Commercial Counsel, Director at Coinbase

Coinbase is leading the expansion of digital currency into the financial mainstream. We are building a world-class legal team to support Coinbase and its affiliates as we continue to grow the company in the U.S. and internationally.  You will be working in a cutting edge and fast paced environment, where disruptive technologies and unconventional thinking are the norm.  Given the nascent state of the law, novel legal guidance is needed! 

We are looking for a highly motivated, entrepreneurial, and experienced transactional attorney to lead our new transactional legal team.  This position will report to our VP,  Deputy General Counsel, Product and Commercial Legal. You will be responsible for leading on complex deals and commercial structure improvements in an accelerated growth environment.  You will collaborate closely with business executives, product teams, and Legal and Compliance department colleagues to move the business forward. 

What you’ll be doing (ie. job duties):

• You will be managing a new transactional/commercial legal team in an accelerated growth environment. You will be actively hiring top legal talent to grow the team and the product and commercial legal group as a whole.
• You will be developing and executing on a long term vision for a sophisticated commercial legal team, including executing on commercial scaling and efficiency initiatives right off the bat. 
• You will be drafting and negotiating first-of-a-kind, highly-tailored agreements with strategic partners in the finance, payments and digital currency space.
• You will provide practical advice on legal issues and risks, complex agreement structures and company policies in a risk-tolerant, but compliance-oriented environment.
• In all of your duties you will be effectively collaborating with cross-functional teams (Business Development/Sales, Product/Engineering, Finance/Tax, Compliance) and legal colleagues to solve problems, build partnerships, and close deals quickly.

What we look for in you (ie. job requirements):

• Transactional Expertise. You ideally have both tech and payments or tech and finance experience, and have an interest in digital currency and blockchain technology. You have expertise in structuring complex transactions and negotiating and drafting commercial agreements with strategic partners in the payments or finance space.  You are a trusted advisor to the business and have the ability to lead diverse teams through complex negotiations, keeping tasks organized and stakeholders clearly informed of deliverables and timelines.
• Leadership Vision. You have leadership experience as the main transactional lawyer for business teams, with a strategic vision for the role of a Commercial Legal team and how it can most effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams (Business Development/Sales, Product/Engineering, Finance/Tax) and legal colleagues to solve problems, build partnerships, and close deals quickly.
• Management Experience. You have experience managing a commercial/transactional legal team at a tech, payments, or finance company. You have the ability to hire and mentor team members, prioritize work, structure teams, plan for growth, foster inclusion, and provide professional development opportunities.
• Scaling and Efficiency Skills. You have expertise in leading commercial scaling and efficiency initiatives with business partners, including strategically streamlining contracts and approval processes to close deals at scale; creating fallbacks, playbooks, training programs, online resources, and other self-service solutions to empower Legal and business teams; and deploying legal technology solutions to improve contract management and compliance.
• Qualified to practice law in the United States. Current license in a U.S. state. JD or equivalent with 12+ years of legal experience