Head Of Legal
Reckitt Benckiser
Total years of experience :15 years, 0 Months
The role sits as a part of the Leadership Team of the Company - which takes critical decision for the business in order to help drive results whilst ensuring ethical & legal compliance. The Company has an annual turn-over of USD 568M growing at an average of 5% per annum. Role reports into Regional Legal Director.
• Delivering business savvy advice to this complex jurisdiction with each country having its own unique legal system. Role looks after business in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, GCC countries, LEVANT countries and Iran.
• Delivered advice critical to the restructure of GTM of KSA in light of the legal changes to the Competition Law as well as Pharma products incentivization regulation.
• Lead project for zero VAT rating on hand sanitizers resulting in driving incremental sales of USD 48M.
• Lead risk assessment locally and localized the global compliance program to focus on face-to-face, department specific trainings leading to Pakistan (out of AMET) being number 1 in compliance maturity assessment.
• Chief Investigating officer for all 17+ speak up/whistleblower cases in Pakistan pertaining to employee misconduct, financial abuse, corruption in HCP interactions, unethical sales practices (sale pass and passing off unauthorized discounts), and Supply quality regulatory non-compliances.
• Hand-picked to be the subject matter expert in developing the global training module on anti-bribery and corruption.
• Localized policies - HCP interaction, grants and charitable donations, sponsorships, hospitality, meals and gifts policies, fee for service and infant nutrition policies and trained Medical representatives’ manager on said policies. Fixed incentive structures of the medical reps to be in compliance with WHO code.
• Devised and implemented the legal strategy for defending the company against imposition of new taxes, challenges on deceptive marketing of products and distributor disputes.
• Devised the legal strategy for defending of current and former senior employees of the company as well as pharma products in criminal liability matter pending before drug court.
• Lead the legal strategy and delivery for the largest demerger in Pakistan in the last decade. Responsibilities included drafting, negotiating and finalizing the Scheme of demerger Arrangement, intra-company transportation, warehousing and intellectual property agreements; representing before the competition commission on why the demerger should be allowed and conducting an extra ordinary general meeting of shareholders to seek shareholders and creditors consent for the re structure. This was a significant 16-month project that delivered the largest structural change to the Pakistan business in 10 years including factory operations, regulatory registrations, court / government approval.
• Proven track record of delivering topline growth to business including leading on product pricing strategy
As a part of my function in the legal & commercial department of the group companies (Parent Company, PPL, UK based subsidiary PPL Europe E&P Limited working in Yemen and Netherlands based subsidiary, PPL Asia E&P B.v. working in Iraq), my responsibilities are mainly as follows:
• Develop preventative law strategies, corporate policy and compliance programs to minimize litigation, third party disputes, avoid legal violations and other potential risks;
Direct & oversee the resolution of corporate and major litigation cases and internal conflicts, including participating in senior management deliberations, developing & overseeing the legal strategy of the most complex and important cases and legal objectives;
• Assist the client in reviewing, negotiating and finalizing joint venture (including M&A transaction), loans and other legal documentation;
• Advising business development & management on the legalities pertaining to any merger & Acquisition transaction.
• Preparing legal documentation (i.e. contracts, letters inter alia) for delegating work to subsidiaries.
• Advising on company secretariat matters while keeping in view the rights of shareholders. (for eg: process for removal of external Auditor)
• Drafting Gas Sales & Purchase Agreements, Secondment Agreements for sending Parent Company employees to international subsidiaries, Joint Venture Agreements for Operated blocks;
• Reviewing & vetting routine, procurement agreements, sub-contracting agreements and Joint Venture Partnership Agreements for non-operated blocks.
• Effective Litigation liaison;
• Constitutional Law Advice: Recommending appropriate course of action for implementation of and compliance with new legislation and policies impacting the Company’s operations and/or presence. (for eg: implications of 18th Amendment)
• Drafting & reviewing external legal counsel engagement policy and negotiate retainer agreements with external legal counsel and maintaining effective liaison with external counsel for management of company’s litigations and of applicability of foreign law advise for subsidiaries and their operations.
EXPRESS MEDIA GROUP July2012 to Current
Electronic, Print & Digital Media Concern
Position: Legal Advisor
As the Legal Advisor to Pakistan’s third largest media group, I was looking after the legal affairs of the entire Group which comprised of Century Publications on the Print & Digital Media side and Television Media Network on the electronic front. This is a wholly independent and singular position. My responsibilities here included, but were not limited to, as follows:
• Ensuring compliance with prevalent law, regulatory authority directives and association conventions
• Drafting, vetting and responding to legal documentation such as Legal Notices, MoUs, Media Representation Agreements, Co-Production Agreements, Service Agreements, Trust Deeds, Talent, In-House Productions, Production out source, Joint Venture Agreements and Court documentation
• Handling Intellectual property related matters
• Setting-up and executing legal work of new channel “TIMES TMN 247”
• Specialist in Sales Agreements, International Syndication Agreements/Deal Memos/MoUs and defamation suits arising out of print, digital and electronic media
• Important Projects handled: National Geographic, BBC, DISH TV USA, International beam contracts
• Political/Election Compliance and Election Advertisement/Campaign handling
• Employment Laws, Labour Laws and HR legal consultancy
• Litigation liaison and record keeping
• Dealing with company and corporate law matters
• Legal Solution finding
• Authorities dealt with: PEMRA, SECP, PBA, APNS, Ministry of Information - amongst others
KMS LAW ASSOCIATES Nov2011 to June2012
Advocates & Corporate Consultants Karachi office
Position: Associate Advocate, High Court
During my course of employment as an Associate Advocate at the firm, I finished my pupilage and got enrolled as an Advocate of the High Court at Sindh in Pakistan.
I held a diverse set of Clientele ranging from regulatory authorities, government departments and private companies and banks as well.
A list of prominent areas that I have dealt with is as follows:
• Preparation of cases referred for mediation and arbitration
• Preparation, vetting and negotiating of Contracts, Trusts Deeds, MOUs, Joint Venture Agreements etc
• Identifying and managing legal risks for clients
• Dispute Resolution and Solution finding
• Ensuring compliance, with prevalent law and instructions of Regulatory Authorities, of Private Companies on the firm’s retainer panel.
• Preparing initial draft of a pre mortgage legal opinion, and of recovery suits against defaulting customers of a bank.
• Advising Clients and finding solutions for them.
• Going on Secondments/STA to advise and regulate clients’ legal affairs.
KMS LAW ASSOCIATES July 2005 to December 2007
Advocates & Corporate Consultants Karachi office
Position: Para Legal
After High School I dedicated my time to gain some practical experience so as to ensure I was making the right career choice for myself. Hence I took up work as a paralegal at KMS Law Associates, which later made a job offer to me based on this association with them. During my time as a paralegal, I learnt how to run case law researches, sieve out grounds for a fresh case, and prepared initial draft of a pre mortgage legal opinion, and of recovery suits against defaulting customers of a bank. I also assisted in the management of the human resource of the banking team; running pre hire back ground checks and maintaining registration register.
Completed with merit in minimum amount of time Researched, presented and wrote a dissertation on a unique topic/subject Subjects Covered: International Law: Rights & Responsibilities, Approaches to International Law, International & Transnational Offending, International Legal Regulation of Armed Conflict, Advanced Research, Alternate Dispute Resolution
Graduated with Honours Was a college appointed academic mentor Subjects Covered: Company Law, Islamic Law, Contract Law, Public Law, European Union Law, Common Law Reasoning & Institutions, Criminal Law, Law of Torts, Law of Trusts, Land Law, International Protection of Human Rights, Jurisprudence & Legal Theory
Was faculty appointed Deputy House Captain in Middle School and subsequently faculty appointed Prefect in High School Subjects Covered: Mathematics, Accounting, Economics, English Literature, Statistics, Sociology, English Language, Urdu Literature, Urdu Language