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Mid-level Employment Associate

We are currently recruiting for our exciting Founders practice!

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Type

Permanent - Full Time

Location

San Francisco

Job Role

Business - Corporate



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Summary

We are building a practice in San Francisco to represent Silicon Valley founders and CEOs personally and scale this practice globally. This is an opportunity for you to play a key role and get in on the ground floor as we launch this exciting practice. This is the ideal opportunity if you are someone who has gained masterful skills counseling companies in the area of Executive Compensation and/or Employment Law Counseling and is ready to leverage those skills working directly with the top leaders in Silicon Valley and New York.

You will be joining one of our Senior Partners, who is also the Global Head of the Founders Practice. In addition to being known as one of the top lawyers in Silicon Valley for representing founders, our Global Head of the Founder Practice has also been general counsel for three technology companies (including the first GC of LinkedIn) and began his career as a management-side employment lawyer.  He is passionate about tech and being the consiglieri many of the leaders in Silicon Valley and is looking to build a culture for the Founder Practice that more closely resembles an agile startup rather than a law firm.

If you do not have experience representing founders or executives personally that is not required.  For this role, it is also not required that you have expertise in Executive Compensation (such as 409a or 280G) though having that experience would be a plus.  What is most important is that you have a passion for counseling clients and a strong background in employment law counseling relating to executive agreements. This is an ideal opportunity for an employment lawyer who wants to build career in counseling as opposed to litigation.  This is also an opportunity for you, should you wish to do so, to leverage your employment law expertise advising companies by building a nationwide counseling practice for our clients and working with our international employment lawyers throughout the world.

We are confident you will find it a personally rewarding practice and we look forward to mentoring you in this practice area. 

Key Responsibilities

  • Drafting and negotiating employment agreements and separation agreements on behalf of executives and employers.  You are awesome at this, revel in the details of contract drafting, love talking about Cause and Good Reason and comfortable negotiating employment agreements from start to finish.
  • Representing clients on employment law issues as part of M&A deals.  This part of our practice is fast-paced, fun and exciting and personally rewarding.
  • Representing all types of executives in employment negotiations including early-stage founders, CEOs and other executives, private equity executives, venture partners and advisors/consultants.
  • Negotiating bonus plans and other types of compensation arrangements.

Skills & Experience Required

  • Strong academic credentials (JD required)
  • Admitted to and in good standing with the California Bar
  • 4 – 6 years of relevant experience in a law firm's Executive Compensation or Employment Law group.
  • Exceptional client service:  Because we represent individuals as opposed to corporate clients, not only are we sensitive that we are advising our clients on some of the most important issues in their lives, but we love being in this role and viewed as the trusted advisor.
  • Grace under pressure: We have a fast-paced practice and enjoy helping our clients who are often under time pressure.
  • Extensive experience drafting and negotiating employment agreements and separation agreements
  • Knowledge of 409a, 280G and tax issues related to equity a plus but if your background is pure employment law with a passion for working with individual clients we still very much want to speak with you.
  • Strong project management skills; ability to balance a large number of competing priorities
  • Attention to detail
  • Team Player

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is our policy to provide equal opportunities for all employees/prospective employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion.  Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of ethnic origin, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation or disability.

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