Employment Counsel

Greencore

Leeds

On-site

GBP 85,000 - 115,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Generous holiday allowance

Matched pension contributions

Life insurance

Sharesave Scheme

Greencore qualifications and learning

Exclusive employee discount platform

Wellbeing Centre access

Enhanced parental leave policies

Enhanced menopause support policies

Job summary

Greencore is seeking an experienced employment law lawyer to provide high-quality, pragmatic advice across a multi-site organisation with UK and Ireland exposure. You will support HR and leadership teams on disciplinary, grievance, restructures and litigation matters, while drafting employment documents and ensuring regulatory compliance.

The role involves guiding on organisational change, TUPE obligations, and managing external counsel.

Qualifications

Qualified solicitor or barrister with UK/Ireland/common law practice.
Member of a law society or bar association.
Strong knowledge of employment law, employee relations, and workplace investigations.
Experience in-house or advising multi-site businesses is desirable.
Able to provide pragmatic, commercially balanced advice in a fast-paced environment.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to explain complex issues to non-legal stakeholders.
Strong stakeholder management; ability to influence and build trust with HR and senior leaders.
Experience managing external advisers and legal spend effectively.
Ability to work autonomously while collaborating within the legal function.

Responsibilities

Provide timely, practical and legally robust advice on employment law matters across the Group.
Manage employment litigation, tribunal claims, ACAS processes and settlements; instruct external counsel when needed.
Draft, review and maintain non-contentious employment documents (contracts, policies, letters, settlement agreements).
Partner with HR on organisational change, acquisitions, disposals and transformation projects; identify risks and mitigations.
Support trade union relations and collective consultation obligations, including TUPE information and engagement.
Monitor developments in employment law and implement relevant changes across jurisdictions.
Design and deliver employment law training and guidance for HR, managers and stakeholders.
Maintain strong relationships with internal teams and external advisers; report on material matters and spend.

Skills

Qualified solicitor

Law society member

Employment law

Employee relations

Employment litigation

Settlement agreements

Organisational change

Workplace investigations

In-house experience

Commercially minded

Communication skills

Stakeholder management

Managing external counsel

Autonomous working

Job description

Why Greencore?

Following the combination with Bakkavor in January 2026, we're one of the UK's leading creators of convenience food, driven by a simple purpose: to make every day taste better.

As a vibrant and fast-moving business, we're proud to employ over 28,000 talented colleagues across 36 manufacturing sites and 21 distribution depots in the UK and the US. Together, we bring delicious food to life. Our products cover every meal occasion from breakfast through to dinner and dessert, with lunch and snacking in between. In FY25, our shared passion helped us achieve combined revenues of approximately £4bn.

Role Purpose:

To provide high quality, pragmatic and commercially focused employment law advice to the Group, working with the Deputy General Counsel and the Legal team, the HR team and wider business stakeholders to manage employment legal risk, support compliance with applicable employment legislation and enable effective people-related decision making across the Group.

Key Accountabilities:

Provide timely, practical and legally robust advice on employment law matters, including disciplinary, grievance, absence, performance management, investigations, restructures, redundancy, TUPE, discrimination, whistleblowing and wider employee relations issues.
Support the management of employment litigation, tribunal claims, ACAS or equivalent processes, settlement negotiations and pre-action correspondence, including drafting contentious documentation (e.g. tribunal responses, without-prejudice correspondence and settlement agreements arising from disputes) and where required/appropriate, instructing and managing external counsel.
Draft, review and maintain non-contentious employment-related documentation, including contracts of employment, policies, procedures, settlement agreements, template letters and guidance materials.
Partner with HR and business teams on organisational change, acquisitions, disposals, integrations and transformation projects, identifying employment law risks and recommending mitigation actions.
Support the HR team with the Group's trade union relations and collective consultation obligations, including collective redundancy consultation, TUPE information and consultation duties, and engagement with recognised trade unions or employee representative bodies.
Monitor employment law developments - including implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025 and other applicable legislation - and support the business in understanding and implementing relevant legal changes across applicable jurisdictions.
Design and deliver employment law training and guidance to HR, managers and business stakeholders to improve capability and reduce legal risk.
Maintain effective relationships with internal stakeholders and external advisers, and provide the Deputy General Counsel with clear, consolidated reporting on material employment matters, trends, risks and external legal spendKnowledge, Skills, Experience:

Knowledge, Skills, Experience:

Qualified solicitor or barrister with experience practising employment law in the UK, Ireland or another common law jurisdiction.
Membership of a relevant law society, bar council or equivalent professional body.
Strong technical knowledge of employment law, employee relations, employment litigation, settlement agreements, organisational change and workplace investigations.
Experience operating in-house or advising complex, multi-site businesses is desirable.
Ability to provide pragmatic, commercially balanced advice in a fast-paced operational environment.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex legal issues clearly to non-legal stakeholders. and draft documentation for contentious and non-contentious employment related matters
Strong stakeholder relationship management skills, including the ability to influence, challenge constructively and build trust with the HR team and senior business leaders.
Experience managing external legal advisers and legal spend effectively.
Ability to work autonomously while collaborating effectively within the legal function and across the wider business.

What You'll Get in Return