Compliance Senior Counsel

Senior Counsel, Employment Law - Mars Veterinary Health

Los Angeles, CA, Full time

As part of the Mars Petcare family of businesses, Mars Veterinary Health is a global network of veterinary practices made possible by 75,000 Associates who care for millions of pets across nearly 3,000 clinics in more than 20 countries each year. We are committed to leveraging our reach to make a long‑term positive impact on people, pets, and the planet and know our Purpose – A BETTER WORLD FOR PETS – starts with the people who care for them. This role requires Associate to work out of a MVH Hub location in Santa Monica, CA.

The Senior Counsel, Employment Law supports Mars Veterinary Health’s (MVH) business units in North America. This role is part of the MVH Legal function’s regional Employment Law Center of Excellence & Deployment (CoE&D), a collaborative pool of legal resources designed to flexibly support business needs, balance workload across the team, and provide responsive, high‑impact employment law guidance across multiple business lines and jurisdictions, including outside the United States with the assistance of local counsel.

The Senior Counsel, Employment Law advises on a wide range of employment and labor‑related issues and strategic workforce matters, including employment agreements, restrictive covenants, policy development, administrative claims, litigation (single party and class action), and other dispute management, associate relations, and professional licensing and liability matters.

Provide proactive legal counsel to People & Organization (P&O) and business leaders to support day‑to‑day decision‑making and workforce strategy development across Banfield, BluePearl, and VCA, covering a broad spectrum of employment and labor law issues including performance management, investigations, terminations, discrimination, wage & hour compliance, accommodations, leaves, I&D, and professional licensing and liability matters (e.g., Advise on employment litigation and pre‑litigation matters, including responding to agency charges, internal complaints, and managing outside counsel.

Contribute to the development, implementation, and maintenance of employment policies, handbooks, and training materials tailored to the North American workforce as well as conduct trainings with the P&O teams.

Stay current with and communicate changes in federal, state, provincial, and local employment laws across North America; Collaborate with global Legal colleagues across MVH and greater Mars to align North American practices with global employment law strategies and policies.

Provide legal guidance in connection with workforce changes, including restructuring/severance, acquisitions, divestitures, and related integration activities.

Partner with P&O on immigration matters. Supervise outside attorney preparation of employment‑based immigration petitions, prepare, review and file PERM applications and provide support to P&O in preparing PERM recruitment documentation.

Participate in and/or lead cross‑functional projects, sharing knowledge and insights with peers across Legal (including risk and regulatory compliance), P&O, and operational teams.

Mentor more junior attorneys or Legal staff as needed.

Juris Doctor (JD) from an ABA‑accredited law school and admission to practice law in the United States.

8+ years of experience practicing employment law preferred, with a significant portion spent as in‑house counsel in a large, matrixed, or multi‑unit organization.

S. federal and state employment laws; labor law and Canadian employment law experience strongly preferred.

Proven ability to manage multiple complex legal issues simultaneously while maintaining responsiveness in a dynamic business environment.

Experience in employment litigation management, investigations, and proactive risk mitigation.

P&O, Legal, and Operations) and greater Mars.

Comfortable working in an environment of shifting priorities and shared resource allocation.

Competitive salary with paid time off & holidays so you can spend time with the people you love.

Medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your loved ones.

Fertility and family‑building assistance.

Practice paid basic life insurance.

Practice paid short‑ and long‑term disability.

Legal plan.

Health savings account & flexible spending account.

Student debt relief (for full‑time DVMs).

Ability to work at a computer for long periods of time.

Must have mental processes for reasoning, remembering, mathematics and language ability (reading, writing, and speaking the English language) to perform the duties proficiently.

Mars Veterinary Health (MVH)® strongly supports and values the uniqueness of all individuals and promotes a work environment where diversity is embraced. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with disability. MVH complies with all applicable federal, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every MVH location.

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