General Counsel

Responsibilities

• Lead the company's approach to legal and regulatory matters across the U.S. (SEC, CFTC, FinCEN, OFAC, state MTLs) and internationally (MiCA, FCA, MAS), while staying ahead of regulatory developments and working directly with regulators when necessary.
• Lead deal work: M&A, strategic investments, financings, joint ventures, etc. and draft, negotiate, and operationalize the full commercial contract stack: customer, partner, vendor, BD, integration, and protocol partnership agreements.
• Own the company's intellectual property strategy, including trademarks, licensing, and open-source software considerations.
• Manage disputes, regulatory inquiries, subpoenas, investigations, and other legal matters as they arise.
• Select and oversee outside counsel and ensure legal resources are used effectively, when necessary.
• Structure and maintain the company's corporate architecture and governance across multiple entities.
• Build legal and compliance processes that can scale with the company while balancing risk, regulatory requirements, and speed of execution.
• Advise and work with founders on best practices for entity structuring, digital tokens and onchain incentivestokenomics and securities, innovative business models, and compliance solutions.

Requirements

• Candidates must have both a Bachelor’s Degree and Juris Doctor from top schools, experience at a top law firm, and 7+ years of experience with:
• Counseling financial services companies on a broad range of matters, including general business matters, regulatory matters, corporate governance, and technology transfers, with a focus on strategic transactions, and mergers and acquisitions.
• Proactive business mindset: someone who operates effectively as the sole lawyer, with impeccable organization, project management, and communication skills.
• Translating complex regulatory requirements into practical product and operational guidance for non-lawyer business partners and colleagues.
• Advising senior executives on nuanced matters with limited information, and is comfortable being the last set of eyes before product ships.
• Improving processes and building out new systems from scratch.
• Toggling between strategic thinking and tactical execution, and adjusting priorities in response to unanticipated events with minimal oversight.

Why Join Us?

• Shape and own legal structure and strategy at a startup at the frontier of distributed systems, the future of financial innovation, and blockchain infrastructure
• Work directly with a founding team of world-class engineers to position innovative technology for widespread adoption
• Own the entire legal function as an early hire with substantial influence over company direction
• Competitive compensation, equity, and generous benefits