Counsel, Employment

GAQ326R60

Location: This position will be based in Seattle, WA, Mountain View or San Francisco, CA, Denver, CO, Chicago, IL, Washington DC (McLean, Virginia), New York, NY, or Boston, MA

About the Team

The mission of Databricks Legal is to apply legal resources and expertise to help Databricks achieve its growth and strategic objectives, while thoughtfully protecting Databricks with a reasonable balance of risk versus opportunity. 

What we look for

The Counsel, Employment will provide legal counseling to the Databricks People Team on U.S. employment matters, and collaborate to resolve U.S. disputes.  You will also help support global employment-related projects.

You will have excellent written and verbal communication skills and practical business judgment, exhibit a high level of organization and flexibility, and have the skills and drive to support and accelerate this leading technology company, addressing cutting-edge legal issues and organizational challenges.

This is a full-time position reporting to Databricks’ Senior Director and Associate General Counsel of Global Employment and Litigation, joining a team of 4 international lawyers and a paralegal.

 Responsibilities

• Provide pragmatic, risk-balanced advice to Databricks’ People Team (including employee relations and business partners) on employment law matters for Databricks’ U.S. workforce, including: hiring and recruiting, investigations, discipline and termination, leaves of absence, disability accommodation, wage and hour, anti-discrimination, compensation and benefits (including sales compensation plans and bonus programs), non-competition and non-solicitation, protection of confidential information, employee investigations, restructuring plans, and other topics.
• Collaborate to respond to demand letters, administrative charges, and other disputes, including investigating claims, communicating with opposing counsel, negotiating resolutions, and drafting separation and settlement agreements
• Monitor new U.S. laws, regulations and decisions affecting the substantive legal areas above and provide strategic, proactive advice to People Team and cross functional partners
• Draft employee-facing policies, handbooks, and other resources
• Prepare and lead training events on employment law related matters
• Manage outside counsel handling employment litigation and global projects, including management of budgets, assisting litigation strategy, and reviewing pleadings and other documents
• Support employment-related aspects of mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments, and divestitures, including due diligence and related workforce integration efforts
• Establish and maintain credibility and trust with internal clients, legal team members, and other partners
• Provide advice and counsel on both day-to-day and individual employee issues and strategic and organizational plans
• Identify and implement process improvements that help the legal team, the People Team and the business scale for growth, including through automated and AI solutions.
• Support legal team and employment team related projects, as assigned

Qualifications & Experience Required

• JD from a top tier accredited institution; licensed to practice law in Washington State, California, Colorado, Illinois, Virginia, New York, or Massachusetts
• 5+ years employment law and litigation experience; in-house experience (including as firm secondee) preferred 
• Fluency translating legal advice into practical, risk-balanced, business-oriented advice
• Experience supporting business operations and partnering with People Team/HR and other professionals across multiple locations
• Experience supporting multi-jurisdictional projects
• Experience providing advice directly to clients
• Strong work ethic and the highest level of integrity and business ethics
• Ability to quickly assess employment-related situations and develop practical options to respond to and resolve risks
• Ability to build strong relationships quickly and work with all levels of the business with ease
• Great judgment and attention to detail, including judgment for when to escalate matters to legal leadership  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Tech sector experience preferred, including cloud services, data and AI
• A desire to work on complex legal issues and in new global regions as we continue to expand
• Experience working with a client-service focus and a bias for action
• Strong aptitude and appetite for identifying, developing and implementing critical process improvements