Senior Counsel, Employment

As Senior Counsel, Employment - Europe, UK&I, you will be a member of HP's worldwide Employment and Benefits Law Team.

This role will be responsible for assisting the Human Resources department and managers in the management and handling of all strategic labor and employment, employment-related matters for over 20 countries in our Europe and UK&I markets. This is a great role for a qualified employment lawyer who seeks a new challenge, testing their business and legal judgment outside of their trained jurisdiction.

The Senior Counsel, Employment - Europe, UK&I will perform all job duties consistent with HP's values, standards, culture, and business practices. Job duties include providing advice and strategic counselling to the Human Resources organization and business leaders across multiple business units on a full range of employment issues, including recruiting, hiring, organizational design, terminations, wage and hour, executive compensation and benefits, consideration and implementation of policies and procedures, investigations, diversity and inclusion programming, employee classification and contingent workforce issues, and more. You'll also supervise responses to administrative charges and potential claims against the company.

Responsibilities include:

- Staying current and ensuring compliance with all labor and employment laws and regulations
- Counseling on risk mitigation as to employee relations and investigations
- Assisting in the development and implementation of strategies to promote an overall culture of integrity
- Drafting employment-related agreements, including employment contracts, confidentiality agreements, non-competes and separation agreements
- Tracking industry trends that impact the company
- Supervising, managing and evaluating outside counsel on employment-related matters
- Educating clients and stakeholders on employment law matters
- And otherwise leading and independently handling legal matters and projects ranging from the basic to the complex
- You will also have the opportunity to work on global projects, such as those that come out of acquisitions, restructurings and other transformations
- You may be asked to provide legal advice and strategy regarding works councils, trade unions and other labour relations organizations, working with HR and business leaders

The Senior Counsel, Employment Europe - UK&I is expected to establish and maintain relationships, credibility and trust with clients, business stakeholders, other legal team members and colleagues.

This role needs a skilled international employment lawyer with experience working across many jurisdictions simultaneously and providing advice and counsel at a leadership team level who is able to provide flexible, pragmatic, solution-driven and commercially relevant employment law advice.

As required, you will work closely with the market and functional leadership teams. You will maintain close connections with members of the Global Legal team and collaborate on employment law aspects of global and country-level projects. You will also work closely with the regional Employee Relations teams, and at times you will also be required to work with other functions such as the Ethics and Compliance and Privacy offices.

Qualifications:

- A qualified lawyer in a country in Europe/UK&I regardless of jurisprudence, but familiarity with both common law and civil legal systems, having a degree in law from a reputable university or non-law degree with qualifying post-graduate law degree.
- Typically, 7+ years’ post qualification employment law experience (PQE) in a major law firm, or in-house that is either ongoing or very recent with the following critical experiences and skills:

- Work experience with international clients and cross-border projects, including exposure to strategic business decisions.
- Advanced drafting and negotiation experience in employment law matters.
- Experience in employee representation, works councils and/or trade union matters.
- Advanced employment law advice and disputes experience.
- Exposure to litigation, investigations, and regulatory audits, or generally a well
- diversified practice experience.
- Advanced experience in providing legal advice with clear risk balancing in a commercial setting directly to business leaders.
- Strong organizational skills and the ability to effectively own and manage multiple transactions and projects, including instructing outside counsel across the region and coordinating internal business partners.
- Strong ability to communicate complex and/or controversial topics and concepts to a wide and diverse audience in an easy to understand and concise way.
- Ability to speak, read and write fluently in at least one language other than English. Fluency in English (written and oral) is required.
- Willing to work hours when necessary to connect with colleagues in the U.S., Latin America, and APJ. Proactive and hard-working.
- Team player who maintain composure