Sr. Corporate Counsel - Ethics & Conflicts - Multiple Locations (Remote)

Littler; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 172,000 - 226,000; Full time

Job summary

Littler seeks a Senior Corporate Counsel - Ethics & Conflicts to serve as a senior advisor on attorney ethics and professional responsibility matters across jurisdictions where Littler lawyers are licensed to practice.

This remote position is available in any U.S. state where Littler has an office, with a requirement that employees reside within 60 miles of their designated office. 10+ years of legal experience and a JD are expected.

Qualifications

• Deep subject matter expertise regarding attorney ethics and professional responsibility.
• Clear ability to research, interpret, and apply ethics rules across jurisdictions.
• Experience advising lawyers and firm leadership on sensitive issues requiring professional judgment.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple time-sensitive matters.

Responsibilities

• Ethics & Professional Responsibility Advice—advise on ethics obligations across jurisdictions and coordinate with leadership and outside counsel.
• Conflicts Advice & Clearance—analyze conflicts, draft waiver letters, and manage ethical walls and onboarding.
• Risk Identification & Cross-Coverage—identify ethics-related risks and provide cross-functional coverage.
• Policies, Guidance & Training—develop and maintain ethics policies and CLE training materials.
• Systems, Governance & Collaboration—maintain records systems and collaborate with IT, CLO Ops and other teams.

Job description

The Senior Corporate Counsel - Ethics & Conflicts will serve as a senior advisor on attorney ethics and professional responsibility matters, including analysis and guidance on obligations arising under applicable rules of professional conduct across all jurisdictions where Littler attorneys are licensed to practice.

This remote position is available in any U.S. state where Littler has an office. Employees must reside within 60 miles of their designated office location. For a full list of Littler offices, please visit: United States | Littler

Pursuant to California, Columbus and Cleveland, OH, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Washington, DC regulation, the salary range for this position is $171,800 to $225,700 annually and includes eligibility for performance-based bonuses. Factors which may affect starting pay within this range may include geography/market, skills, education, experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate. We offer generous compensation and benefits packages. For more information visit: https://www.littler.com/benefits/state-details. The application deadline is September 25, 2026.

Colorado Residents: In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation. You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.

Responsibilities

Ethics & Professional Responsibility Advice

• Serve as a senior advisor on attorney ethics and professional responsibility matters, including analysis and guidance on obligations arising under applicable rules of professional conduct across all jurisdictions where Littler attorneys are license to practice.
• Advise on and handle sensitive professional responsibility matters end-to-end, including competence, confidentiality, candor, supervision, advertising and solicitation, unauthorized or unlicensed practice of law, multijurisdictional practice, lawyers as witnesses, misdirected or inadvertent disclosures, clients in financial distress (including bankruptcy), withdrawal from representation, motions for sanctions (against the firm or that the firm may file), ethics complaints, and internal concerns. Coordinate with senior leadership, outside counsel, and insurers as appropriate.
• Support ethics program operations, including the firm's audit response letter process, ethics review of media, marketing, and business development activity, and coordination with the professional liability (PL) insurance program on ethics matters.

Conflicts Advice & Clearance

• Serve as a senior advisor on conflicts of interest arising from new business intake, lateral hiring, global and cross-border matters, third-party discovery, and evolving client relationships.
• Conduct and oversee conflicts analysis for complex or high-risk matters and advise on appropriate resolution strategies, including clearance determinations, waiver approaches, ethical screens, and withdrawal-related considerations.
• Draft and review conflict waiver letters, informed consent disclosures, and related client communications.
• Provide direction and approval regarding appropriate implementation of ethical walls, including drafting and approval of any necessary communications regarding the same.
• Manage the ethics conflicts aspects of onboarding lateral attorneys and group hiring, integrations, and departures. Partner with Talent and the Conflicts team to identify imputed conflicts early, assess portable matters, design ethical screens and waivers, evaluate withdrawal obligations, and clear candidates and matters on business-critical timelines.

Risk Identification, Escalation & Cross-Coverage

• Identify ethics- and conflicts-related risks and emerging trends affecting the firm and its lawyers; monitor developments in ethics rules, opinions, and regulatory guidance across relevant jurisdictions; recommend updates to firm policies, procedures, and practices; and elevate novel, high-risk, or firmwide issues as appropriate.
• Partner closely with the Associate General Counsel – Ethics and the Associate General Counsel – Conflicts on complex or sensitive matters requiring senior-level judgment or escalation.
• Provide cross-coverage across the ethics and conflicts functions to ensure continuity when team members are unavailable, while maintaining clear ownership and avoiding ambiguity between the two functions.

Policies, Guidance & Training

• Contribute to the development, interpretation, and maintenance of firm policies, playbooks, and guidance addressing ethics, conflicts, intake and engagement practices, ethical walls, and related professional responsibility obligations.
• Support the design and delivery of ethics- and conflicts-focused training and education, including review of CLE programming, onboarding materials, and role-appropriate training for lawyers and administrative staff.

Systems, Governance & Collaboration

• Support the accuracy and integrity of ethics- and conflicts-related systems of record, and partner with CLO Operations and IT to improve workflows and data quality.
• Collaborate with Conflicts Counsel, Ethics Counsel, Compliance, Privacy, Security, CLO Operations, and other corporate teams on cross-functional matters implicating ethics or professional responsibility obligations.

Other Duties

• Perform such other and additional duties as may from time to time be assigned.

Qualifications

• Deep subject matter expertise regarding attorney ethics and professional responsibility, and conflicts of interest principles, applicable to lawyers in a large, multijurisdictional law firm environment.
• Demonstrated ability to research, interpret, and apply the rules of professional conduct and related ethics authorities to complex, real-world fact patterns, and to provide clear, practical, and risk-appropriate advice.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex conflicts fact patterns, including corporate family relationships, competitors, third-party discovery, co-defendants, joint employer issues, requests for indemnification, former clients, and lateral-hire scenarios, and to provide practical, defensible guidance.
• Ability to evaluate engagement risk stemming from ethics- and conflicts-related issues and advise on appropriate resolution strategies, including clearance determinations, waiver approaches, ethical screens, and withdrawal-related considerations.
• Demonstrated skill in explaining nuanced ethics and conflicts analyses clearly and persuasively, both orally and in writing, to practicing lawyers, practice leadership, and firm stakeholders.
• Experience drafting, reviewing, and advising on written materials related to ethics, conflicts, and engagement risk (e.g., waiver letters, informed consent disclosures, guidance, memoranda, and related communications).
• Working knowledge of lateral hire and global conflicts processes, the audit response letter process, and the relevant applicable professional responsibility rules.
• Demonstrated familiarity with and openness to leveraging AI-driven and emerging technologies, with the aptitude to apply them effectively to enhance efficiency, client service, and legal work product, in a risk-appropriate manner.
• Strong organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple time-sensitive matters simultaneously, prioritize competing demands, and exercise sound judgment under pressure.
• Effective collaboration skills, including the ability to work closely with internal and external ethics and conflicts counsel, senior leadership, CLO Operations, IT, and other corporate teams on cross-functional risk matters.

Required

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS:

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school; licensed and in good standing. Must reside in state where admitted.
• Admission to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction (active or eligible for waiver)

Experience Required

• Minimum of 10 years of legal experience, with substantive experience addressing attorney ethics, professional responsibility, conflicts of interest, or engagement risk in a large law firm or similarly complex legal environment.
• Prior experience practicing in or advising a law firm, with demonstrated understanding of law firm operations, client engagement structures, and professional responsibility obligations.
• Experience advising practicing lawyers or firm leadership on sensitive or complex issues requiring professional judgment, discretion, and risk awareness.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently across both ethics and conflicts matters, while escalating novel, high-risk, or firmwide issues to senior legal leadership as appropriate.
• Demonstrated readiness, or clear potential, to assume a senior leadership role over the ethics or conflicts function.

About Littler

Littler is the largest global employment and labor law practice in the world exclusively devoted to representing management. With more than 1,900 attorneys in over 100 offices worldwide, Littler serves as the single source solution provider to the global employer community. Consistently recognized in the industry as a leading and innovative law practice, Littler has been litigating, mediating and negotiating some of the most influential employment law cases and labor contracts on record for over 75 years.

We offer a generous benefits package to full-time and part-time employees working at least a 50% schedule. For more information about our benefits visit: www.littler.com/benefits/state-details

For questions regarding this opportunity, please e-mail Amy Langan at [e-mail].

Littler Mendelson is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

This job posting is a general description of the types of responsibilities that are required of an individual in this job. It is not intended to be a complete list of the responsibilities, duties and skills that may be required for this job.