Special Counsel, Transactions (M&A and Bank Partnerships)

Overview

The organization is seeking an experienced transactional attorney to join the Transactions team within its Legal department.

This role primarily supports two connected areas:

• Corporate Development and Ventures: mergers and acquisitions, strategic transactions, and venture investments
• Financial Partnerships: agreements with banks and other financial institutions that support reserve, treasury, and payments operations

As needs arise, the attorney may also support select commercial transactions involving the organization’s products and services for banks and other financial institutions.

The position reports to the Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Transactions. This is a senior individual contributor role and trusted advisor to internal teams, partnering with Business Development, Product, and other groups on select matters.

Responsibilities

• Lead transactions end-to-end: independently drive matters from inception through negotiation, signing, closing, and, where relevant, implementation or integration.
• Support strategic transactions: assist with mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, asset purchases, and related activities, including structuring, due diligence, drafting definitive agreements, and coordinating signing, closing, and integration.
• Advise on non-ordinary-course transactions: support joint ventures, minority and venture investments, strategic partnerships with an equity component, and similar deals; draft and negotiate term sheets, investment agreements, side letters, and ancillary agreements.
• Negotiate financial institution agreements: structure, draft, and negotiate agreements with banks and financial institutions supporting reserve, treasury, and payments operations, including deposit, custody and safeguarding, account control, and cash management arrangements.
• Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders: serve as a trusted partner to Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships teams; lead matters involving Legal, Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance, Product, and other stakeholders; coordinate with outside counsel as appropriate.
• Support select commercial transactions (as needed): help translate business objectives into practical contractual terms for agreements where the organization provides products, services, or technology to banks and financial institutions.
• Build tools and improve repeatability: develop and expand transaction templates, playbooks, diligence tools, processes, and metrics to increase speed, consistency, and effectiveness across recurring transaction types.
• Participate in AI-enabled workflow adoption: design and lead adoption of AI-enabled workflows for transactional work; experiment with approaches, develop scalable processes and playbooks, and validate AI-assisted work for accuracy, confidentiality, privilege, and risk.

How This Role Uses AI

This role uses AI as a core part of day-to-day transactional work and helps shape how the Transactions team operates in an AI-enabled environment.

In practice, the attorney will:

• Use AI tools to accelerate due diligence
• Review and compare counterparty drafts against playbooks and prior positions
• Prepare first drafts of issues lists, term sheets, and ancillary documents
• Keep deal trackers and precedent current
• Identify recurring workflows where AI can improve speed and consistency
• Design and test new approaches, and build/refine prompts, templates, and playbooks

The attorney remains fully responsible for the work, including reviewing and validating AI-assisted outputs for accuracy and legal judgment, protecting privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information, and following internal AI, security, and data policies.

Requirements

• J.D. (or foreign equivalent) and active membership in good standing of at least one U.S. State Bar.
• 7+ years of transactional legal experience at a leading law firm, an in-house legal department, or a combination.
• Substantial experience with M&A and other corporate transactions and/or financial services transactions, including:
  • structuring transactions
  • drafting first-turn agreements
  • leading negotiations and diligence
  • independently driving complex matters through signing and closing
• Strong working knowledge of corporate and commercial law, sound business judgment, and the ability to coordinate legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, securities, and operational considerations while balancing legal risk and commercial objectives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; strong ownership and organization; ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously in a fast-moving environment with rapid change.
• Demonstrated familiarity with and practical use of generative AI in legal or other professional workflows, including judgment about when and how to use AI, validating outputs, and protecting privileged, confidential, and material non-public information in a public company environment.
• Interest in financial technology and the potential of stablecoins, digital assets, and blockchain technology.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with banking and financial services agreements, including deposit, custody, safeguarding, treasury, or related arrangements; and/or seller-side technology or financial services transactions involving regulated financial institutions, digital assets, stablecoins, payments, cross-border transactions, or other fintech businesses.
• Experience building, implementing, or scaling AI-enabled workflows, prompts, templates, playbooks, or tools for a legal team.

Compensation & Benefits

• Base Pay Range: $200,000 - $262,500

Starting pay is determined by various factors, including relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

Location

This role is in a location where the organization hires candidates, and compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

Equal Opportunity / Employment Eligibility

The organization is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where it hires.

The organization participates in the E-Verify Program in certain locations, as required by law.

Accommodations

If accommodations are needed for the interview process due to a disability, request support through the accommodations channel provided by the organization.