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Senior Legal Counsel

New York, New York

About us:

Public is an investing platform that makes building a multi-asset portfolio fast, frictionless, and secure. Members can trade stocks, options, bonds, crypto, ETFs, and alternative assets—all in one place. Alongside its robust suite of investing tools, Public offers Alpha, a layer of artificial intelligence that provides fundamental data and custom analysis to support informed investment decisions.

Since 2019, Public has raised over $300 million. Investors include Accel, Tiger Global, Will Smith's Dreamers VC, The Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, and Shari Redstone's Advancit Capital, as well as renowned figures in business and culture, like Maria Sharapova, Tony Hawk, and NYU Stern professor Scott Galloway.

About the role: 

To support our ambitious goals and continued growth, we’re looking for a sharp, enthusiastic attorney to be the fourth member of our Legal team, reporting to the General Counsel.  This is a “generalist” role, with an emphasis on product counseling, commercial transactions and regulatory work.

Public is a highly regulated financial services and technology company. Experience in brokerage or another highly regulated financial field is a plus, however this role would also be suitable for a hardworking and sharp generalist who is willing to put in the work to get up the regulatory learning curve. 

This role is based in New York City. You should expect to work from the office four days a week, Monday through Thursday.

What you’ll do:

You’ll handle a little bit of everything, including:

  • Product counseling:
    • Public operates in a highly-regulated space. Those regulations impact all aspects of our business, including the customer-facing product and back-end operations.
    • You’ll work closely with our Product and Engineering teams to navigate those regulations as they build new products and features.  You’ll also help them to negotiate any contracts necessary to bring the product to life.
  • Brokerage:
    • Public owns its own FINRA-registered broker-dealer. You’ll work with Compliance to ensure that we continue to meet our SEC and FINRA obligations.
    • You’ll help interpret relevant laws and regulations, research SEC and FINRA guidance, and distill those rules into actionable guidance for our business teams.
  • Crypto:
    • Public customers can trade a set of cryptocurrencies on our platform, thanks to our partnership with Bakkt Crypto Solutions.
    • You will further refine our crypto compliance regime, including conducting Howey analysis, updating our marketing compliance rules, and conducting diligence on coins before they are listed on the Public platform.
  • Contract negotiation:
    • Handle the wide range of commercial agreements that come up at a consumer technology company: professional services agreements, vendor MSAs and SOWs, IP licenses, NDAs, co-marketing agreements, etc.
  • Legal processes/systems:
    • Creating and updating playbooks for each business team at Public, to help them navigate legal and compliance requirements and negotiate the best deals possible.
    • Build a template library for our most common types of deals, like influencer agreements and production agreements.
    • Refine our legal ticketing system to better manage the workflow on the Legal team.

Qualifications:

  • J.D. degree from an ABA accredited law school (or foreign equivalent)
  • Membership in at least 1 U.S. State Bar, with good standing
  • 5-10 years of legal experience, ideally a combination of working at a top law firm followed by in-house at an early-stage technology or financial services company.
  • Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth environments, preferably at another fintech or startup company. 
  • Experience with a broad range of legal matters, from commercial transactions to corporate governance to regulatory compliance to employment and IP.
  • Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence senior stakeholders.
  • Intense curiosity and desire to learn new things.
  • High level of integrity and the ability to balance legal and compliance obligations with business objectives.
  • Able to operate in ambiguous, fast-paced environments and have the ability to work under pressure and identify, prioritize and resolve issues quickly and independently.
  • Track record of quickly learning and leveraging various pieces of software including project management tools, CRM systems, and compliance software.

Bonus Points:

  • Experience with broker-dealer or registered investment advisors.
  • Experience working with Compliance teams and creating efficient, effective compliance systems and processes.

Benefits:

  • Competitive salary and equity
  • Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
  • Generous PTO and parental leave policy
  • 401(k) plan with company match
  • Opportunities for career growth and professional development

Public is an equal employment opportunity employer to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.  We celebrate people of all race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression.

The base compensation range for this role is $200,000 to $240,000 (plus competitive pre-IPO equity) depending on skills and experience.

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