Company Description
Shopify is a leading global commerce company, providing trusted tools to
start, grow, market, and manage a retail business of any size. Shopify makes
commerce better for everyone with a platform and services that are engineered
for reliability, while delivering a better shopping experience for consumers
everywhere. Shopify powers millions of businesses in more than 175 countries
and is trusted by brands such as Allbirds, Gymshark, PepsiCo, Staples, and
many more.
Job Description
It takes a whole team of dedicated legal professionals working behind the
scenes to help Shopify create a platform that makes commerce better for
everyone. We must be able to apply our knowledge and experience in order to
protect Shopify’s interests in a way that allows our business to stay agile
and competitive. Every person on our team is committed to Shopify’s mission,
and it truly shows.
**About the team**
Shopify’s Employment Legal Team focuses on legal issues that affect Shopify as
a global employer. Our core goal is to ensure that Shopify remains a trusted
employer that can strike a balance between compliance with legal requirements
and maintaining our amazing, mission-driven work environment.
With thousands of employees spread across the globe, we can guarantee that
there will never be a dull moment. Shopify marches to the beat of its own
drum, and you’ll be faced with nuanced and exciting issues you couldn’t dream
up if you tried. You will partner closely with our global Talent team and
other internal stakeholders, including leadership, as the first attorney
dedicated to helping Shopify respond to employment litigation and disputes.
Real talk: being a member of a fast-moving team that’s doing cutting edge
legal work is not always easy. We find fulfillment practicing at the top of
our game with our amazing team and coming up with creative solutions to
complex problems!
**About you**
We’re looking for an Associate General Counsel with extensive employment
litigation experience to help us manage our existing caseload and act as a
strategic advisor on matters that could become litigious. Your role will
primarily involve strategically managing outside counsel on a range of
litigation matters, directly leading pre-litigation disputes and communicating
with opposing counsel. You will also regularly coordinate with other
Shopifolk, manage budgets, and build internal systems to support your work.
You must be able to juggle competing priorities, directly manage high pressure
situations, and explain nuanced legal concepts to non-lawyers in a concise,
easy to understand way. You must be able to speak comfortably with anyone
ranging from the average person with basic questions, to a senior executive,
to a large firm armed with multiple lawyers making unreasonable demands. You
will also need to leverage a combination of your existing knowledge, great
instincts, and strong research skills to extrapolate into new areas of law,
new geographies, and areas of ambiguity.
Success on the Shopify Legal Team requires intellect, humility and a sense of
humour. You need to take the work seriously, but not take yourself too
seriously. You also need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, able to
work with many different types of personalities, and be ready to navigate
uncharted waters and frequent change.
**Responsibilities**
* Managing outside counsel on a wide range of litigation matters, primarily in Canada and the United States but also in APAC
* Directly handling pre-litigation matters (e.g. demand letters) and related negotiations in Canada and the United States
* Working closely with the Associate General Counsel, Employment (EMEA) on disputes in EMEA to ensure thematic consistency across our cases
* Providing strategic advice to internal stakeholders and keeping them up to date on litigation matters
* Building more sophisticated internal processes, playbooks and systems in the employment litigation space
* Helping other teams anticipate and prepare for potential disputes, and advising on de-escalating internal issues
Qualifications
* A J.D. or LL.B
* A license to practice law in any Canadian province or U.S. state - note, you do not need to live in a major urban centre! For Shopify, home is where the Internet is
* 5-7 years of relevant employment litigation experience at a law firm and, ideally, in-house
* Experience leading complex projects and coordinating between multiple stakeholders with varying skillsets
* Big-picture thinking: you will need the ability to think strategically about how a given issue may impact Shopify beyond specific matters
* Strong writing skills, with the ability to match your tone to your audience and write plainly and concisely - bullet points are your friend, and no Latin or legal citations, ever.
* A desire to work on an agile & lean team. You will get asked to help with issues that have no clear answer, that may be in locations you are unfamiliar with, and you should feel comfortable working through these issues and learning on the job
* The ability to stay level headed and litigate with empathy, while digging in to defend your ground when needed
* The ability to be a self-starter who thrives without regular oversight, as you (and your lead!) will be working remotely
* Comfort navigating and making decisions in the midst of ambiguity and frequent change
**Bonus if you have:**
* Experience with employment law in multiple jurisdictions
* Experience working at a global company
* Experience negotiating or managing litigation budgets
* Experience working in tech and/or start-up environments
* Experience managing external legal counsel
Additional Information
We know that applying to a new role takes a lot of work and we truly value
your time. Allison Di Cesare, Associate General Counsel, is looking forward to
reading your application.
In your cover letter, please tell us about an interesting case you’ve read
about, and what you think it might mean for Shopify. Please limit your answer
to a few paragraphs, at maximum.
**Please submit your application materials in PDF format.**
**Closing date: Friday, November 11, 2022 at 11:59PM EDT.** Successful
candidates can expect to hear back from us by **Monday, Nov 21, 2022.**
_Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to
truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from
Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from
gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional
identities. Please take a look at __our Sustainability Reports_ _to learn more
about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet._
_At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re
dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is
this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying._