, clinical research, life sciences and medical sector.
• Working knowledge of data privacy laws applicable in the UK, including UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Skills and Attributes

• Excellent analytical, drafting, negotiation and communication skills.
• Sound judgement, discretion and the ability to handle confidential and sensitive matters appropriately.
• Pragmatic and solutions-oriented approach, with the ability to balance legal risk with commercial and operational priorities.
• Strong stakeholder management skills and confidence advising senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously, prioritise effectively while keeping the Head of Legal appropriately informed.
• High attention to detail, strong organisational skills and a proactive approach to identifying and resolving issues.
• Collaborative, resilient and comfortable working in a fast-paced, regulated environment.

Preferred Experience

• Experience working in-house, or on secondment, within a healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical, diagnostics or clinical services business.
• Experience advising on engagements with pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, clinical stakeholders or regulated third parties.
• Familiarity with regulatory, compliance and ethical considerations relevant to healthcare and pharmaceutical sector interactions.
• Experience supporting claims, complaints, inquests, regulatory enquiries or matters involving patient safety, clinical governance or professional standards.

Reporting Line and Location

The role will be based in Reading, UK and will report to, and work closely with, the Head of Legal. The Legal Counsel will be expected to build effective relationships across the business and provide timely, clear and commercially practical legal support.