JOIN OUR TEAM 

Our mission is simple: we make journeys easier and more enjoyable for our customers. We want to lift their spirits by delivering little boosts along the way.  We care about our people and our communities, and we look for ways to uplift people first. Wherever your journey’s going, we can help you get there.  

Senior Legal Counsel, Labor and Employment, US

Department: Legal

Place: Charlotte, North Carolina, Tempe, Arizona, or San Antonio, Texas

Type of Employment: Permanent; Full-time

THE ROLE 

Reporting to the Director, Labor & Employment, USA, within our Legal team, the Sr. Legal Counsel, Labor and Employment, US will provide the organization and its subsidiaries with assistance regarding labor and employment transactional, litigation, and compliance matters across the country.  This position also will work closely with our Global Human Resources and Business Unit Human Resources teams, as well as other members of the legal team and business partners, advising at all levels of the organization.  The ideal candidate is proactive, self-motivated, organized, detail oriented, and committed to assisting us meet all of the organization’s labor and employment transactional, litigation and compliance needs.  

WHAT YOU’LL DO 

Here are just a few ways that you’ll help make journeys better:  

• On a daily basis, provide legal advice and counseling on a wide range of employment law issues and legal support to the business unit and operations HR teams. Support ranges from explaining human resource fundamentals to HR employees to providing detailed analysis of legal risk of proposed actions or inactions.
• On a routine basis, provide tactical and strategic legal advice and counseling to HR leadership, including advice on handling performance or conduct concerns of high-level employees, employment law implications of operational decisions, ensuring compliance with unique state and local laws, and proactively addressing potential legal risk.
• Review and provide guidance on HR or employment related contracts and agreements to ensure that vendors and partners are required to comply with relevant employment law and Circle K requirements, compliance with Circle K’s internal contract requirements, and that internal partners understand the terms of the contract.
• Draft, review, and provide advice on a host of employee agreements, including severance and separation agreements, offer letters, and accommodation agreements.
• Partner with business units and HR teams to internally handle employment law claims, including demand letters, administrative charges, and administrative investigations by advising on investigating the claims, documenting findings, and developing responsive documents. When appropriate, develop strategies to resolve the claim through settlement.
• Retain and manage outside counsel for lawsuits and employment law claims that business units and HR teams are unable to handle internally. Ensure that outside counsel handles employment litigation matters in compliance with the outside counsel guidelines, adheres to approved budgets, and focuses on achieving the best outcome for Circle K.
• Identify gaps and opportunities in HR operations and processes to notify HR teams and leadership, develop solutions to ensure legal compliance, and define the legal risk if gaps are not addressed and ensure leadership is aware of the risk.
• Provide legal guidance to HR and operations on business reorganizations, reductions in force, and outsourcing employees and teams to vendors. Focus on reducing legal risk by ensuring proper selection procedures are followed, analyzing selection criteria and selected employees to ensure they meet with legal requirements, advising on communication strategies, and drafting or reviewing appropriate agreements and exhibits.
• Provide legal guidance on transactions, acquisitions, and divestitures, with a focus on identifying legal issues and risk with the target’s employment policies, documents, and practices; ensuring HR and transaction team understands the potential cost of employee agreements, separation policies, and other employment policies triggered by a transaction; identifying material legal risk of employment claims and lawsuits; and reviewing employment related language to agreements. Post closing, provide guidance on how to integrate or offboard employees, draft employment related documents, and advise on compliance with the requirements of the agreement.
• Work with the Legal Labor and Employment team to develop and deploy training on a regular basis to Human Resources employees and management level employees on a range of labor and employment issues.
• Review and provide support on updating employment policies and procedures across the