European Employment and Data Privacy Counsel

Our client is a global industrial company operating in over 40 countries with over 10,000 associates serving a wide variety of industries. The company builds machines that build machines, is acquisitive, and they do great work with an outstanding corporate culture. The legal team is growing and is looking for an EU qualified data privacy and employment lawyer to support continued growth in EMEA. As Senior Counsel – Data Protection & Employment, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to serve as counsel for the company's global privacy and data protection program goals and employment law compliance obligations in the EU. You will report to the Global Labor & Employment Counsel based in the US, but you will be located in Germany, Switzerland, or France (travel approximately 2 days per week to a company office may be necessary). This will be the first such person to take on this role with the company for the EMEA region.

On the employment side, this role will primarily focus on supporting Germany and France, with support to other jurisdictions as and when required. On the data protection side, you will work directly with key members of the global business and legal teams around the world on a variety of data protection program initiatives and cutting-edge projects, growing and managing internal resources reporting to you as needed in order to provide: privacy assessments, privacy compliance oversight, unified auditing frameworks and HR and IT systems across the company, and advice regarding privacy aspects of corporate acquisitions. This is both a hands-on and strategic role that will have the opportunity to demonstrate innovative thought leadership while solving challenging and interesting issues. You will work with outside counsel as well as internal staff.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

• Advise on the full range of employment matters, including but not limited to recruiting, hiring, terminations, performance management, leaves of absence, compensation and benefits, employee privacy, issues arising from corporate acquisitions, collective bargaining agreements, works council and other labor relations matters, and diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Develop, maintain and improve the Global Data Protection Management/Privacy Program, particularly related to compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Oversee and conduct investigations in collaboration with the Ethics and Compliance Department, HR, and IT on employee, privacy, and cybersecurity matters
• Handle and resolve privacy and/or employment claims, administrative complaints, and litigation, including the management of outside counsel
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on a variety of legal matters and company initiatives
• Participate in creation and delivery of training on employment and privacy topics
• Assist with the design and evaluation of complex global projects, particularly for HR, IT and Marketing, the submission of corresponding implementation recommendations, the preparation of sample documents as well as other broad tasks related to global privacy/data protection management
• Advise and participate on cybersecurity incident response teams

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• This position will have supervisory responsibilities over internal resources necessary to drive and implement the day-to-day functions of the data privacy systems you help implement, as well as over outside counsel retained to assist with both the employment law and data privacy functions of the position.

Education:

Law degree (J.D., Volljurist or equivalent combination of work and education)

Skills/Experience:

• Fully qualified in at least one EU jurisdiction
• 5-7 years of relevant legal experience across a variety of jurisdictions
• Significant prior experience with data protection/privacy law, preferably with demonstrated experience designing and implementing EMEA-wide data protection programs; experience with global privacy laws (including China and the U.S. at a corporation operating globally) would be a plus factor
• Deep understanding of legal, technical and organizational data protection in practice and can develop clear and pragmatic recommendations for implementation for those responsible
• Prior experience supporting cross-border transactions
• Familiarity with German and French employment law, including advising on works council matters, with a willingness to develop knowledge in new jurisdictions
• Fluent in German and English; French language skills would be a plus
• Cybersecurity experience would be a plus
• Demonstrated judgment, personal integrity, discretion regarding confidential matters, and interpersonal skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong client relation skills with experience interacting with all levels of corporate management
• Excellent legal and business judgment; ability to think creatively about unique issues
• Ability to operate successfully in a fast-paced environment that places a high premium on excellence, execution, and teamwork
• Ability to work independently with little guidance, but also to use good judgment and call out issues when needed
• Willingness to travel

Travel: Up to 15% travel may be required.

Physical Demands
To perform this job successfully, the physical demands listed are representative of those that must be met by an employee. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee will regularly be required to sit, stand, walk, use hands to handle and feel, reach with hands and arms, talk and hear. The employee may occasionally be required to crouch. The employee may occasionally lift items as heavy as 25lbs. Specific vision abilities may include the employee’s ability to see near and far distances.
DISCLAIMER: The above information on this job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by the employee within this classification. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of any employee assigned to this job. Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.