Senior Counsel US & Americas, Employment

Role Summary

Senior Counsel US & Americas, Employment is responsible for providing US employment and labor law advice to the business, partnering with HR and other stakeholders to guide pragmatic, commercial decisions across the employee lifecycle. The role supports Puerto Rico, Canada and LATAM HR by coordinating with local counsel and contributes to the global HR legal service delivery model. The position is based in Warren, NJ with a hybrid model requiring in-office presence three days per week.

Responsibilities

• Align business partners, including HR, Reward and Employee Relations stakeholders, and manage legal risk.
• Provide legal advice and support implementation of employment-related policies, procedures, and initiatives.
• Manage employment-related demand letters, charges, single plaintiff and class action disputes, arbitrations and mediations; advise on effective management of employee grievances, investigations and ADA issues to minimize legal risk to the Company.
• Support drafting and negotiating a broad range of employment-related agreements; analyze employment and compensation-related issues; provide subject matter expertise on all aspects of the employment lifecycle.
• Provide general advice regarding employee benefits.
• Identify topics for development of guidance, templates and tools to enable HR to self-serve in everyday HR Legal matters.
• Participate in creating and providing training on key employment law risks, changes to the law and best practices; provide strategic support for HR risk management efforts.
• Engage and manage external legal counsel effectively, ensuring engagements reflect inclusion and belonging obligations and policies.
• Interface with employees at all levels, including senior executives; collaborate with the Global HR Legal team on advice and counselling provided to HR and other business partners.
• Act as escalation point on more complex LATAM and Canada matters to provide practical guidance to market HR teams when matters do not merit escalation to Head of Global Employment.
• Support Global HR legal projects, facilitating market versions of global contracts and policy templates and obtaining market legal advice to support global project delivery.

Qualifications

• Required: Strong academic background with a Bachelor‚Äôs Degree and Juris Doctorate or equivalent law degree; admitted to practice law and in good standing with the Bar.
• Required: Minimum 6 years of legal experience advising clients or Human Resources on employment law matters.
• Required: Experience with workplace investigations and disciplinary actions, wage and hour compliance, employment contracts, non-compete and severance agreements, discrimination, harassment and retaliation claims, and related employment law matters.
• Required: Excellent influencing and stakeholder management skills at all management levels.
• Required: Ability to partner effectively with HR, LCCS leaders and the business to drive Haleon‚Äôs purpose.
• Required: Ability to work under pressure, manage multiple priorities, and meet deadlines; quick learner of new legal concepts; proactive issue identification and solution development in a fast-paced environment.
• Required: Willingness and ability to travel internationally and accommodate flexible personal schedules.
• Preferred: In-house experience strongly preferred.
• Preferred: Experience in a CPG or FMCG environment.
• Preferred: Admission and good standing in other jurisdictions in addition to New Jersey; experience working with outside counsel in LATAM and Canada to advise HR outside the US.
• Preferred: Soft skills including influencing, empathy, analytical thinking, initiative, prioritization, pragmatism, solutions-focused approach, and resilience in managing ambiguity.

Education

• Juris Doctorate or equivalent law degree; licensed and in good standing to practice law.