Litigation Counsel

The candidate will be involved mainly in Nokia’s patent related litigation and lobbying, but will have an opportunity to get involved in the broad and varied Nokia portfolio of litigation and disputes, including commercial litigation with customers, suppliers and others, complex regulatory and investigative matters, tax, labour and employment, antitrust, and more. The candidate will primarily focus on China matters but may also be called to assist in matters arising elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region.

The person selected will be expected to play an active role in not just maintaining, but strengthening Nokia’s litigation function. This should include a rigorous ‘early case assessment’ process, a hands on approach with outside counsel, close oversight of budgets and spend, maintenance and cultivation of relationships with business and functional leaders across the company, effective use of state of the art litigation management tools and dashboards, creative use of alternative fee arrangements, and more.

While Nokia will always consider settling disputes when it is in the company’s best interests to do so, our mindset will always be that we are prepared to try cases in court and take cases on appeal. Accordingly, the ideal candidate will have experience of litigation in China, particularly in the field of patents.

The candidate will also be expected to take an active approach to lobbying, establishing and maintaining relationships and creating lobbying messages as part of a cross-functional lobbying and policy team. Ideally, the candidate will have established lobbying channels and will understand policy creation in China, or at least have an interest in doing so.

The person selected should be able to function in a matrixed organization where hierarchy is minimized. The successful candidate will be boundary-less and will possess the ability to work collaboratively with numerous stakeholders and to identify those who should be consulted or apprised of significant events or developments. The candidate must be adept at managing work across many time zones while still maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

• Identify, develop and implement effective and cost-efficient strategies to obtain optimal outcomes in each case;

• Effectively manage outside counsel relationships and control costs and external spend;

• Implement effective early case assessment procedures;

• Implement effective case management systems and advanced dashboards for reporting on litigation matters for a wide range of interested stakeholders;

• Partner effectively with business leaders to obtain maximum results balanced with sensitivity towards business disruption and impairment of key customer and supplier relationships;

• In collaboration with other functions including Finance, Internal Audit, Ethics & Compliance, Health & Safety and more, respond to government and regulatory agency inquiries, investigations and claims;

• Apply strong social and communication skills, and be able to build a network of relationships both within Nokia and with external stakeholders, such as industry organisations, legal community members, regulators and other government officials;

• Work closely with, and be a resource to other members of the Legal & Compliance team including professionals who work on compliance, regulatory, patenting, software, hardware and product related issues;

• Proactively identify and solve the most complex problems and think beyond existing solutions to create sustainable competitive advantage;

• Legally qualified, ideally in China but also with some educational experience from elsewhere.

• Business fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese.

• Minimum of 3 years PQE predominantly in patent litigation matters;

• Experience may be in a global law firm, in house position, or government, or any combination;

• Experience of lobbying and regulatory work and a good grasp of the policy field in China is an advantage;

• As many of the disputes involve highly complex patent disputes, a high level of interest in technology or science is essential;

• Ability to think strategically and to serve as a trusted business partner with senior business leaders;

• Can develop relevant and creative solutions to meet current and evolving business needs.