Overview
This role involves corporate generalist legal responsibilities within in-house counsel positions at fast-growing companies, AI labs, and technology startups. Legal professionals in these roles collaborate with product, sales, engineering, and operations teams to support initiatives such as large language model (LLM) training pipelines, data licensing, privacy compliance, reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) programs, and content safety.
Corporate generalist legal jobs require a combination of legal expertise, commercial judgment, and business acumen. Typical duties include drafting and negotiating a variety of commercial contracts and advising leadership on employment law, intellectual property, privacy regulations, and corporate governance. Legal teams also often support fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, board governance, regulatory compliance, and manage relationships with outside counsel.
In AI-focused companies and data annotation organizations, counsel help establish compliant frameworks for training data quality, data licensing, annotation guideline compliance, prompt evaluation, LLM evaluation, and responsible AI governance.
Positions in this category include:
- Corporate Counsel
- Senior Corporate Counsel
- Associate General Counsel
- Legal Counsel
- Legal Operations Counsel
- Deputy General Counsel
- General Counsel
Key Responsibilities
- Draft, review, and negotiate commercial agreements including NDAs, DPAs, MSAs, Statements of Work (SOWs), SaaS agreements, and licensing agreements
- Manage customer, vendor, and partnership contracts
- Advise on corporate governance and board matters
- Support fundraising, venture financing, and M&A transactions
- Manage privacy compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other international data protection laws
- Develop internal legal policies and compliance programs
- Support employment and HR legal matters
- Coordinate with external law firms and specialist counsel
- Identify and mitigate legal and operational risks
- Partner with finance, sales, product, engineering, and executive leadership teams
AI/ML and Data-Related Legal Work
- Review AI data licensing agreements
- Support lawful collection and use of training datasets
- Establish annotation guideline compliance processes
- Advise on responsible AI governance
- Review LLM evaluation and benchmarking frameworks
- Support RLHF and human feedback programs
- Manage privacy risks related to AI systems
- Develop policies for content moderation and safety labeling
- Advise on copyright, intellectual property, and AI-generated content
Candidate Profile
Ideal candidates have experience in:
- Commercial contracting
- Corporate law
- Technology transactions
- SaaS companies
- Privacy and data protection
- Venture-backed startups
- Enterprise software
- AI and emerging technologies
- Regulatory compliance
- Legal operations
Candidates should thrive in fast-moving environments where priorities shift frequently and legal advice directly influences business strategy.
Typical Day-to-Day Activities
- Negotiating customer and procurement contracts
- Advising product teams on new feature launches
- Responding to privacy or compliance inquiries
- Supporting sales teams with contract negotiations
- Updating internal legal templates
- Coordinating with outside counsel
- Preparing board resolutions and governance documents
- Reviewing AI product launches for legal compliance
- Managing legal risk across multiple business initiatives
Required Skills and Tools
- Commercial contract negotiation
- Corporate governance
- Legal research
- Privacy law
- Risk management
- Cross-functional communication
- Project management
- Legal operations
- Business strategy
- Regulatory compliance
Commonly used tools include:
- Ironclad
- DocuSign
- Microsoft Office
- Google Workspace
- Jira
- Notion
- Asana
- Salesforce
- Contract lifecycle management (CLM) platforms
- AI legal research and drafting tools
Employment Types
Opportunities are available in various work arrangements including:
- Remote
- Hybrid
- Onsite
- Full-time
- Part-time
- Contract
- Freelance
- Fractional General Counsel
- Interim Legal Counsel
What Hiring Managers Seek
- Strong commercial judgment
- Excellent contract negotiation skills
- Practical risk assessment
- Business-first thinking
- Clear written and verbal communication
- Ability to work independently
- Experience partnering with cross-functional teams
- Comfort operating in fast-paced, high-growth environments
- Familiarity with technology, SaaS, and AI products
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation varies by geography, industry, seniority, and company size. Common benefits include:
- Competitive base salary
- Annual performance bonuses
- Equity or stock options
- Health and wellness benefits
- Retirement plans
- Paid time off
- Flexible working arrangements
- Professional development budgets
- Continuing legal education (CLE) support
Location
Positions may be remote, hybrid, or onsite depending on the employer and role.