Lead Counsel, Employment & Litigation

Menlo Ventures; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Solace is seeking a Head of Employment & Litigation to guide pragmatic employment strategy and manage litigation across the organization. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, you will oversee the docket, craft scalable policies, and partner with leaders to scale the workforce with compliant processes.

We value practical, risk-aware counsel who can draft agreements, lead changes, and build a proactive employment program across all states.

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership.
• 9–12+ years of employment and litigation experience, in-house preferred.
• Pragmatic instincts with the ability to weigh risk against velocity and land on real answers.
• Experience building policy from scratch rather than simply enforcing existing rules.
• Track record managing outside counsel and litigation budgets across a distributed, multi-state workforce.

Responsibilities

• Provide pragmatic employment advice and manage litigation across the organization.
• Oversee the litigation docket and build scalable employment policies.
• Draft employment agreements, offer letters, separation agreements, and recruitment templates.
• Run periodic audits of employment policies and practices to identify areas of risk.
• Manage outside counsel relationships and litigation budgets.
• Build dispute-prevention infrastructure such as arbitration agreements and severance protocols.

Skills

Pragmatic instincts

Policy development

Legal risk management

Education

JD, accredited law school

Tools

Outside counsel management

Job description

About Solace

Healthcare in the U.S. is fundamentally broken. The system is so complex that 88% of U.S. adults do not have the health literacy necessary to navigate it without help. Solace cuts through the red tape of healthcare by pairing patients with expert advocates and giving them the tools to make better decisions—and get better outcomes.

We're a Series C startup, founded in 2022 and backed by Inspired Capital, Craft Ventures, Torch Capital, Menlo Ventures, Signalfire, and IVP. Our U.S. based team is lean, mission-driven, and growing quickly.

Solace isn't a place to coast. We're here to redefine healthcare—and that demands urgency, precision, and heart. If you're looking to stretch yourself, sharpen your edge, and do the best work of your life alongside a team that cares deeply, you're in the right place. We’re intense, and we like it that way.

Read more in our Bloomberg funding announcement here.

About the Role

Solace is operating across all 50 states, growing fast, and building a workforce that doesn't fit neatly into a traditional employment framework. We are also reaching a scale where we need a strong leader to prevent and, when necessary, resolve the wide range of disputes that are likely to arise. As Head of Employment & Litigation, you'll provide pragmatic employment advice and manage litigation matters across the organization. This isn't a role for someone who wants to sit back and issue-spot. Reporting to the Chief Legal Officer, you'll give real-time, practical advice to people leaders and executives, directly oversee our litigation docket, and build employment policies that scale with a company adding headcount every month.

What You'll Do

• Be a thought leader and deliver pragmatic guidance on a wide range of labor and employment issues, including recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, wage and hour laws, leaves of absence, disability accommodations, pay practices, contingent workers, HR policies and procedures, performance management, investigations, terminations, and labor relations.

• Design and deliver practical employment-law training for managers and people teams, from manager onboarding to targeted sessions on high-risk areas like terminations, accommodations, and investigations.

• Work with functional leaders, including the Head of People, to build and maintain the employment policies and programs that let Solace scale including handbooks, leave policies, accommodation processes, termination protocols, and the state-by-state nuance underneath all of it.

• Draft employment agreements, offer letters, separation agreements, and the templates recruiting and people teams use every day.

• Run periodic audits of employment policies and practices to identify areas of risk before they develop into bigger problems.

• Track employment law changes and enforcement trends across states, and translate what matters to the people who need to act on it.

• Own Solace’s full range of issues, disputes, and litigation from end-to-end including demand letters, subpoenas, agency requests, and everything that follows.

• Manage outside counsel relationships and litigation budgets across all active matters, ensuring consistent strategy and cost discipline.

• Build a dispute-prevention infrastructure–arbitration agreements, class-action waivers, and exit and severance protocols–designed to keep disputes out of litigation.

• Partner with HR and business leaders to spot early warning signs across complaints, investigations, and exits, and drive corrective action before claims are filed.

What You Bring

• JD from an accredited law school and active bar membership in good standing.

• 9-12+ years of employment and litigation experience, with in-house experience being strongly preferred.

• Pragmatic instincts with the ability to weigh risk against velocity and land on real answers, not hedges.

• Experience building policy from scratch rather than simply enforcing what already exists.

• Track record managing outside counsel and litigation budgets across a distributed, multi-state workforce.

• Healthcare, marketplace, or other regulated-industry experience is a plus, not a requirement.

Applicants must be based in the United States.

Up for the Challenge?

We look forward to meeting you.

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