Associate - Legal Operations Support

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

Organization Overview:

Throughout the IP Department we believe people are fundamental to success and our ability to deliver the best IP for Lilly. This is underpinned by the performance and capabilities of our employees, including those within the IP Operations (Patent and Trademarks Support) group.

We are adding this position to our team to respond to competitive growth and increased complexity and volume across Lilly’s world-class IP assets.

This individual will provide legal administrative expertise by ensuring that key aspects of global patent application filing, prosecution, and maintenance processes are accomplished in an accurate, timely, and appropriate manner, consistent with international legal treaties and jurisdictional statutory requirements and Lilly’s global patent procurement policies and procedures. This position requires an understanding and awareness of the global patent landscape (United States, EP, PCT and National phase filings).

The position requires a commitment to data integrity, attention to detail, troubleshooting, problem-solving, strong reading comprehension and proofreading skills, proven prioritization, organization, and typing/writing/verbal communication skills, ability to self-manage and establish/meet deadlines, and provide oversight for vendor-provided services. Applicants must demonstrate customer service orientation, strong interpersonal skills, flexibility, and a productive attitude, must be able to work effectively under pressure and deadlines, and adapt to frequent changes in priorities. If you are a dedicated professional with the expertise and skills required to excel in this role, we encourage you to apply and be part of our dynamic legal operations team at Lilly.

Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Associate Director of IP Operations responsibilities include:

We are seeking a highly knowledgeable and proactive Legal Operations Associate to join our team at Lilly. In this role, you will play a lead role in supporting legal operations and intellectual property (IP) functions. Your deep technical expertise, attention to detail, and ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders will be essential to our success.

• Proactively manage, anticipate, and act upon actions related to patent dockets for all aspects of the patent lifecycle, inclusive of patent/prosecution filing, cited reference coordination, formalities, record creation and maintenance, and decision workflows.
• Proactively engage with internal and external patent professionals across the spectrum (attorneys, agents, and paraprofessionals) to ensure seamless filing, prosecution, and maintenance of patents and applications and to continuously improve and develop departmental best practices.
• Anticipate and research complex fact patterns, lead troubleshooting investigations, problem-solve, and produce reliable work product within own or across work groups.
• Integrate openly and well with peers and assigned business units; actively communicate or escalate barriers or unmet support needs; understand the unique goals and needs and challenges of the unit and its attorneys.
• Lead small projects, or guide more complex patent project activities, inclusive of informing or developing task lists or action plans, assisting in coordinating resources, and serving as a resource, to drive progress and ensure effective implementation and stabilization.
• Deep technical knowledge and demonstrated influence across IP industry rules and regulations; anticipate and assess potential impact of industry changes on departmental and business unit strategies, policies, and processes.

• Independently engage with other resources as needed to fulfill responsibilities effectively.

• Demonstrated judgement in managing own priorities and seamless integration with team members and support of team priorities.
• Employ highly effective organization skills and verbal and written interactions with legal colleagues, inventors, business clients, international law firms, vendors, and other external parties.
• Independently engages other resources to complete responsibilities.

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor Degree

• 5+ years of experience in a front-line IP support role, including experience with most aspects of patent support.

• Qualified applicants must be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Lilly will not provide support for or sponsor work authorization and/or visas for this role.

Additional Preferences:

• Proficient and experienced with Outlook, Internet Explorer, MSOffice programs, legal software, or docketing programs (e.g. Anaqua).

• Experience in the pharmaceutical or healthcare industry.

• Paralegal certificate from ABA approved program.
• Experience working effectively across a large portfolio in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities is critical.
• Experience with docketing best practices and protection of Intellectual Property rights.
• Experience coordinating execution of formality documents, such as assignments and powers of attorney, including obtaining required signatures, notarization, apostille, and/or legalization.
• General knowledge of United States, EP, and PCT patent rules and practice.
• Experience with electronic research tools and patent prosecution filing systems, including experience electronically filing US, PCT and/or foreign patent applications, office action responses, inventor declarations and assignments.
• Excellent oral and written communication, facilitation, and project/stakeholder management skills.
• Must project a professional demeanor, effectively represent the IP Operations team, exhibit sound judgment, and maintain confidentiality.

Additional Information:

• Travel 0-10%

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly is proud to be an EEO Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender identity, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, ancestry, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and are open to all employees. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, Black Employees at Lilly, Chinese Culture Network, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinx at Lilly (OLA), PRIDE (LGBTQ+ Allies), Veterans Leadership Network (VLN), Women’s Initiative for Leading at Lilly (WILL), enAble (for people with disabilities). Learn more about all of our groups.

Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location.  The anticipated wage for this position is

Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus (depending, in part, on company and individual performance). In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities).Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees.

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