Senior Employment Counsel

Hiscox · London

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Senior Employment Counsel

The Role

This is a senior legal business partner role within the Hiscox Legal team, reporting to the Group General Counsel.

The successful candidate will serve as the lead employment lawyer for Hiscox, providing commercially focused legal advice on employment, labour relations, workforce change, employee relations, investigations and people-related risk across the Group.

The role combines strategic advisory work with hands-on support for complex and sensitive employment matters. The successful candidate will work closely with senior leaders in Human Resources, business leadership, Risk, Compliance and local legal teams to support good decision-making, protect the business and enable Hiscox to manage its workforce in a fair, compliant and commercially effective way.

The role requires excellent legal judgement, strong stakeholder management skills, discretion, resilience and the ability to balance legal rigour with pace, pragmatism and sensitivity across multiple jurisdictions.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnering

• Act as a trusted legal adviser to the Group General Counsel, Chief People Officer, people leadership and senior business stakeholders on employment law and workforce-related matters.
• Provide commercially pragmatic legal advice which supports strategic decision-making and helps manage employment, conduct, regulatory and reputational risk.
• Support significant people-related projects, including organisational design, restructuring, transformation, senior hiring and exits, workplace investigations and cross-border workforce initiatives.
• Influence and shape business outcomes through proactive engagement, clear risk analysis and solution-oriented legal support.

Employment Law Advisory

• Advise on the full range of employment law matters, including employee relations, disciplinary and grievance issues, performance management, sickness absence, reasonable adjustments, whistleblowing, discrimination, harassment, restrictive covenants and settlement agreements.
• Advise on senior executive employment arrangements, departures, severance, garden leave, confidentiality, post-termination restrictions and related governance considerations.
• Support the business and HR teams on legally sensitive people matters requiring careful judgement, confidentiality and clear documentation.
• Provide practical guidance that balances legal risk, employee fairness, regulatory expectations and commercial objectives.

Workforce Change and International Support

• Lead legal support for restructurings, reorganisations, redundancy programmes, transfers and other workforce change initiatives.
• Advise on cross-border employment matters, working with local legal colleagues and external counsel where required.
• Support consistency of employment law advice across the Group while recognising local legal, regulatory and cultural requirements.
• Help senior stakeholders manage people risk arising from acquisitions, integrations, disposals, outsourcing and business transformation.

• Investigations, Litigation and Disputes
• Advise on internal investigations, whistleblowing matters, conduct concerns and other sensitive employee issues.
• Manage employment disputes, threatened claims and litigation, including instructing and supervising external counsel where appropriate.
• Support preparation of legally privileged advice, investigation plans, witness materials, settlement strategy and risk assessments.
• Identify themes and lessons learned from disputes and investigations, and work with stakeholders to reduce future risk.

Policy, Governance and Regulatory Alignment

• Advise on employment-related policies, procedures, templates and guidance, ensuring they remain legally compliant, practical and aligned with Hiscox values.
• Monitor legal and regulatory developments affecting employment law and workforce governance, translating them into practical guidance for HR and the business.
• Support employment-related aspects of regulatory, governance and culture matters, including conduct, accountability, whistleblowing, diversity and inclusion, and workplace behaviour.
• Contribute to training and awareness for HR, managers and legal colleagues on key employment law and people risk topics.

Legal Operations and Team Contribution

• Drive continuous improvement in the delivery of employment law support, including use of templates, playbooks, triage processes, AI tools and external counsel management.
• Optimise use of external counsel and legal service providers, ensuring cost discipline, quality and appropriate escalation of sensitive matters.
• Promote collaboration, knowledge sharing and best practice across the global Legal function and people teams.
• Support and mentor colleagues within the Legal team where appropriate.

Role Scope

• Lead employment law support for significant, sensitive and cross-border people matters.
• Manage a diverse portfolio of complex employment law and workforce risk matters with substantial autonomy.
• Act as employment law subject matter expert within the Hiscox Legal team.
• Build trusted relationships with people team, senior management, Risk, Compliance and local legal teams.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of the Legal function and its operating model.

Reporting Relationships

• Reports to the Group General Counsel.
• Acts as the lead employment law adviser to the Group General Counsel, People leadership and senior business stakeholders.
• Works closely with People, Risk, Compliance, Privacy, Finance and local legal teams.
• Manages relationships with external employment law advisers and other relevant legal service providers.
• Supports and develops more junior legal colleagues where appropriate.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Qualified solicitor or equivalent lawyer with significant post-qualification experience.
• Strong employment law experience, ideally gained through a combination of private practice and in-house roles.
• Experience advising on complex employee relations, senior exits, investigations, whistleblowing, discrimination, harassment, restructurings and employment disputes.
• Experience providing pragmatic legal advice to HR and senior business stakeholders on sensitive and confidential people matters.
• Strong understanding of employment litigation risk, settlement strategy and dispute resolution.
• Experience supporting international or cross-border employment matters, including management of external counsel.
• Experience working within financial services, insurance or another regulated or complex corporate environment.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and provide commercially focused legal advice.
• Excellent communication, negotiation and relationship-management skills.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage competing priorities effectively.
• Sound judgement, discretion, resilience and a pragmatic approach to risk management.

Desirable

• Knowledge of insurance, financial services regulation or conduct-related employment issues.
• Experience advising on senior manager accountability, culture or conduct matters in a regulated environment.
• Experience supporting large-scale transformation, restructuring or integration programmes.
• Experience leading policy improvement, employment law training or legal process improvement initiatives.

Personal Attributes

Successful candidates will:

• Demonstrate the Hiscox values of Humanity, Integrity, Courage, Ownership and Connection in the way they work and make decisions.
• Combine strong technical employment law capability with practical commercial judgement.
• Exercise discretion, sensitivity and sound judgement in complex people matters.
• Build trusted relationships across functions, geographies and levels of seniority.
• Take ownership of outcomes and operate with a high degree of accountability.
• Provide constructive challenge while maintaining a collaborative and solutions-focused approach.
• Communicate clearly, calmly and persuasively, including in sensitive or high-pressure situations.
• Be resilient, adaptable and comfortable operating in a fast-paced and evolving environment.

About Hiscox

As an international specialist insurer, we are far removed from the world of mass market insurance products. Instead, we are selective and focus on our key areas of expertise and strength - all of which is underpinned by a culture that encourages us to challenge convention and always look for a better way of doing things.

We ensure the unique and the interesting. And we search for the same when it comes to talented people. Hiscox is full of smart, reliable human beings that look out for customers and each other. We believe in doing the right thing, making good and rebuilding when things go wrong.

Everyone is encouraged to think creatively, challenge the status quo and look for solutions.

Scratch beneath the surface and you will find a business that is solid, but slightly contrary. We like to do things differently and constantly seek to evolve. We might have been around for a long time (our roots go back to 1901), but we are young in many ways, ambitious and going places.

Some people might say insurance is dull, but life at Hiscox is anything but. If that sounds good to you, get in touch.

Diversity and flexible working at Hiscox

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job, and we are committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success.

Working life does not always have to be in the office so we have introduced hybrid working to encourage a healthy work life balance.

This hybrid working model is set by the team rather than the business to enable you to manage your own personal work-life balance. We see it as the best of both worlds; structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

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