Employment & Labor | Counsel (Data-Driven Compliance & Workforce Analytics)

Job Description

We are a global law firm with a powerful strategic focus and real momentum. Our industry-focused strategy is seeing us take on pioneering work in places that others have yet to reach. Our shared values define our culture and our workplace. You will find us to be unusually collegial, team-oriented, and ready to innovate. We work seamlessly across practices, offices and around the world. This elimination of boundaries has allowed us to evolve into a law firm that works as hard for its culture as it does for its clients.

Norton Rose Fulbright seeks an experienced Labor & Employment Counsel to join our Chicago office. This role combines traditional employment law practice (litigation and counseling) with data-driven compliance and workforce analytics. The ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in employment law and experience working with HR data, compliance auditing, and statistical analysis to support pay equity assessments, adverse impact reviews, and regulatory compliance projects.

This role is ideal for a legal professional with both employment law expertise and a strong analytical mindset, eager to integrate data science methodologies into employment compliance work.

Location: Chicago

Key Responsibilities:

Employment Litigation & Counseling

• Provide legal guidance on a wide range of employment law matters, including Title VII, ADA, FLSA, FMLA, DEI compliance (including for government contractors), wage and hour audits, and worker classification.

• Support both employment litigation and employment counseling practices.

• Independently and efficiently handle administrative charges and provide litigation support to our Chicago office litigation team in complex employment disputes.

Data-Driven Workforce Compliance

• Conduct adverse impact analysis in connection with workforce reductions, performance ratings, applicant flow, and hiring practices to mitigate risk and ensure equal opportunity in the workplace.

• Advise on pay equity reviews and compliance audits, leveraging statistical methods to ensure fair compensation structures.

• Work with HRIS, payroll, and workforce management data to ensure accuracy and compliance in legal audits and workforce reviews.

• Work alongside data scientists, HR professionals, and compliance specialists to ensure legal compliance in AI-driven hiring systems and workforce management.

Regulatory & Compliance Projects

• Scope and manage complex compliance projects involving legal risk assessments, workforce analytics, and regulatory guidance.

• Provide legal counsel on ethics and compliance program audits and DEI compliance, including for government contractors.

• Identify and scope appropriate statistical and data-driven methods of analysis to answer complex client legal questions, reduce risk, and support equal opportunity initiatives.

Statistical Analysis & Visualization

• Conduct and oversee pay equity analysis, using multi-linear regression analysis to assess potential disparities and ensure compliance with pay transparency laws.

• Translate data-driven insights into actionable legal advice through effective storytelling and data visualization.

• Work with data analysts, HR teams, and consultants to wrangle and clean workforce data for statistical analysis, compliance reviews, and pay equity assessments.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with internal teams and external stakeholders, demonstrating strong client communication, responsiveness, and long-term relationship-building skills.

Qualifications & Skills:

• J.D. from an accredited law school and active Illinois Bar membership (or eligibility to waive in).

• 5+ years of experience in employment law litigation and counseling, preferably in a law firm setting.

• Proficiency in workforce analytics, compliance auditing, and pay equity assessments.

• Strong knowledge of employment laws (Title VII, ADA, FLSA, FMLA) and emerging pay equity and transparency regulations.

• Hands-on experience with workforce data analysis, including adverse impact analysis, pay equity modeling, or hiring system audits.

• Experience working with data sets from HRIS, payroll, and workforce management systems.

• Familiarity with statistical tools or programming languages (e.g., R, Python (pandas, statsmodels), Stata, Datatab, or Excel) for legal compliance assessments.

• Ability to manage complex compliance projects independently.