Assistant General Counsel, Litigation

Job description

At WHOOP, we're on a mission to unlock and inspire performance for life. WHOOP empowers members to perform at a higher level through a deeper understanding of their bodies and daily lives. The WHOOP legal team plays a critical role in supporting that mission by enabling the business to move quickly and responsibly around the world. We are rigorous but pragmatic, risk-aware rather than risk-averse, calm under pressure, excellent communicators, and deeply committed to being trusted partners to the business. WHOOP is hiring an Assistant General Counsel, Litigation to oversee and manage litigation and regulatory enforcement matters. In this role, you will report to the Chief Legal Officer (CLO) and, in conjunction with the CLO, be responsible for developing and implementing litigation and regulatory enforcement strategy. The successful candidate must be comfortable managing all manner of litigation, including commercial disputes, consumer class actions, intellectual property matters, employment disputes, and investigations by federal, state, and international regulatory bodies. WHOOP is a rapidly scaling, global business built upon a dynamic consumer brand that involves hardware, software, and healthcare. Accordingly, this role will be engaged with an extraordinarily broad array of legal areas. The successful candidate will be a seasoned litigator who possesses the first-hand experience and judgment necessary to assess litigation and regulatory risks and opportunities, hire and manage the outside counsel representing WHOOP, and ensure WHOOP receives the highest quality representation from its law firm partners. In addition to managing the litigation docket, you will serve as a strategic counselor to all business and corporate functions regarding legal risk and opportunity. The successful candidate will be more than an experienced litigator. They will be a business-minded litigation leader who knows when to fight, when to settle, and when litigation risk should drive changes in the business. **RESPONSIBILITIES** - **Own the Company's litigation portfolio**, with responsibility for the strategy, oversight, and resolution of lawsuits, arbitrations, pre-litigation disputes, and other contested matters involving the Company, independently driving matters while exercising sound judgment as to when legal, business, or reputational risks warrant escalation. - **Develop litigation strategy** for significant matters, including evaluating claims and defenses, determining strategic objectives, identifying key decision points, and recommending litigation and settlement positions. - **Provide senior leadership with clear and actionable assessments of litigation risk**, including exposure, ranges of potential outcomes, strategic alternatives, costs, business implications, and recommended courses of action. - **Select, retain, and manage outside counsel**, establishing clear expectations regarding strategy, staffing, budgets, work product, responsiveness, and outcomes, and independently pressure-testing outside counsel’s strategic recommendations throughout the entire litigation life-cycle. - **Exercise rigorous oversight of litigation spending**, including reviewing budgets and forecasts, scrutinizing staffing and billing practices, identifying opportunities for alternative fee arrangements, and ensuring that legal spending is proportionate to the Company's exposure and strategic objectives. - **Develop settlement strategies and lead significant settlement negotiations**, balancing legal exposure, litigation costs, business considerations, precedent risk, reputational considerations, and operational impacts. - **Partner closely with Finance and Accounting** regarding litigation reserves, contingent liabilities, insurance recoveries, settlement accounting, budgeting and forecasting, and other financial implications of litigation. - **Partner closely with the People Team** regarding employment disputes. - **Manage litigation-related insurance matters**, including providing timely notice of claims, coordinating with insurers and brokers, pursuing available coverage, and managing coverage disputes where necessary. - **Oversee discovery and evidence-preservation obligations**, including litigation holds, document collection and review, information governance, e-discovery strategy, privilege issues, and the use of technology and outside vendors to manage discovery efficiently. - **Conduct and oversee sensitive internal investigations** where appropriate and coordinate with employment, compliance, privacy, security, or other specialists depending on the subject matter. - **Establish and continuously improve litigation playbooks, processes, and technology**, enabling the Legal team to manage a growing litigation portfolio efficiently and consistently as the Company scales. - **Promote appropriate use of data and technology in litigation management**, including e-discovery tools, matter-management systems, litigation analytics, and emerging AI-enabled legal technologies. **QUALIFICATIONS** - J.D. from an accredited law school and active membership in at least one U.S. state bar. - 7+ years of relevant legal experience, including experience at a nationally recognized law firm and/or an in-house legal department managing litigation. - Experience as the lead or managing attorney on complex litigation. Strong command of litigation strategy and procedure, including discovery, dispositive motions, expert practice, mediation, trial preparation, settlement negotiations, and appeals. - Demonstrated ability to balance legal risk with practical business considerations and deliver actionable advice in a fast-paced environment. - Ability to translate complicated legal issues into concise, practical advice for senior executives and business leaders. - Experience in building and improving legal processes, playbooks, and operational infrastructure to support a scaling business. - Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across cross-functional teams. - Highly organized, detail-oriented, and comfortable managing multiple priorities in a dynamic environment. - Experience supporting technology, consumer products, healthcare, or subscription-based businesses is strongly preferred. - Strong commitment to embracing and leveraging AI tools in day-to-day tasks, ensuring AI-assisted work aligns with the same high-quality standards as personal contributions. ***\*This role is based in the WHOOP office located in Boston, MA. The successful candidate must be prepared to relocate if necessary to work out of the Boston, MA office.*** *Interested in the role, but don’t meet every qualification? We encourage you to still apply! At WHOOP, we believe there is much more to a candidate than what is written on paper, and we value character as much as experience. As we continue to build a diverse and inclusive environment, we encourage anyone who is interested in this role to apply. WHOOP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in* [*E-verify*](https://www.e-verify.gov/) *to determine employment eligibility The WHOOP compensation philosophy is designed to attract, motivate, and retain exceptional talent by offering competitive base salaries, meaningful equity, and consistent pay practices that reflect our mission and core values. At WHOOP, we view total compensation as the combination of base salary, equity, and benefits, with equity serving as a key differentiator that aligns our employees with the long-term success of the company and allows every member of our corporate team to own part of WHOOP and share in the company’s long-term growth and success. The U.S. base salary range for this full-time position is $220,000 to $250,000. Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within each range, individual pay is based on factors such as job-related skills, experience, performance, and relevant education or training. In addition to the base salary, the successful candidate will also receive benefits and a generous equity package. These ranges may be modified in the future to reflect evolving market conditions and organizational needs. While most offers will typically fall toward the starting point of the range, total compensation will depend on the candidate’s specific qualifications, expertise, and alignment with the role’s requirements.*