Litigation and Regulatory Counsel Details

Litigation and Regulatory Counsel

Solvay - Princeton, NJ

Employment Type : Full-Time

General InformationLocation:

• City: Princeton
• Country: USA
• Region: North America

Job Category: Legal & Compliance Job Type: Regular Type of Contract: Permanent Working time: Full-time Work schedule: Day shift Solvay is a science company whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 24,100 employees in 64 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet plan crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving resources and fostering better life. The Group’s innovative solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars, batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities and delivered net sales of €10.2 billion in 2019. Solvay is listed on Euronext Brussels (SOLB) and Paris and in the United States, where its shares (SOLVY) are traded through a Level I ADR program.

The Legal & M&A function aims at creating added value to the Group by providing, managing and coordinating quality legal service to the business community, the functions and the management in view of minimizing the Group’s legal risk and costs, reduce litigation exposure, and ensure legal compliance. It is the goal of our function and to do so efficiently, expeditiously, reliably and with professional integrity. Our areas of practice are: competition and antitrust, contracts and complex negotiations, corporate, labor and employment, environmental, litigation, M&A, regulatory law, real estate and social security. Job Overview and Responsibilities

This new position will provide a mix of litigation and environmental regulatory compliance (e.g., permitting and remediation) support for emerging cutting-edge issues facing the chemical industry. The successful candidate will be part of the Solvay Group’s global General Counsel Function and will directly report to Solvay’s North American Chief Litigation Counsel, with dotted line responsibilities to Solvay’s North American Chief Regulatory Counsel.
The attorney will work as part of a larger multi-disciplinary team addressing critical long-term legal issues and challenges as well as manage some general commercial litigation matters. The position will closely interface on an ongoing basis with members of other business support functions (e.g., Product Stewardship, Health Safety and Environment, Government Affairs, Communications, etc.) and Global Business Units at both the plant operational and management levels. The attorney will contribute to important legal issues facing Solvay and will have an opportunity to be a key contributor within the General Counsel Function.
Key Day-to-Day responsibilities:

• The following activities are illustrative and not meant to be an exhaustive list.
• Manage aspects of complex environmental litigation pending across the US, including working directly with outside counsel;
• Advise and assist in managing Legal Holds, document/data retention and collections to support discovery in multiple litigations across US;
• Review and revise discovery responses; liaise with business to obtain responsive information;
• Review and revise drafts of documents, including legal, technical, product stewardship and internal/external communications;
• Manage general commercial litigation matters, such as tort claims, contract disputes, and personal injury claims;
• Provide legal support to business for regulatory agency inspections;
• Identify and address operating permit issues;
• Support environmental investigation and remediation demands;
• Actively participate in discussions and technical meetings with business and technical teams;
• Coordinate necessary meetings with the US interdisciplinary team (or sub-groups of that team), the business and outside counsel;
• Conduct internal due diligence regarding historical operations;
• Conduct initial legal research as necessary for new issues.

Education and ExperienceEducation: JD degree from an accredited U.S. law school Admission to at least one U.S. State Bar with eligibility to practice law as in-house counsel in the State of New Jersey.
Candidates must have excellent academic credentials. An employment or academic background in environmental, chemical or biological sciences or engineering is desirable but not required.
The ideal candidate will have approximately 10 years of relevant experience working in a law firm, government agency and/or corporate law department and must have a strong working knowledge of complex litigation (both federal and state, with defense experience) and experience identifying and resolving operational and remediation related environmental regulatory compliance issues. Experience defending environmental or complex mass tort litigation is a plus, as is litigation and regulatory experience in New Jersey.
Skills

• In addition, candidates should be able to offer:
• Excellent judgment, particularly in determining the significance of legal matters and effectively measuring and minimizing risks;
• Practical, business-focused advice within scope of responsibilities, including providing informed cost/benefit analysis when identifying risks;
• Strong organizational skills in order to prioritize and manage multiple time-sensitive projects simultaneously; willingness to assume heavy workload to meet timing and project needs;
• Scheduling flexibility to support matters outside normal business hours, when necessary;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, with ability to synthesize complex legal issues to essential elements for clients throughout the organization with different goals and responsibilities;
• Strong interpersonal skills, including diplomacy and flexibility, and the ability to interface effectively with personnel at many different levels throughout the Company and in different geographic regions (varying time zones, English language skills, etc.);
• Ability to work as part of a large team;
• Ability to assume complex projects, create and present a plan of action, and independently manage projects to favorable resolution or conclusion;
• Ability to maintain high level of integrity of confidential and sensitive information and credibility within the organization;
• Comfort with decision-making responsibilities, when necessary.

Additional InformationWe are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.