# Senior Counsel, Labor & Employment

**Company**: Ford Motor Company
**Location**: Dearborn, MI
**Work arrangement**: hybrid
**Experience**: senior
**Job type**: full-time
**Salary**: $150,000 - $250,000 per year
**Category**: Legal
**Industry**: Automotive
**Wikidata**: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q44294

**Apply**: https://efds.fa.em5.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1/job/65267?utm_source=yubhub.co&utm_medium=jobs_feed&utm_campaign=apply
**Canonical**: https://yubhub.co/jobs/job_a6d9ae42-dd7

## Description

The Senior Counsel, Labor & Employment will serve as a lead legal expert, strategic advisor, and trusted partner to the Human Resources department, senior business leadership, and operational teams. This role is primarily focused on providing proactive, day-to-day legal advice and counseling to mitigate organizational risk, ensure compliance with U.S. federal, state, and local employment laws, and support a high-performance workplace culture.

While this role involves overseeing employment litigation, administrative charges, and labor-related matters, the ideal candidate will prioritize proactive advisory functions,building scalable, compliant policies and providing real-time, practical guidance that aligns with the company’s strategic business objectives and values.

Key responsibilities include:

- Managing and developing the defense strategy for employment-related litigation, including class actions, single-plaintiff lawsuits, and administrative charges.

- Directing and managing a large, active docket of employment-related litigation, including class actions, collective actions, and single-plaintiff lawsuits (claims involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, and wrongful termination).

- Developing and executing comprehensive defense strategies from inception through resolution, including driving early case assessments, determining settlement vs. trial strategies, and managing discovery.

- Evaluating pre-litigation demands and internal escalations; negotiating strategic resolutions to minimize financial exposure and operational disruption.

- Acting as the primary legal partner to HR and business leaders on a wide range of day-to-day employment matters, including recruiting, hiring, performance management, accommodations, discipline, terminations, and organizational restructurings/RIFs.

- Balancing legal risks with business goals, demonstrating a strong ability to find creative, compliant pathways to achieve business objectives (finding the 'yes' through risk-calibrated solutions).

- Providing expert guidance on FLSA classifications, state-specific wage and hour laws, pay transparency requirements, pay equity initiatives, and compensation practices.

- Advising on complex disability, religious, and leave of absence issues involving the ADA, FMLA, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), and various state-level paid leave programs.

- Providing legal oversight, strategy, and guidance on sensitive internal investigations into allegations of harassment, discrimination, retaliation, fraud, or other violations of company policy.

- Advising and reviewing workplace policies, employee handbooks, and employment-related agreements (e.g., executive offer letters, separation agreements, and confidentiality/restrictive covenant agreements).

Ideal candidates will have:

- A Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.

- Active membership in good standing of at least one U.S. State Bar (with the ability to register as in-house counsel if relocating).

- Minimum of 8–10 years of dedicated experience practicing labor and employment law.

- Proven experience managing employment law issues across multiple U.S. jurisdictions, with a deep understanding of state-specific variations (e.g., California, Illinois, New York).

- A combination of rigorous training at a major law firm and subsequent in-house corporate legal experience.

- Comprehensive, up-to-date knowledge of U.S. federal and state employment laws (Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, NLRA, etc.).

- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to translate complex legal concepts into clear, actionable, and business-friendly advice.

- Strong interpersonal skills and the professional maturity to advise, influence, and build trust with senior executives and stakeholders.

In return, Ford Motor Company offers:

- Excellent compensation.

- A comprehensive benefits package that includes generous PTO, retirement, savings and stock investment plans, incentive compensation, and much more.

- Exciting opportunities for professional and personal growth and recognition.

This position is a leadership level 4.

## Skills

### Required
- Labor and employment law
- Litigation management
- Compliance
- Risk management
- Strategic planning
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Business acumen

### Nice to have
- FLSA classifications
- State-specific wage and hour laws
- Pay transparency requirements
- Pay equity initiatives
- Compensation practices
- Disability and leave of absence issues
- Internal investigations
- Workplace policies and employee handbooks

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