Interim Managing Counsel

Howlett Brown Limited; City of London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A consultancy specializing in workplace culture seeks a Managing Counsel to lead the Investigations and Advisory departments. The role demands extensive experience in UK employment law, guiding legal supervision, and advising on workplace dynamics. This position offers hybrid working arrangements and a competitive compensation package.

Benefits

Hybrid working arrangements

Fixed Term Contract (6-9 months)

Flexible benefits tailored to your needs

A diverse range of learning opportunities

Wellbeing and lifestyle benefits

Qualifications

• 5–8+ years PQE in employment law focusing on investigations and advisory.
• Experience managing and advising on complex workplace issues.
• Ability to integrate cultural insights into legal strategies.

Responsibilities

• Oversee complex investigations involving workplace issues.
• Provide legal advice on HR matters and workplace disputes.
• Ensure quality assurance across investigations and advisory services.

Skills

Supervising investigations

Employment law expertise

Cultural understanding

Legal risk assessment

Stakeholder communication

Education

UK Legal Qualification (Solicitor or Barrister)

Job description

Managing Counsel

We are growing and looking for an ambitious, curious, dynamic and technically skilled person to join our team as Managing Counsel, an experienced professional in law and leadership who combines deep expertise in UK employment law and investigations with a sophisticated understanding of workplace culture, people dynamics, and the legal risk landscape that sits beneath organisational behaviour.

This role requires someone who can bring together the technical rigour of legal practice, the human‑centred understanding of how cultures form and fail, and the agility and pace required in a client‑facing consultancy environment.

As Managing Counsel, you will have strategic and operational oversight of Howlett Brown’s Investigations and Advisory departments, ensuring all work is legally robust, culturally aware, ethically grounded, high‑quality, and commercially practical. You will supervise complex matters end‑to‑end, provide astute legal judgment, and support clients navigating intricate intersections between law, behaviour, culture, risk, and organisational governance.

Who We Are

We are a people intelligence company. We support organisations to build environments where integrity, inclusion, innovation and purpose thrive and where people risk remains low.

• Investigations
• Advisory (legal, HR, employee relations, governance, culture)
• Culture & Sustainability
• DEEI (diversity, equity, equality & inclusion)
• Training, Coaching & Facilitation
• Connected Communications

We are the first people intelligence company in the UK regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Role Overview

The Managing Counsel will serve as the senior legal leadership figure for the Investigations and Advisory functions.

This role combines:

• Legal oversight and supervision
• Investigation oversight
• Employment law, HR and ER expertise
• Cultural and behavioural intelligence

You will ensure all work delivered by both teams reflects a deep understanding of how organisational culture influences risk, how behaviours manifest in workplaces, and how legal obligations intersect with cultural systems.

You will:

• Provide legal supervision across investigations and advisory matters
• Oversee numerous complex matters simultaneously
• Interact and liaise with clients and their needs, emerging and immediate in relation to investigations and Advisory
• Identify and mitigate legal, cultural, reputational and regulatory risks
• Own matters end‑to‑end and provide practical, strategic legal direction
• Support clients in understanding and addressing the root causes of issues, not just the symptoms

This is a role for someone who can confidently navigate legal issues in context, understanding not just the law but the cultural, behavioural and systemic conditions in which issues arise.

Leadership & Departmental Responsibilities

• Lead and develop both the Investigations and Advisory departments, ensuring seamless integration of legal, cultural, and risk‑based perspectives.
• Drive and complete strategic plans as well as adapt in ways that reflect evolving legal requirements, emerging workplace culture trends, and organisational risk dynamics.
• Contribute to company‑wide leadership, strategy, risk discussions and governance.

Supervise, mentor and develop legal, investigations and advisory professionals.

Provide legal oversight on investigation plans, evidence analysis, findings, recommendations and quality assurance processes – ensuring cultural dynamics and legal risk are fully integrated into the investigative approach.

Ensure advisory outputs account for legal risk, cultural drivers, organisational behaviour patterns, and systemic risks while remaining legally sound.

Build a high‑performing, multidisciplinary team that understands both the legal and cultural dimensions of workplace risk.

Collaborate with senior leaders across all HB service lines to deliver multidisciplinary, culturally informed, legally robust solutions.

Support the evolution of an integrated people‑risk offering for clients.

Matter Responsibilities

Complex Investigations:

• Oversee and advise on investigations involving discrimination, harassment, bullying, conduct and behaviour issues, whistleblowing and protected disclosures, ethics, compliance and governance breaches, safeguarding concerns.
• Ensure all investigations consider cultural context, systemic patterns, and behavioural drivers alongside legal standards.
• Provide legal input on investigation strategy, procedural fairness, evidential analysis, risk assessment and recommendation framing.
• Ensure all work meets legal, regulatory, SRA and internal standards.

Advisory, HR & Employee Relations Legal Advice:

• Provide cross‑disciplinary advice that merges organisational culture insights with operational and commercial realities.
• Advise clients on complex ER matters, workplace disputes and conflict, systemic cultural issues and people‑risk, governance and compliance, international HR and legal risk, privacy and data protection in HR/investigations.
• Identify emerging risks across legal, cultural and behavioural domains.
• Support clients in building cultures that reduce legal exposure and improve ethical practice.
• Promote sustainable risk mitigation strategies grounded in culture, leadership, systems and policy.

Quality Assurance:

• Oversee quality assurance and consistency across both service lines.
• Develop and maintain frameworks that embed legal, cultural and risk awareness into all deliverables.

Experience & Expertise Required

• UK Legal Qualification (Solicitor or Barrister) – essential (employment law specific).
• 5–8+ years PQE in employment law with experience within investigations, ER and workplace advisory.
• Private practice or in‑house experience (both desirable).
• Strong experience supervising and advising on complex investigations.
• Deep understanding of how workplace culture, behaviour, leadership dynamics and systems influence legal risk.
• Proven ability to manage complex cases and workload.
• Proven skill to integrate cultural insight into legal analysis and investigation strategy.
• Significant experience delivering advice to senior stakeholders in high‑risk or sensitive matters.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple matters end‑to‑end.
• Experience managing or mentoring multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong commercial awareness and the ability to translate legal obligations into practical, culturally informed recommendations.

What We Offer

• The opportunity to lead two impactful departments and shape the future of ethical workplaces.
• A supportive, curious and mission‑driven team.
• Hybrid and flexible working arrangements.
• Autonomy, influence and the chance to innovate.
• Competitive compensation and benefits.

What We Offer You (Howlett Brown Benefits)

At Howlett Brown, we care deeply about every colleague’s success and wellbeing.

You will have access to:

• Hybrid working (Mon & Wed in office, one other office day, two remote days)
• Fixed Term Contract (6–9 months)
• A wide range of learning opportunities
• Wellbeing and lifestyle benefits
• Flexible benefits tailored to your needs

Seniority Level

• Director

Employment Type

• Contract

Job Function

• Legal
• Industry: Business Consulting and Services