Senior Legal Counsel (Employment)

About The Opportunity

The Office of Legal Affairs serves as a trusted advisor to leadership across The Community Solution, providing strategic legal counsel on a broad range of matters affecting our System Office and partner institutions. Our attorneys work collaboratively with leaders across the organization to navigate complex legal and regulatory issues, support sound decision-making, and help advance our mission.

Responsibilities

• Providing practical legal counsel and risk assessment on day-to-day operational, administrative, and strategic matters supporting higher education system and institutional operations.
• Serving as lead counsel on employment-related disputes, including pre-litigation and litigation matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour, workers’ compensation, and reasonable accommodation claims.
• Conducting and advising on complex workplace and student-related investigations and recommending legally sound, practical resolutions.
• Negotiating settlements, managing insurance claims, and partnering with outside counsel as appropriate to support effective case resolution.
• Advising on compliance with federal and state employment laws and regulations, including FLSA, ADA, FMLA, California employment laws, and matters involving state and federal regulatory agencies.
• Supporting labor relations matters, including collective bargaining and related workforce considerations.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of experience practicing employment law as a litigator or within a higher education environment.
• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an ABA-accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in California.
• Experience providing legal counsel and risk assessment on employment, labor, and workplace matters.
• Experience advising organizational leaders on complex employment issues, including workplace investigations, regulatory compliance, and dispute resolution.
• Strong knowledge of federal and state employment laws, including FLSA, ADA, FMLA, and California employment laws.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health and welfare benefits, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, voluntary benefit options, employer-paid life and disability insurance, retirement plan contributions, and an employee assistance program.
• Strong work-life balance with 20 PTO days and 11 paid holidays annually.
• Distributed workforce model with remote work flexibility and a biweekly remote work stipend.
• Tuition reimbursement for eligible external degree programs, along with tuition waivers at participating colleges within the System.
• Opportunity to contribute to a mission-driven higher education system focused on student success, institutional excellence, and advancing equitable access to education.

Pay

This opportunity is budgeted at $175,000–$180,000 base compensation. Additional compensation factors may impact total compensation.

Schedule

This role is part of a fully remote, workforce, requiring flexibility in working across time zones, involves a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and short deadlines, and may occasionally require work outside of standard business hours to meet business needs.