Legal Counsel - UK

Unilabs; Reading; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Unilabs is seeking a commercially minded Legal Counsel to support the Head of Legal in the UK healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors. Based in Reading, you will manage medical claims, NHS frameworks, commercial agreements and data privacy, advising with pragmatic risk management.

The role requires a UK-qualified lawyer with strong litigation experience, ability to engage with insurers, internal stakeholders and external counsel, and to operate in a fast-paced, regulated environment.

Qualifications

• Qualified lawyer with approximately 5 years’ post-qualification experience.
• Qualified in England and Wales, or another common law jurisdiction with relevant UK experience.
• Strong litigation experience in the UK, including disputes, pre-action matters, court processes and external counsel.
• Experience handling medical claims in the UK within healthcare, diagnostics, or life sciences sectors.
• Experience with insurance law and insurance-related claims handling with insurers and external panel firms.
• Proven experience drafting, reviewing and negotiating commercial agreements.
• Experience advising on legal risk with business stakeholders in a pragmatic, commercially aware way.
• Experience in pharmaceutical, healthcare, diagnostics or clinical services sectors.
• Working knowledge of UK data privacy laws including UK GDPR and DPA 2018.

Responsibilities

• Support the Head of Legal in managing contentious matters, focusing on UK medical claims and related investigations.
• Defend and resolve medical claims in the UK, coordinating with insurers, external counsel and internal stakeholders.
• Instruct insurers’ external law firms, ensuring instructions align with business risk and objectives.
• Attend Coroner’s inquests and coordinate with relevant teams and external parties as appropriate.
• Draft, review and negotiate a wide range of commercial agreements (services, consultancy, confidentiality, collaboration).
• Provide risk-based legal guidance to support compliant decision-making across the business.
• Advise on data privacy matters, UK GDPR, and data protection implications for contracts and processing activities.
• Develop, review and implement legal/compliance policies, templates and training materials.
• Collaborate with legal, compliance, operations, medical, commercial and procurement teams to support the business.
• Manage external counsel, ensuring cost-effective, practical advice aligned with objectives.

Skills

Litigation experience

Stakeholder management

Drafting & negotiation

Data privacy knowledge

Education

Qualified lawyer (England & Wales)

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.