Associate General Counsel, Head of Employment Law

Overview

As Associate General Counsel, Employment, you will report to the Chief Legal Officer and will serve as lead counsel on all labor and employment matters across the enterprise. You will act as a trusted advisor to the Chief Human Resources Officer providing expert advice to develop, implement and monitor employment related strategy and practices, and on a broad range of employment related legal issues and topics.

You will be a member of the Law Department’s Executive Leadership Team along with peer Practice Area leaders, leading the direction of the Law Department and be committed to promoting the department’s mission to:
Partner as trusted advocates and advisors to drive strategic solutions that advance Guardian’s purpose, priorities and values.

• Demonstrated experience providing excellent, business focused legal advice and counsel and excel at building deep, trusted relationships with CHRO and key stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience building a strong culture of engagement and high performance with your direct team, and of collaboration and trust building with your Law Department Executive-level peers
• Superior communication skills and experience presenting to Executive Management and Board level
• A proactive approach to horizon scanning and forward-looking insight to address issues before they create legal exposure, and an ability to handle a multitude of complex and challenging legal issues and situations
• Commitment to innovation and partnership on department modernization efforts

• Advise and provide counsel to Executive stakeholders across the Guardian enterprise on strategic organizational and employment matters
• Advise and provide counsel to Human Resource partners on all aspects of day-to-day employment-related matters including hiring and termination issues, harassment, discrimination and retaliation, leaves of absence, reasonable accommodations, wage and hour issues, restrictive covenants, conflicts of interest, independent contractor issues, statutory employee issues, employee investigations, hiring of current and former government employees, etc.
• Manage investigations and represent the company at the administrative level (EEOC, DOL, equivalent state and local agencies). Prepare position statements and manage outside counsel
• Advise on legal matters related to employee benefits and ERISA compliance
• Partner with litigation team colleagues on employment and labor litigation, reviewing pleadings, developing strategy, facilitating the gathering of information (documents, interviews); making recommendations at key stages in the process, etc.
• Provide legal advice in ethics investigations; may be asked to serve as lead investigator in high-level or sensitive matters
• Review, interpret, and draft company policies and procedures and, specifically with respect to employee benefit matters, oversee the drafting of benefit plans by our incumbent employee benefits law subject matter expert
• Assist in the preparation and delivery of internal training courses on a variety of employment law topics
• Assist in company acquisition efforts as needed in areas of subject matter expertise
• Develop professional credibility and relationships with internal and external stakeholders as well as manage relationships with outside counsel
• Manage team of senior employment attorneys

• A JD degree, with preferred NYS bar admission or eligible to be admitted with NYS bar under its in-house counsel admission program
• A minimum of ten years of relevant professional legal experience practicing labor/employment law in a large law firm or an in-house legal department
• Familiarity with the laws and regulations governing qualified and non-qualified employee benefit plans is preferred
• Strong oral and written communication skills as well as outstanding organizational and analytical skills required
• Strong collaboration skills in a team setting while displaying a high level of self-direction and sound judgment

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