Legal Counsel

Advise on a wide range of legal issues and agreements and help professionalise our contracts and legal processes at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (both the public RSM faculty and RSM B.V).

Your main tasks
You will be responsible for providing general legal support within RSM (both the public RSM faculty and RSM B.V.).

The job aims to:

• Provide general legal advice to all internal stakeholders upon request
• Pro-actively work on contract standardization and strive for continuous improvement in this field
• Advise your stakeholders on contractual matters related to research and education, including privacy, data protection and intellectual property
• conduct contract negotiations and support negotiations from a legal perspective, taking into account business needs
• assist outside counsel in litigation, and manage contractual disputes (excluding employment disputes)
• actively keep abreast of legal developments in the focus areas with a view to their implications for RSM (for example open science/open access) and promote implementation of its principles within RSM
• build a network and liaise with the university’s legal community to share knowledge and best practice
• be an ambassador for professional services, helping others find their way to the professional services teams at RSM and the university

Required qualifications
To be eligible, you must:

• hold a master degree in Dutch law, with knowledge of public and administrative law, contract law and intellectual property law
• have multiple years’ experience in the preparation, negotiation and monitoring of contracts
• have multiple years’ experience in advising on legal issues to a diverse group of internal clients
• have affinity with a research and education-driven environment
• experience in collaborating at the interface between academic and private parties

And it’s an advantage if you have:

• experience with the Dutch Higher Education Act (WHW)
• knowledge of Horizon 2020, Dutch government-subsidised research projects and other programmes.

Your required competencies
In this role, you’re expected to combine excellent legal skills with the ability to effectively operate in complex environments.

That means, you need to have:

• excellent legal and analytical skills
• excellent advisory skills
• the ability to balance the different interest of the organisation, including the legal interest
• a very strong sense of accuracy and excellent writing skills
• strong interpersonal and intercultural communication skills
• strong communication skills to translate legal matters in communications towards internal and external stakeholders
• the ability to work independently but also in teams
• the ability to collaborate and interact with various stakeholders within and outside of RSM (both the public RSM faculty and RSM B.V.)
• the ability to prioritise and perform under time constraints
• a hands-on, service-oriented and proactive attitude
• excellent command of English (C1) and Dutch (C2), both spoken and written