Employment Legal Counsel

Parity is one of the world’s most experienced core blockchain infrastructure companies, having built and pioneered some of the most advanced technologies in the blockchain sector
Parity was founded by Dr
Gavin Wood, co-founder and former CTO of Ethereum, the primary engineer behind the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), inventor of the Solidity programming language, and primary author of the Ethereum Yellowpaper

Based in Berlin, London, and Lisbon with over 500 employees/non-contingent workers  worldwide, Parity has built clients for Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Zcash and has pioneered a completely new, next-generation blockchain protocol with Polkadot and the framework it’s built with, Substrate
Parity builds the open-source technologies needed to power an unstoppable, decentralised web—known as Web3—and helps developers and organisations implement and build upon the Web3 tech stack

About the team:

The legal team advises and supports Parity across all of the business
We are a fun hardworking team of 4 lawyers, 1 Trainee lawyer and 1 paralegal headed up by the General Counsel (Chrissy Hill)
The work of the team is varied and challenging supporting a fast moving business which is growing rapidly
We currently have legal entities in UK, Germany and Portugal and are in the process of  establishing an entity in Singapore

About the position:

Reporting to the Senior Employment  Legal Counsel  (based in the UK) the Employment  Legal Counsel provides proactive legal support to all areas of the business  and is responsible for the following:

• Supporting and advising  the People Teams in Parity with all employment legal matters with a primary focus on Germany 
• The role will be based in Germany with remote working possible and the opportunity to work from our Berlin office (where part of the legal  and people teams are based)
• Proactively engaging  with People, Recruitment and other teams in supporting in the growth of the company as it expands internationally
• Advising on the full range of employment legal issues both contentious and non contentious including recruitment,  diversity and inclusion, restrictive covenants, terminations, grievances, discrimination, non contingent workers, contract negotiations, settlement agreements, employee relations, Acquired Rights Directive, Whistleblowing and restructuring, human rights
  
• The focus of the role will be on supporting  the German business but willing to support more broadly in EU and other jurisdictions including Singapore
• Reporting to the Senior Employment Legal Counsel supporting with employment legal projects collaboratively with key stakeholders review of employment contracts, business and people policies, setting up a whistleblowing helpline/process to ensure compliance with  EU Whistleblowing Directive 
• Instructing external legal counsel as required particularly in relation to employment legal projects
• Assisting in the management of employment litigation in support of the Senior Employment legal counsel,  instructing external legal counsel as required and liaising with internal stakeholders
• Advising on GDPR in relation to employment matters and support with the management of Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR’s)
• Delivering  and/or organising ad hoc training for the People teams as required including informal workshops sessions
• Horizon scanning for changes in employment legislation in relevant jurisdictions 

About you:

• Qualified in Germany you are 2-5 years pqe employment lawyer  preferably with some in-house experience (through a secondment, working in house or previous commercial experience)
• You have good quality training and experience in a German or international law firm and are keen to learn and develop your  employment legal career in an international business which is expanding rapidly
• Proactive in your approach you are commercially aware and able to provide risk-based and solution orientated advice in a fast moving environment
• You are keen to take more responsibility in a supportive environment and develop your knowledge and experience in an international environment 
• You enjoy and have experience of working proactively across a range of matters and projects in a fast paced and unstructured environment
• You have excellent communication skills and have experience of developing effective working relationships at all levels and across all functions
• You enjoy working in a small team and have  a good sense of humour

About working for us:

For everyone who joins us:

• Competitive remuneration packages, including tokens (where legally possible), based on iterative market research
• Remote-first, global working environment with flexible hours
• Collaborative, fast-paced, and self-initiating culture, designed to mimic an open source workflow
• Energising and collaborative team and company retreats all over the world
• Opportunity to learn more about Web3 while on the job, with access to some of the brightest minds in this space; we have plenty of educational initiatives such as internal sessions, all-hands, AMAs, hackathons, etc
  
• Teammates who are genuinely excited about their job, impact, and Parity’s mission

• The role will be based in Germany with remote working possible and the opportunity to work from our Berlin office (where part of the legal  and people teams are based) There is an opportunity to relocate to Germany if required
  

For those joining us as employees in Germany, Portugal, or the U
K
:

• 28 paid vacation days per year
• Work laptop (macOS or Linux-based) and equipment to enable you to work successfully
• £2,500 yearly learning and development budget for conferences or courses of your choice

Not a perfect match to our requirements? We’re still excited to receive your application and hear how you think you can help us achieve our mission

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