Overview
This Senior Corporate Counsel role focuses on attorney ethics and professional responsibility, as well as conflicts of interest guidance and clearance. The position serves 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 attorneys are licensed.
This is a remote position available in any U.S. state where the organization has an office, with the requirement that employees must reside within 60 miles of their designated office location.
Application deadline: September 25, 2026.
Responsibilities
Ethics & Professional Responsibility Advice
- Serve as a senior advisor on attorney ethics and professional responsibility matters, including analysis and guidance on obligations under applicable rules of professional conduct across all jurisdictions where attorneys are licensed 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.
- 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 organization and its lawyers; monitor developments in ethics rules, opinions, and regulatory guidance across relevant jurisdictions; recommend updates to policies, procedures, and practices; and escalate 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.
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)
Preferred Qualifications
- Additional bar admissions
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.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range
- $171,800 to $225,700 annually, depending on factors including geography/market, skills, education, experience, and other qualifications.
- Includes eligibility for performance-based bonuses.
Benefits
Benefits are available to full-time and part-time employees working at least a 50% schedule and include:
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plan for you, your spouse/domestic partner, and children
- 401(k) plan
- Time off programs
- Mental health programs
- Family building and caregiving
- Generous paid parental leave
- Life insurance and disability insurance
- Wellness program
- Flexible spending accounts
- Employee referral bonus program
Location
- Remote position available in any U.S. state where the organization has an office.
- Employees must reside within 60 miles of their designated office location.
Relevant states/regulatory references mentioned in the posting: California, Columbus and Cleveland, OH, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and Washington, DC.