Corporate Counsel

David Protein

$195K — $225K *
Legal & Accounting
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • JD from an accredited law school, licensed to practice in New York.
  • 3-5 years of experience in legal roles, preferably in CPG.
  • Strong commercial contract negotiation skills.
  • Experience in a growth-stage company, preferably in-house or at a top-tier firm.
  • Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
  • Strong communication skills with a practical approach to legal risk.
  • Familiarity with FDA labeling and food compliance is a plus.

Responsibilities

  • Partner closely with the General Counsel to support a marketing-driven, consumer-focused business.
  • Own legal operations including the use of AI tools for efficiency.
  • Manage daily legal needs across various areas, such as corporate and regulatory matters.
  • Draft and negotiate contracts with various business partners.
  • Collaborate with outside counsel for litigation and regulatory issues.
  • Oversee the legal review processes for marketing and compliance.
  • Manage a portfolio of IP assets, including patents and trademarks.

Benefits

  • Full-time in-office role based in New York City with a collaborative culture.
  • Company equity opportunity in addition to cash compensation.
  • 100% coverage for health, vision, and dental insurance.
  • 401(k) plan with a 4% company match.
  • Covered gym expenses and additional perks.
  • Substantial PTO policy.
Full Job Description
Role:

We're hiring a Corporate Counsel to support building the legal foundation of the company. You'll be the second in-house legal hire, responsible for supporting David's growth by managing risk, navigating complex regulatory environments, and establishing scalable legal processes. You'll report to the General Counsel and work closely with Finance, Supply Chain, Quality, Retail, R&D and Marketing to advise on commercial strategy, contracts, compliance, and more.

This is a cross-functional, high-ownership role where you'll need to prioritize what matters most, communicate clearly, and solve problems quickly. You'll be the General Counsel's right hand, working side by side to own legal execution across the company, managing outside counsel and internal workflows, and using sharp judgment to know when to run with something yourself versus when to loop in the GC. We're a young, fast-moving company, so you'll wear many hats and build a lot from scratch.

Responsibilities:
  • Partnering closely with the General Counsel and supporting a highly marketing-driven, consumer-facing business with a strong brand presence.
  • Owning legal operations, including leveraging AI to build and scale the tools, templates, and processes that let a lean team punch above its weight.
  • Managing day-to-day legal needs across commercial, corporate, marketing, employment, IP, and regulatory matters.
  • Drafting and negotiating contracts with suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and partners.
  • Partnering with outside counsel across litigation, regulatory, IP, corporate, privacy, and employment law.
  • Supporting the legal review process for claims, packaging, website compliance and marketing.
  • Managing our portfolio of patents, trademarks and other IP with support of outside counsel.
  • Supporting our People Ops team on offer letters, equity grants, compensation plans, and employee relations.
  • Supporting M&A transactions, equity and debt financings, commercial due diligence, and integration efforts.
  • Collaborating with Systems and Data team on AI issues, including vendor onboarding, internal policies and other risk mitigation efforts.
  • Building internal tools, templates, policies, and systems for legal documentation and risk

Requirements
  • JD from an accredited law school and licensed to practice in New York.
  • 3-5 years of experience, ideally a mix of top-tier firm and in-house (CPG experience strongly preferred).
  • Analytical and creative mindset.
  • Strong work ethic and ability to simultaneously manage multiple tasks and deadlines.
  • Detail oriented with exceptional organizational skills.
  • Strength in commercial contract negotiation.
  • Familiarity with FDA labeling, food compliance, and marketing law is a nice to have.
  • Experience supporting legal work for a growth-stage company (either at a top-tier firm or in-house).
  • Strong communication skills and a practical approach to legal risk.
  • High integrity, sound judgment, and a low-ego, get-it-done attitude.
  • Comfort working independently, but willing to jump into the weeds when needed.
  • Excitement about building an early-stage CPG company.
  • An entrepreneurial, roll-up-your-sleeves builder's mindset - no task too big or too small, and energized by creating structure where none exists yet.
  • AI-savvy, with a track record of using modern tools to work faster and smarter.

Benefits
  • This is a full-time, in-office role based in New York City. We work onsite five days a week - when the culture fits, it is fun to be in the office together.
  • Salary: $195-225k per year, inclusive of cash bonus based on attainment of company targets.
  • Company equity opportunity on top of cash compensation.
  • 100% covered Health, Vision, Dental Insurance.
  • 401(k) with 4% match.
  • Additional perks, such as covered gym expenses.
  • Substantial and required PTO.

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