Employment Counsel

About The Role

Apollo is seeking an Employment Counsel to partner closely with our People team and business leaders on employment matters across our global workforce. You will provide practical advice throughout the employee lifecycle, help resolve sensitive workplace issues, and build processes that enable timely, consistent decisions.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with meaningful ownership. You will work directly with People Business Partners, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, and other stakeholders, bringing sound judgment, clear recommendations, and an understanding of how legal advice translates into action. You will also coordinate with local counsel to address jurisdiction-specific requirements and apply that advice within Apollo’s broader approach to managing its workforce.

What you’ll do

• Provide day-to-day employment counseling. Advise on hiring, performance management, disciplinary actions, employee complaints, leaves and accommodations, workplace conduct, and separations. Help stakeholders understand their options and make informed decisions that account for legal risk, business needs, and the employee experience.
• Partner on sensitive employee relations matters. Advise on investigation planning, fact gathering, documentation, findings, and remedial action; lead or oversee investigations when appropriate. Help preserve confidentiality and privilege and establish clear escalation paths.
• Guide separations and organizational changes. Support individual and group exits, severance decisions, settlement negotiations, employee communications, and country-specific processes in partnership with People, Finance, and local counsel.
• Develop and maintain employment documents. Draft, review, and improve offer letters, employment and separation agreements, confidentiality and invention-assignment agreements, and related templates. Advise on employment issues involving commissions, bonuses, final pay, and other compensation arrangements.
• Support a global workforce. Coordinate advice across the United States and international markets, including matters involving direct employees, contractors, and employer-of-record arrangements. Identify when local expertise is needed, ask focused questions, and translate that advice into workable recommendations.
• Build repeatable processes. Partner with Legal Operations and People Operations on intake, triage, approval workflows, templates, playbooks, and matter tracking. Establish clear ownership and enable teams to handle routine matters within agreed guidelines.
• Manage disputes and outside counsel. Assess employment claims and threatened disputes, coordinate preservation and response efforts, and manage external counsel’s scope, strategy, quality, and spend.
• Strengthen prevention and training. Deliver practical training for People partners and managers, identify recurring issues, and prioritize targeted improvements to policies and practices. Collaborate with Privacy, Security, Corporate Legal, and specialist counsel where employment matters intersect with their responsibilities.

What you bring

• J.D. or equivalent legal qualification and active membership in good standing in at least one U.S. state bar, with eligibility to practice in this role.
• Approximately 6+ years of relevant employment-law experience, including substantial experience counseling employers directly.
• Strong knowledge of U.S. employment law, including California and multistate issues, and experience applying that knowledge to practical workplace decisions.
• Experience advising on sensitive employee relations matters, investigations, performance management, accommodations, and separations.
• Experience supporting international employment matters and coordinating with local counsel.
• The ability to give a clear recommendation when facts are incomplete, distinguish material risks from manageable ones, and escalate appropriately.
• Strong drafting, communication, and relationship-building skills, with discretion, empathy, and sound judgment.
• A track record of managing competing priorities and carrying matters through to completion.
• An interest in improving how work gets done through practical tools, training, and repeatable processes.

Experience that would be especially valuable

• In-house employment counseling at a technology company or another business with a distributed workforce.
• Experience with employment disputes, workforce changes, contractor classification, or employer-of-record arrangements.
• Experience developing employment playbooks, document workflows, or tools that enable People teams to operate more independently.
• Experience with employment counseling for teams in the UK, Mexico, Colombia, Poland, the Philippines, India or Canada. 

What success looks like

People partners trust your advice and involve you early. Sensitive matters receive timely, well-supported recommendations and clear follow-through. Recurring questions become useful guidance and workflows. International advice is coordinated effectively, and the team has better visibility into open matters, priorities, and emerging risks.