Workforce-Litigation Portfolio Recovery Leader

The mandate

Employment claims arise from productions, corporate teams and acquired digital businesses, but the portfolio is organised by outside law firm rather than allegation, workforce model or control cause. Wage-and-time matters, discrimination complaints, contract disputes and agency demands use inconsistent exposure assumptions and evidence repositories. Similar facts receive different settlement and remediation approaches, while production leaders learn of systemic issues only after another claim. The employment-law head has taken extended leave, creating a temporary executive gap in case strategy and prevention accountability.

The first thirty days require a privileged portfolio census covering forum, claimant population, allegation, employment model, facts, deadlines, counsel, insurer, reserve input, evidence status and related internal remedy. By day sixty, the leader must identify linked cases, inconsistent positions, preservation gaps, counsel duplication and control failures requiring immediate business action. The first ninety-day window must establish decision-ready case reviews and a board risk view without disclosing privileged strategy beyond legitimate recipients.

Decision rights include assigning approved counsel within existing panels, setting case plans and budgets, requiring factual owners, directing preservation through authorised processes and escalating protective workplace measures. The interim may approve procedural decisions and spend within delegated thresholds. Settlement, admissions, regulatory submissions, employee discipline, insurer coverage positions, public statements and litigation positions reserved by counsel or committees remain outside the role’s authority.

The recovery must create permanent coordination between employment legal and people operations. The leader will recruit or prepare the permanent portfolio head, establish claim-to-control feedback and observe the successor lead two significant case reviews plus one board reporting cycle. Handover will identify imminent deadlines, settlement authorities, insurer notices, witness risks, evidence constraints, linked allegations, systemic remedies and counsel commitments, with privilege markings and access rules tested.

The remit excludes acting as counsel of record, offering advice where not licensed, conducting covert investigations, determining discipline, promising settlement, altering evidence and using litigation strategy to deter protected reporting. The leader cannot classify every complainant as an adversary or delay workplace remedy until legal proceedings end. Courts, agencies, licensed counsel, insurers and authorised employment decision-makers retain their powers.

Why this seat is open

The leave created a leadership gap while active deadlines and workplace risks continue across short-lived productions and permanent offices. Outside firms manage individual matters but are not accountable for portfolio consistency or internal prevention. A fixed-term executive can restore privilege-aware governance, make bounded case decisions and transfer an integrated portfolio to a permanent leader.

What you will own

• Build the privileged claims census across facts, forum, population, deadlines, counsel, insurer, evidence, authority and remedy.
• Identify linked allegations, inconsistent positions, repeated managers, workforce models, pay practices and production environments.
• Establish case plans, budgets, factual ownership, preservation, witness protection, decision calendars and reporting boundaries.
• Calibrate outside counsel on strategy, staffing, spend, precedent, privilege, insurer obligations and business remediation.
• Connect substantiated control themes to employee-relations, payroll, production and policy owners without compromising cases.
• Produce board portfolio views separating legal exposure, workforce harm, operational recurrence, uncertainty and reserved decisions.
• Transfer case governance, counsel commitments, control actions, privilege rules and live reviews to permanent leadership.

Candidate qualifications

• Has led a substantial employment-litigation or workforce-claims portfolio across multiple business models and jurisdictions.
• Understands wage, discrimination, retaliation, contract, agency, privilege, preservation, insurance and settlement governance.
• Can coordinate licensed counsel while maintaining executive ownership of facts, budget, workforce remedy and prevention.
• Has identified systemic people-control failures across seemingly unrelated cases without breaching claimant confidentiality.
• Brings board communication experience that distinguishes legal exposure, operational recurrence and employee harm.
• Has completed a privilege-safe handover of active claims, authorities, deadlines, evidence and outside-counsel commitments.

Non-negotiables

• Can maintain the Los Angeles hybrid cadence with weekly claims and monthly production-site reviews.
• Brings direct employment-claims authority; general employee relations or commercial litigation alone is insufficient.
• Will not suppress reporting, alter evidence, overclaim privilege or delay necessary workplace protection for case strategy.
• Has no undisclosed relationship with claimants, implicated leaders, outside firms, insurers or litigation funders.

1. 49 words maximum. Which portfolio field would reveal that separate employment cases share one control failure?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you protect privilege while still driving non-legal workplace remedy?
3. 49 words maximum. What must a successor know before assuming authority over a settlement calendar?