Director, Legal Counsel - Litigation

Your opportunity

At Schwab, you’re empowered to make an impact on your career. Here, innovative thought meets creative problem solving, helping us “challenge the status quo” and transform the finance industry together.

We believe in the importance of in-office collaboration and fully intend for the selected candidate for this role to work on site in the specified location(s). This role is expected to be in the office 4 days a week.

The Risk and Regulatory Legal Group is affectionately and colloquially known as the flagship of Schwab's Legal Department. RiskReg encompasses several areas, including regulatory relationships and defense; internal investigations; human resources and employment; and litigation and arbitrations, which is where this position is based.

Schwab’s litigation and arbitration team is a group of exceptionally gifted lawyers and support professionals primarily responsible for defending legal claims against Schwab. The team provides world-class legal direction and is cohesive, tightly knit, and values collaboration and culture.

As a Director Legal Counsel-Litigation, you will join this team and handle a large docket of legal claims against the company, from their inception to their resolution. Your responsibilities will include:

• Litigation: Manage and litigate high stakes cases and arbitrations, including the most complex and challenging matters. Responsibilities include conducting research; factual investigation and discovery; interviewing witnesses; drafting pleadings and written submissions; negotiating with opposing counsel; and appearing in FINRA arbitrations on behalf of Schwab.
• Providing strategic direction: Lead and guide the firm’s strategic approach toward case management, trial preparation, and representation.
• Collaborating: Work across the legal department and with business counterparts and corporate affairs to ensure transparency and alignment; proactively identify risks and recommend mitigation strategies; and lead and conduct training for legal, compliance, and business teams.
• Leading: Supervise, manage, and direct outside counsel, ensuring that case assessment, strategy, and execution are aligned with Schwab’s vision and objectives.
• Learning: You and the team will work on cutting edge financial and regulatory issues essential to Schwab’s business strategy: our portfolio of matters includes a remarkable variety, including those based in securities law, contract law, antitrust law, insurance law, and construction law—just to name a few.
• Having fun: Culture is important to us! You’ll be joining a terrific team and some of the best professionals in the industry. While this is serious work, none of us take ourselves too seriously.
• Other duties as otherwise assigned: IYKYK. And when you’re a litigator, you know that it’s impossible to capture everything that goes into trial or litigation in a simple job description.

What you have

To ensure that we fulfill our promise of “challenging the status quo,” this role has specific qualifications that successful candidates should have: 

Required Qualifications: 

• A law degree (JD, LLB or equivalent) from an accredited US law school and are admitted to and in good standing with at least one U.S. state bar. 
• 8 plus years of experience as a practicing attorney in-house or at a law firm. 
• 3 plus years of experience leading complex litigation and arbitration matters, preferably relating to financial services matters. 

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Strategic, practical, and creative insights with excellent emotional intelligence and outstanding client relationship management and negotiation skills. 
• Extraordinary interpersonal and communication skills and excellence at communicating information effectively internally and externally, including to non-legal audiences. 
• Excellent judgment and comfort making critical decisions under challenging circumstances and compressed timelines. 
• Comfort with people-from from the most senior executive leaders to folks that have never talked to a lawyer before—and being equally at home in a conference room, a board room, a virtual meeting, or a courtroom. 
• Confidence and decisiveness. 
• A love for challenges and solving problems, taking pride in your work, and finding joy in the process. 

In addition to the salary range, this role is also eligible for bonus or incentive opportunities