Senior Counsel - Litigation & Employment

About this Role

In this function, you will enable business leaders to achieve business results through strategic counsel, problem solving, and risk mitigation. You will need to be a strong business partner and have an in-depth understanding of the business. You’ll need to understand NMG’s big picture strategy when working with cross-functional teams and external partners to drive business solutions and in accordance with the law.  Your passion for learning our business and building relationships with senior leaders and key business partners will be essential to tackling the ever-changing legal challenges we face in a dynamic and fast-paced retail landscape. 

As a member of the leadership team of the Legal Department at NMG reporting to the Vice President, Assistant General Counsel – General Litigation & Employment, you will be responsible for providing strategic legal advice and technical expertise to People Services, management, and other cross-functional stakeholders on a broad range of complex employment matters and employment law trends.

Responsibilities
 

• Proactively identify and assess potential legal and/or reputational risk in support of business partners and recommend practical, creative solutions that balance legal risk with business impact.
• Provide subject matter advice and guidance on a variety of employment law matters, such as the development and implementation of employee policies and trainings (including sexual harassment training), organizational restructures, leaves of absence and accommodations, and other HR practices.
• Monitor legislation, regulations, case law and government enforcement activities relating to the above substantive legal areas, and provide proactive, strategic advice to relevant business partners.
• Support and collaborate with cross-functional business partners on complex legal matters and special projects to drive and sustain employment law compliance and further the long-term interests of NMG.
• Support collective bargaining and labor contract drafting, administration, and interpretation.
• Advise on employee benefits matters, including incentive plans, welfare plans, retirement plans, benefits documentation, and claims.

Skills

• Ability to effectively influence business leaders and resolve differences of opinion amongst stakeholders, while navigating relationships and decision rights
• Ability to effectively negotiate with other professionals - strong personal skills
• Ability to take ownership of projects and solutions, and drive to successful and timely completion
• Open-minded; comfortable with ambiguity; ability to extrapolate potential solutions from prior experiences
• Ability to prioritize and juggle multiple competing tasks
• Adept at and comfortable making complex risk reward assessments
• Able to create, explain and execute pragmatic/creative legal and business solutions
• Self-motivated team player with the ability to work both autonomously and collaboratively in a fast-paced and challenging environment
• Experience and judgment necessary to operate with significant autonomy in advising leaders at all levels from first-line managers to senior executives
• Experience advising retail businesses
• Demonstrated commitment to integrity, respect, and ethical conduct

Qualifications
 

• Juris Doctor or LLM from an accredited law school

• A minimum of 7 years of employment law and related litigation experience, preferably including an in-house corporate legal environment or large corporate environment
• Licensed to practice law in at least one U.S. state or other applicable jurisdiction
• In house retail experience preferred