Senior Legal Counsel, Employment Law, Americas

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Requisition Number: 56689

Job Location: Newark, USA

Global Grade: Band 5

Work Type: Hybrid Working

Employment Type: Permanent

Posting Start Date: 22/06/2026

Posting End Date: 23/08/2026

Job Summary

To advise on and manage employment law matters arising for the Bank in the US and Latam and to help mitigate reputational, financial, and regulatory-related risks arising from people issues.

Key Responsibilities

Litigation/disputes

• Advising on and managing employment law disputes/litigation in the US
• Instruct external legal counsel regarding the approach to employment law litigation, and tailor this to the business/organisation
• Co-ordinate discovery and depositions
• Update the corporate communications team about disputes
• Identifying and analysing opportunities for settlement and advising Human Resources (HR), Employee Relations (ER) and/or business stakeholders on settlement strategy
• Preparing and negotiating settlement terms

Advisory

• Advising on employment issues in the US and Latam, including investigations, accountability reviews, material disciplinary and grievance matters, complex/contentious performance management, redundancies, restructures and contentious exits
• Managing relevant stakeholders and providing accurate and timely updates regarding the status of disputes or issues
• Advise on D&I issues and legal/regulatory changes in the US
• Identify/flag regulatory issues affecting staff, particularly relating to remuneration and liaise with external counsel on drafting and/or reviewing of contentious regulated references
• Advising on employment law aspects of HR policy, training or projects from a US perspective
• Horizon scanning from a state and federal perspective and provide updates to HR.

Skills and Experience

Employment Law

• Knowledge of domestic and international laws governing employment, and the ability to interpret and take action on aspects of employment laws that impact the business. (UK required, France, Poland and Germany helpful)

Litigation

• Knowledge of domestic and international laws, regulations and court rulings; ability to use tools, techniques and processes to take action on aspects of litigation that impact the business.

Business Acumen

• Knowledge, insight, and understanding of business concepts, tools, and processes that are needed for making sound decisions in the context of the company's business; ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.

Regulatory Framework and Requirements (SIF)

• Awareness and understanding of the regulatory framework in which the firms operates and the regulatory requirements and expectations relevant to role

Skills

• Excellent organisational skills in order to manage multiple matters and stakeholders at the same time. Being able to pivot as priorities change is essential.
• Strong analytical skills to review background facts and identify the key legal issues raised by the employment dispute or issue.
• Excellent communication skills and succinct written style, with the ability to match your tone and level of detail to your audience.
• Disciplined approach towards timelines and tracking all steps required in order to manage matters and implement a strategic approach while keeping stakeholders updated.

Qualifications

• Juris Doctorate from an accredited law school;
• Admission to practice law in New York and New Jersey;
• 5 or more years of relevant experience
• Experience in corporate, in-house setting in the financial services industry (or with such clients) desirable.

Experience in

• employment litigation
• drafting and advising on employment contracts and policies
• advising on employee relations issues such as disciplinaries, grievances, redundancy/restructure and termination of employment
• employee data privacy issues and data subject access requests (preferred)
• regulatory issues affecting staff, particularly remuneration (preferred)

About Standard Chartered

We're an international bank, nimble enough to act, big enough for impact. For more than 170 years, we've worked to make a positive difference for our clients, communities, and each other. We question the status quo, love a challenge and enjoy finding new opportunities to grow and do better than before.

If you're looking for a career with purpose and you want to work for a bank making a difference, we want to hear from you. You can count on us to celebrate your unique talents and we can't wait to see the talents you can bring us.

Our purpose, to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, together with our brand promise, to be here for good are achieved by how we each live our valued behaviours. When you work with us, you'll see how we value difference and advocate inclusion.

Together we

Do the right thing and are assertive, challenge one another, and live with integrity, while putting the client at the heart of what we do

Never settle, continuously striving to improve and innovate, keeping things simple and learning from doing well, and not so well

Are better together, we can be ourselves, be inclusive, see more good in others, and work collectively to build for the long term

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.

Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.

Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.

Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits

A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.

Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.

Recruitment Assessments

Expected annual base pay range for the role is 186,100 USD to 297,200 USD. The final offer will be determined on an individualised basis using a number of variables, including but not limited to skill set, depth of experience and education, internal relativity, and specific work location. At Standard Chartered Bank, Base pay is only part of the total compensation package.

Discretionary variable pay and a range of attractive bank sponsored benefit programs are available and designed to foster employee overall health and well-being including, but not limited to, a best in class 401k plan with up to 8% employer match, robust medical plan coverage with employer funded Health Savings Accounts, inclusive family building benefits, and flexible/hybrid working arrangements for many of our positions subject to role specific considerations

Some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.

Visit our careers website www.sc.com/careers

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