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

Overview

This role supports the Transactions team within the organization’s Legal department. The position focuses on two connected areas:

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

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

The attorney will serve as a senior individual contributor and trusted advisor, working under the direction of the Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Transactions. Responsibilities include independently leading transactions from inception through negotiation, signing, closing, and—where relevant—implementation or integration.

Responsibilities

• Support mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, asset purchases, and other strategic transactions, including:
  • Structuring deals
  • Conducting due diligence
  • Drafting definitive agreements
  • Coordinating signing, closing, and integration matters
• Advise on joint ventures, minority and venture investments, and strategic partnerships with an equity component, including:
  • Term sheets
  • Investment agreements
  • Side letters
  • Ancillary agreements
• Structure, draft, and negotiate agreements with banks and financial institutions that support reserve, treasury, and payments operations, including:
  • Deposit, custody, and safeguarding
  • Account control
  • Cash management arrangements
• Partner with stakeholders across Legal (including Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance), Product, and other teams; coordinate with outside counsel where appropriate
• As needs arise, support select commercial transactions involving products, services, or technology for banks and other financial institutions, translating business objectives into practical contractual terms
• Develop and expand transaction templates, playbooks, diligence tools, processes, and metrics to improve speed, consistency, and effectiveness across recurring transaction types
• Help design and lead adoption of AI-enabled workflows across the Transactions team, including:
  • Redesigning how transactional legal work is structured and delivered
  • Using AI and other technology to improve diligence, contract review, issues lists, drafting, deal tracking, and other recurring workflows
  • Experimenting with new approaches and building scalable processes and playbooks
  • Reviewing and validating AI-assisted work product for accuracy, confidentiality, privilege, and risk

How This Role Uses AI

AI will be used as a core part of day-to-day transactional work, including accelerating due diligence, preparing first drafts of issues lists, term sheets, and ancillary documents, and keeping deal trackers and precedent current.

The attorney remains fully responsible for the work, including reviewing and validating AI-assisted outputs for legal judgment and accuracy, and protecting privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information. The role also includes identifying recurring workflows where AI can improve speed and consistency and supporting adoption of AI-enabled practices across the team.

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 of both
• 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, and independently driving complex matters through signing and closing
• Strong working knowledge of corporate and commercial law 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, and ability to manage multiple matters in a fast-moving environment
• Demonstrated familiarity with and practical use of generative AI in legal or other professional workflows, including:
  • Judging when and how to use AI
  • Validating outputs
  • 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 (e.g., deposit, custody, safeguarding, treasury) 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

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

• Base Pay Range: $200,000 - $262,500

Location

Compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.