Senior Employment Counsel

INTRODUCTION

At Burberry, our people and culture underpin how we deliver for our customers and our brand. We are building a high‑performance culture that encourages creativity and collaboration, and enables colleagues to do their best work. 

Guided by our reimagined purpose, To Embrace the Elements with Open Arms, we bring together diverse perspectives, skills and expertise to create exceptional luxury products and experiences. Our purpose also informs the standards of behaviour we expect, how we lead and how we make decisions across the business.

JOB PURPOSE

The Burberry Legal team operates at the heart of this vibrant, creative and forward-thinking FTSE-listed organisation, partnering with stakeholders across the business to support strategic priorities, manage risk and enable growth.

As a key member of the Employment Legal team, this role provides strategic and practical employment law support across the UK and EMEIA. The successful candidate will serve as a trusted adviser to HR and senior business leaders, helping to shape decision-making on complex workforce issues, organisational change and employee relations matters.

This is a 12-month fixed-term contract (covering parental leave), based in our office 4 days a week, with 1 day of remote flexibility.

RESPONSIBILITIES

We are looking for an experienced, technically excellent and pragmatic employment lawyer who can lead complex employee relations matters and provide commercially focused legal advice across a broad range of employment law issues in the UK and EMEIA.

The role will include: 

• Providing clear, commercially focused advice to HR across the employment lifecycle, including hiring, performance, grievances, disciplinary matters, investigations, disputes and exits.
• Supporting the delivery of organisational change and cross-border projects, including reorganisations.
• Advising on senior appointments, promotions and negotiated exits.
• Managing employment litigation in the UK and EMEIA, including case and settlement strategy and oversight of external counsel.
• Supporting Burberry's readiness for the Employment Rights Act reforms and other strategic people-related projects across EMEIA, translating legal developments into practical guidance and partnering with stakeholders to implement change effectively.
• Contributing to the continuous improvement of legal processes, templates, training and knowledge-sharing.
• Managing external legal advisers and legal spend effectively.

PERSONAL PROFILE

The successful candidate will:

• Have strong UK employment law expertise, with experience supporting employment matters across EMEIA jurisdictions and working effectively with local counsel.
• Be able to operate autonomously with minimal supervision and provide advice directly to senior stakeholders.
• Have experience supporting organisational change programmes and delivering practical solutions to complex workforce challenges. 
• Demonstrate excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Be commercially minded, with sound judgement and the ability to translate legal risk into clear, practical recommendations.
• Be organised and resilient, with the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Have experience managing external advisers and external legal spend.

Behaviours:

• Technical excellence and commercial judgement

Demonstrates strong technical legal skills, excellent judgement and the ability to provide practical, commercially focused advice.

• Bring Clarity

Provides clear, pragmatic and commercially focused advice, enabling stakeholders to make informed decisions and manage risk effectively. 

• Create Connection

Builds trusted relationships across HR, Legal and the wider business, collaborating effectively across functions and geographies to achieve positive outcomes.

Burberry is an Equal Opportunities Employer and as such, treats all applications equally and recruits purely on the basis of skills and experience. We are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace and providing an accessible recruitment process. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the application or recruitment process, please let us know.