Legal Counsel (Contract)

Checksum

$110K — $130K *
US-AnywhereRemote in San Francisco, CA
Legal & Accounting
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 4+ years of legal experience in corporate and commercial matters
  • In-house experience at a startup, scale-up, or venture-backed company preferred
  • Ability to handle routine-to-moderate commercial contracts independently
  • Strong legal judgment for distinguishing matters needing escalation
  • Experience with corporate governance, fundraising, and equity workflows
  • Excellent organizational skills to manage multiple workstreams
  • Clear communication skills to translate legal issues into business terms

Responsibilities

  • Support company formations, entity management, and ongoing corporate housekeeping
  • Draft, review, and negotiate various commercial contracts
  • Assist with fundraising, financing, and transaction documentation
  • Support founder equity, option pools, and other equity matters
  • Provide practical guidance on privacy and data-related legal questions
  • Coordinate with external advisors on compliance and audit matters
  • Develop templates, processes, and playbooks for legal workflows

Benefits

  • Remote work option with preference for San Francisco Bay Area
  • Chance to work closely with founders and early-stage companies
  • Ownership of meaningful legal work from day one
  • Opportunity to build legal systems for efficiency
  • Exposure to a diverse range of legal issues across multiple businesses
Full Job Description
Location: US Remote, preference San Francisco Bay Area
The Role

We're looking for a practical, hands-on Legal Counsel to support super{set} and its portfolio companies across day-to-day corporate and commercial legal work.

This is a role for an attorney who can independently handle routine-to-moderate legal matters, keep work moving, and exercise good judgment about when an issue can be handled directly and when it requires more senior counsel.

You'll work closely with the super{set} team, portfolio founders, investors, and external advisors across a range of legal and corporate matters. You'll take ownership of recurring legal workflows and help make the day-to-day legal function more efficient, while more complex and strategic matters are handled with senior counsel.

The role is particularly well suited to someone who enjoys being close to the business, solving practical problems, and having meaningful ownership without needing to be the most senior lawyer in the room.
Why This Role Matters

The legal work behind a growing company is rarely just about answering legal questions. It is about helping the business move quickly without creating problems that surface later.

A well-structured company is easier to finance. Clean equity records prevent painful surprises. A well-negotiated contract protects the business without unnecessarily slowing a deal. Good legal processes mean founders spend less time figuring out how to navigate recurring issues and more time building their companies.

At super{set}, you'll work across these decisions at the point where they are actually happening. You'll see a wide range of legal and operational questions across companies at different stages, and you'll have the opportunity to bring practical judgment to each one.

You'll also help create leverage. When the same question comes up twice, there should be a better answer the second time. Whether that means improving a template, creating a playbook, tightening a workflow, or simply establishing a better default, you'll help make the legal function more efficient over time.
WHAT YOU'LL OWN
Corporate & Company Matters
  • Support company formations, entity management, governance, and ongoing corporate housekeeping across super{set} and its portfolio.
  • Prepare and manage routine corporate documents, filings, resolutions, and related materials.
  • Maintain organized corporate records and identify issues that require attention.
  • Coordinate with outside counsel on matters requiring specialized expertise.
Commercial Contracts
  • Draft, review, and negotiate NDAs, employee agreements, vendor agreements, customer agreements, and other routine commercial contracts.
  • Maintain and improve standard contract templates.
  • Help business teams move agreements through review and execution efficiently.
  • Use sound commercial judgment to distinguish between standard issues and matters that require escalation.
Fundraising & Transactions
  • Support fundraising, financing, and other transactions across the portfolio.
  • Assist with diligence, document review, closing processes, and coordination with investors and outside counsel.
  • Help keep legal workstreams organized and moving toward completion.
Equity & Cap Table Support
  • Support the super{set} Head of Finance with founder equity, option pools, grants, vesting arrangements, and other equity-related matters.
  • Help maintain accurate equity records and identify issues early.
  • Coordinate with relevant advisors on equity administration and related documentation.
Privacy, Data & AI
  • Provide practical support on routine privacy, data-use, and AI-related legal questions.
  • Review relevant contractual and policy considerations as portfolio companies develop products and go to market.
  • Escalate novel or higher-risk issues appropriately.
Fund & Compliance Support
  • Coordinate with external advisors on recurring tax, fund, corporate, and compliance matters.
  • Support audits, investor reporting, filings, and other ongoing requirements.
Legal Operations
  • Help turn recurring legal work into clear templates, processes, and playbooks.
  • Keep legal workflows, documentation, and records organized.
  • Identify opportunities to make routine legal work faster, more consistent, and less dependent on outside counsel.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

In the first 6 months, you will have:
  • Become a trusted first point of contact for routine-to-moderate legal matters across super{set} and its portfolio.
  • Independently managed a meaningful volume of corporate and commercial work from intake through resolution.
  • Helped founders and the broader team move contracts, corporate matters, and other legal workflows forward with speed and sound judgment.
  • Built strong working relationships with the super{set} team, portfolio founders, investors, and external advisors.
  • Kept corporate records, equity documentation, contracts, and recurring legal obligations organized and up to date.
  • Improved templates, processes, and workflows so recurring legal work is handled more efficiently and escalated appropriately when senior counsel is needed.
WHAT YOU BRING
Must Have
  • 4+ years of legal experience, with meaningful experience handling corporate and commercial matters.
  • In-house experience at a startup, scale-up, venture-backed company, or similar environment is strongly preferred.
  • Ability to independently handle routine-to-moderate commercial contracts and corporate matters.
  • Strong legal judgment and the ability to distinguish between matters you can resolve independently and those requiring senior or specialized counsel.
  • Experience supporting financings, transactions, corporate governance, equity, or other ongoing corporate workflows.
  • Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and follow them through to completion.
  • Practical, business-oriented approach to legal work, with the ability to balance risk, speed, and business objectives.
  • Clear written and verbal communication, particularly the ability to explain legal issues in straightforward business terms.
  • High agency and comfort operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment.
Nice to Have

You've probably done one or more of these:
  • Worked as in-house counsel at an early-stage or venture-backed company.
  • Supported multiple companies, business units, or a venture studio / startup ecosystem.
  • Experience with venture financings, SAFEs, preferred stock financings, or related transaction work.
  • Experience with equity administration, cap tables, option plans, and founder equity.
  • Familiarity with privacy, data, or AI-related legal issues.
  • Experience working with external counsel and managing legal workstreams efficiently.
  • Built legal templates, playbooks, contract workflows, or other legal operations systems.
  • Experience working in a lean legal function where you had to exercise significant independent judgment.
The Opportunity
  • Work across the full lifecycle of early-stage companies, from formation and equity through commercial contracts, fundraising, and ongoing corporate matters.
  • Partner directly with founders and operators who are building companies from the ground up, helping them navigate legal questions that arise as the businesses evolve.
  • Own meaningful legal work from day one, with the autonomy to independently handle routine-to-moderate matters while working alongside senior counsel on more complex and strategic issues.
  • Build leverage beyond individual matters, turning recurring legal questions into better templates, processes, and systems that help the team move faster.
  • Develop broad, practical legal judgment by seeing how legal, commercial, and operational decisions intersect across multiple companies.

If you're the kind of lawyer who likes being close to the business, trusted to figure things out, and useful beyond simply giving legal advice, let's talk.

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