The Role

The General Counsel serves as Gelber's chief legal advisor and a key member of the executive leadership team. You will partner closely with individuals across the firm to provide commercially grounded legal advice, guide strategic initiatives, and translate legal and regulatory complexity into practical business solutions.

You will lead the Legal function while remaining actively engaged in substantive legal work. You will have the opportunity to shape the long-term capabilities of the Legal and Compliance functions, including recommending organizational structure and thoughtfully expanding the team as business needs evolve. Success in this role requires executive judgment, commercial instincts, and the ability to build trusted relationships throughout the organization.
As General Counsel, you will:

• Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership on legal, regulatory, governance, and strategic matters
• Lead the firm's Legal function and oversee the Compliance function through a collaborative partnership with the Chief Compliance Officer
• Partner with business leaders to assess risk, solve problems, and support commercial objectives
• Advise on financial markets regulation, exchange matters, corporate governance, and strategic initiatives
• Lead or oversee regulatory inquiries, examinations, investigations, and enforcement matters
• Draft, review, and negotiate a broad range of commercial, technology, licensing, employment, vendor, and other business-critical agreements
• Protect Gelber's competitive assets, including its technology, intellectual property, trading strategies, confidential information, talent, and reputation
• Advise on employment, restrictive covenants, intellectual property ownership, and other workplace matters
• Develop and maintain legal processes that are practical, scalable, and aligned with the firm's business objectives
• Direct the firm's use of outside counsel and specialized legal resources
• Remain actively engaged in substantive legal work while building the long-term capabilities of the Legal and Compliance functions

The ideal candidate brings:

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and licensed (or eligible for admission) in Illinois
• Approximately 10-20 years of relevant legal experience, including substantial in-house and/or regulatory experience
• Deep experience supporting sophisticated financial markets businesses, ideally including proprietary trading, hedge funds, exchanges, regulators, or similar environments
• Strong knowledge of financial markets regulation, including the SEC, CFTC, FINRA, exchange rules, and related regulatory frameworks
• Experience leading legal teams, managing projects, building organizations, and partnering with senior stakeholders
• Experience advising on corporate governance, commercial contracts, intellectual property, technology licensing, data governance, vendor relationships, employment matters, and international legal issues
• Proven ability to balance legal risk with commercial objectives and deliver practical, business-oriented advice
• Experience directing outside counsel and specialized legal resources
• Unquestioned integrity, intellectual curiosity, humility, accountability, responsiveness, and sound business judgment

Compensation and Benefits

The approximate annual base salary for this position in Chicago, Illinois is $225,000 to $275,000. Because the position also participates in Gelber's performance-based incentive compensation program, total annual compensation is expected to substantially exceed base salary for successful candidates. Actual compensation will reflect a variety of factors, including experience, qualifications, performance, and overall fit for the role.

Gelber offers a wide range of benefits to full-time employees, including:

• Traditional and Roth 401(k) retirement program with discretionary employer match
• Comprehensive health benefits including medical coverage provided by Blue Cross and Blue Shield (PPO and HDHP/HSA) and dental coverage; generous employer cost-sharing
• Tuition reimbursement for Undergraduate and Graduate courses
• Flexible Spending Accounts for health care and dependent care; pre-tax commuter benefits for parking and transit expenses
• Life insurance and long-term disability coverage
• Health club membership with on-site facilities (and reciprocal memberships)
• Generous vacation time (23-day accrual in first full calendar year of employment; prorated accrual in initial year), paid holidays, and paid maternity/paternity leave
• Weekly catered lunches and monthly continental breakfasts
• Social events including sponsored 5k races and annual company party
• Enjoyable work environment including golf simulator
• Employee referral bonus program
• Charitable giving and company matching opportunities
• Casual, relaxed dress code

If you are based in California, we encourage you to read the Gelber Privacy Notice for California Employees and Applicants, linked here.