Legal Counsel, Employment in London

Condé Nast is a global media company producing the highest quality content with a footprint of more than 1 billion consumers in 32 territories through print, digital, video and social platforms. The company’s portfolio includes many of the world’s most respected and influential media properties including Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, GQ, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler/Traveller, Allure, AD, Bon Appétit and Wired, among others.

Location: London, GB

The purpose of this role is to support the Executive Director, International Employment and Compliance with the full range of employee matters, including employee relations, employment lifecycle documentation and employee compliance in all of our international markets. The role will be required to work closely with leaders across the business and become a close partner of the global People Team community.

The role involves providing cross border employment law advice to enable Condé Nast to achieve its business goals. It will also involve supporting the wider Business & Legal Affairs team on ensuring we are embedding a culture of people compliance and investigating issues as they arise.

Specific Responsibilities

• Supporting the Executive Director, International Employment and Compliance, and providing advice and support on all types of employment and labour law work, across all our international markets.
• Partnering with our global Condé Nast People Team colleagues to ensure internal legal best practices for managing employee relations.
• Supporting employee investigations.
• Advising upon individual and collective consultation processes.
• Providing advice and support on issues relating to diversity and inclusion.
• Supporting advice on day to day employment matters including contract templates, disciplinary and grievance processes, redundancy and restructuring. This will include overseeing employment contracts and exit paperwork where appropriate.
• Supporting our People Team to address workforce representation related issues, including works councils and other representative bodies.
• Keeping up to date with relevant legal and regulatory updates and advising on changes in local law or regulation that may impact policies and procedures.
• Supporting the Executive Director, International Employment and Compliance on employment litigation.
• Supporting people compliance queries, issues, and people compliance investigations as they arise as well as queries from auditors and regulators.
• Preparing and helping draft guidance and training to colleagues on employment law and compliance matters.
• Working with Business & Legal Affairs team members on instructing and monitoring UK visa applications and on compliance issues relating to our UK visa sponsorship licence, including but not limited to record keeping, and reporting changes alongside our external partner.
• Working with Business & Legal Affairs team members to enable the global mobility internal policy application, supporting global immigration requirements and liaising with relevant external third parties on our behalf.
• Managing external counsel where appropriate.

Skills and Experience

• Qualified legal professional (with 2+ years PQE preferable).
• Be passionate about the media industry.
• Strong experience in UK and International Employment law gained either in private practice or in an in-house role in a sector similar to Condé Nast.
• Demonstrated experience in working with and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools, alongside advising People Team and business stakeholders on the legal, compliance, and regulatory implications of deploying AI technologies in the workplace, including data privacy, risk mitigation, and policy development.
• In particular, experience of handling international employment law issues, including consultations, and employee relations matters, such as internal investigations and disciplinary matters, is required.
• Ability to coordinate investigations in Europe and APAC markets.
• Additional experience in ethical compliance matters, and working with company compliance policies, is preferred.
• Interest and preferentially experience of advising or managing immigration matters.
• Ability to work independently in a fast paced environment.
• Ability to present legal advice in a pragmatic, problem solving and commercial fashion.
• European international languages are preferred.
• Confident, self starter who welcomes the opportunity presented in developing strong relationships.
• Positive “can do” attitude and willingness to work flexibly and as part of an evolving team that is itself operating in a business and sector going through change.

What happens next?

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply below, and we will review your application as soon as possible. You can update your resume or upload a cover letter at any time by accessing your candidate profile.

Condé Nast is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, familial status and other legally protected characteristics.