Associate General Counsel

Gulf Coast Blood•Houston, TX

13h•Onsite

About The Position

The Associate General Counsel (“AGC”) serves as a key member of the OGC and provides strategic and operational legal support across the organization. This role reports directly to the General Counsel and has broad responsibility for legal, regulatory, risk management, and compliance matters. The AGC partners closely with executive leadership, operations, People & Culture, Medical Services, Quality, IT, and Business Development teams to ensure legal compliance while supporting the organization’s mission to safely collect, process, and distribute blood and related products.

Requirements

Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school.
Active Texas law license in good standing.
Minimum four (4) years of relevant legal experience.
Strong contract drafting and negotiation skills.
Experience working directly with business leaders and cross-functional teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience in healthcare, blood banking, biologics, laboratory medicine, regulated biologic manufacturing, life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, or other regulated healthcare-related environments.
Robust M&A and/or intellectual property experience, particularly patents.
In-house legal experience.
Experience supporting nonprofit or mission-driven organizations.
Experience managing outside counsel.
Experience with M&A and/or IP transactions is preferred.

Responsibilities

Provide legal guidance regarding federal and state healthcare laws and regulations, including FDA regulations applicable to biologics and blood establishments; HIPAA privacy and security requirements; and CLIA and laboratory regulatory frameworks.
Advise on quality systems, inspections, and regulatory audits.
Partner with Quality and executive leadership to assess and mitigate regulatory risk.
Support internal investigations and corrective action initiatives.
Assist the General Counsel with board and committee matters, including governance documentation.
Draft and review corporate policies and procedures.
Support mergers, affiliations, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships.
Draft, review, and negotiate contracts, including hospital agreements, vendor and supplier contracts, clinical trial and research agreements, and IT and data management agreements.
Advise on contract risk allocation, indemnification, insurance, and limitation of liability provisions.
Identify enterprise legal risks and help develop mitigation strategies.
Oversee claims management and coordinate with outside counsel on litigation matters.
Advise on insurance coverage and risk transfer strategies.
Assist in business continuity and crisis response planning.
Support patent strategy related to laboratory innovations, devices, biologics processes, or proprietary technologies.
Coordinate with outside IP counsel on patent prosecution and portfolio management.
Advise on trade secret protection, licensing agreements, technology transfer, and freedom-to-operate analyses.
Support research and development initiatives from a legal perspective.
Advise People & Culture on employment law compliance, investigations, and disciplinary matters.
Assist with workforce risk management in a regulated healthcare-related environment.
Advise on data governance, cybersecurity, and health data use.
Support compliance with evolving AI and digital health regulatory considerations.
Review software licensing and SaaS agreements.