Lead Counsel, Employment & Litigation

Solace

25d•Remote

About The Position

Solace is operating across all 50 states, growing fast, and building a workforce that doesn't fit neatly into a traditional employment framework. We are also reaching a scale where we need a strong leader to prevent and, when necessary, resolve the wide range of disputes that are likely to arise. As Head of Employment & Litigation, you'll provide pragmatic employment advice and manage litigation matters across the organization. This isn't a role for someone who wants to sit back and issue-spot. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, you'll give real-time, practical advice to people leaders and executives, directly oversee our litigation docket, and build employment policies that scale with a company adding headcount every month.

Requirements

JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing.
9-12+ years of employment and litigation experience, with in-house experience being strongly preferred.
Pragmatic instincts with the ability to weigh risk against velocity and land on real answers, not hedges.
Experience building policy from scratch rather than simply enforcing what already exists.
Track record managing outside counsel and litigation budgets across a distributed, multi-state workforce.
Applicants must be based in the United States.

Nice To Haves

Healthcare, marketplace, or other regulated-industry experience is a plus, not a requirement.

Responsibilities

Be a thought leader and deliver pragmatic guidance on a wide range of labor and employment issues, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, wage and hour laws, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, pay practices, contingent workers, HR policies and procedures, performance management, investigations, terminations, and labor relations.
Design and deliver practical employment-law training for managers and people teams, from manager onboarding to targeted sessions on high-risk areas like terminations, accommodations, and investigations.
Work with functional leaders, including the Head of People, to build and maintain the employment policies and programs that let Solace scale including handbooks, leave policies, accommodation processes, termination protocols, and the state-by-state nuance underneath all of it.
Draft employment agreements, offer letters, separation agreements, and the templates recruiting and people teams use every day.
Run periodic audits of employment policies and practices to identify areas of risk before they develop into bigger problems.
Track employment law changes and enforcement trends across states, and translate what matters to the people who need to act on it.
Own Solace’s full range of issues, disputes, and litigation from end-to-end including demand letters, subpoenas, agency requests, and everything that follows.
Manage outside counsel relationships and litigation budgets across all active matters, ensuring consistent strategy and cost discipline.
Build a dispute-prevention infrastructure–arbitration agreements, class-action waivers, and exit and severance protocols–designed to keep disputes out of litigation.
Partner with HR and business leaders to spot early warning signs across complaints, investigations, and exits, and drive corrective action before claims are filed.