Location: Oak Ridge, TN
Job Title: Deputy General Counsel and Employment Attorney
Career Level: Director
Job Specialty: Legal General
What You'll Do
This position is for an attorney with counseling, investigative, negotiation, litigation, and leadership skills who has experience representing employers as employment or labor counsel. The attorney will provide daily legal support and advice to Human Resources professionals and senior business managers on a broad array of employment and labor issues in support of CNS’s management and operation of the Y-12 National Security Complex and its 9,000-person workforce. This will include litigation in various forums and both supervising outside counsel and handling matters in-house. In addition, the attorney must be able to deliver real-time legal advice in the context of the company’s strategic mission and business objectives and operational concerns. The attorney will also, at appropriate times, assume a supervisory role in the Legal Department and a leadership role in the company.
Primary Responsibilities
- Defend the company against employment claims
- Prepare responsive pleadings and, when necessary, edit and revise outside counsel drafts of such pleadings
- Represent clients at trials, labor arbitrations, mediations, and depositions
- Direct outside counsel while developing and overseeing litigation strategy
- Review the results of investigations into ethical issues and employee concerns and advise on the appropriate course of action
- Draft responses to EEOC Charges and inquiries by other federal and state agencies
- Develop rapport with Legal Department peers, company leadership, HR, supervisors, managers, and other internal stakeholders to proactively identify risks and strategies to mitigate those risks and avoid formal legal disputes
- Provide proactive representation of CNS to DOE/NNSA
- Review CNS’s labor and employment policies and provide recommendations for their enforcement and improvement
- Create and conduct HR training programs
- Assist the General Counsel with projects as needed
- Be prepared to assume a supervisory role in the Legal Department
What You Can Expect
- Meaningful work and unique opportunities to support missions vital to national and global security
- Top-notch, dedicated colleagues
- Generous pay and benefits with a stable organization
- Career advancement and professional development programs
- Work-life balance fostered through flexible work options and wellness initiatives
Minimum Job Requirements
- Juris Doctor from an ABA-accredited law school. Minimum 8 years of relevant experience. Minimum 5 years of relevant supervisory/ management experience.
- Licensed to practice law in at least one state and must be admitted, or able to be admitted, to the Tennessee Bar
- Strong working knowledge of the procedural rules and substantive laws in labor and employment, i.e., familiarity with federal court practice, as well as practicing before the EEOC, DOL, and other federal, state, and local government administrative agencies, and before arbitrators selected under collective bargaining agreements
- Litigation experience, including preparing and filing responsive pleadings, conducting depositions, engaging in discovery with an understanding of and ability to manage electronic discovery, and drafting and opposing motions for summary judgment
- Experience in preparing for negotiations, conducting negotiations, and counseling a client regarding developments and options in a negotiation
- Knowledge of the rules governing the practice of law, the ability to recognize and resolve ethical issues, and a commitment to strictly adhere to the rules of professional conduct
- Excellent analytical and writing skills (candidates who are invited to interview must provide recent samples of their written work product)
- Effective interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills
Preferred Job Requirements
- Familiarity with M&O contracting
- In-courtroom experience with hearings, arbitrations, motions, appeals, or trials
- Experience working in a heavily regulated or audited environment
- Experience providing support to an organization that provides goods and services to the U.S. Government
- Experience actively negotiating in alternative dispute resolution
- Experience developing and presenting briefings and trainings to employees and managers
- Experience delegating to and effectively utilizing legal staff
- Management experience
- Both the ability for, and an interest in, learning new areas of law, taking on other duties as assigned, and demonstrating flexibility
- Ability to work independently as appropriate
- Ability to travel as needed
Why Y-12?
You get #morethanajob. We encourage employees to achieve a healthy personal balance among home, work and the community. One of the ways we embrace work-life balance is by offering flexible work arrangements that provide alternatives to the traditional workweek, while still meeting business needs. Top talent and personal commitment mean more to our success than any other factors, so we reward our people with the kinds of benefits that make a positive difference in the quality of their lives. Benefits such as: medical plan, prescription drug plan, vision plan, dental plan, employer matched 401(k) savings plan, disability coverage, education reimbursement and many more. Want to stay healthy and fit but hate the cost of a gym membership? Take advantage of one of our onsite workout facilities and eat healthy in our onsite cafeterias. Much more than a workplace, at Y-12, you can build a career that lasts a lifetime.
Notes
The minimum education and experience for the lowest career level in the job posting range are listed under Minimum Job Requirements. Successful candidates hired into a higher career level than the minimum in the range must meet the requirements listed in the job leveling charts for the career level into which they are being hired.
If a range of Career Levels is posted, i.e., Senior Associate to Senior Specialist, internal applicants already in one of the Career Levels would come across at their current Career Level. Internal applicants currently in a lower level Career Level would move to the lowest posted Career Level.
Requires a Q clearance; however all qualified candidates will be considered regardless of their current clearance status. The ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Energy Q clearance is required.
This position may require entry into the Material Access Areas (MAA) and participation in the Human Reliability Program (10 C.F.R. Part 712), which requires successful competition of a DOE counterintelligence evaluation and may include a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination.
This position may be categorized as a “designated position” identified by 10 C.F.R. Part 709, requiring successful completion of a DOE counterintelligence evaluation that may include a counterintelligence-scope polygraph examination.
CNS is a drug-free workplace. Candidates accepting a job offer will be required to pass a pre-placement physical, drug screening and background investigation. As an employee, you may be required to receive and maintain a security clearance from the United States Department of Energy in order to meet eligibility requirements for access to sensitive information or matter. U.S. citizenship is a requirement for security clearance applicants. All employees are subject to being randomly selected for drug testing without advance notification.
CNS is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment based on merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, protected veteran status or disability.
