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

Overview

This role is for an experienced transactional attorney to join the Transactions team within the Legal department. The position focuses primarily 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.

Under the direction of the Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Transactions, you will operate as a senior individual contributor and trusted advisor to internal stakeholders, working closely with Business Development, Product, and other teams on select matters.

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, strategic partnerships with an equity component, and other non-ordinary-course transactions, including:
  • Term sheets
  • Investment agreements
  • Side letters
  • Ancillary agreements
• Structure, draft, and negotiate agreements with banks and financial institutions supporting reserve, treasury, and payments operations, including:
  • Deposit, custody, and safeguarding arrangements
  • Account control and cash management arrangements
• Lead transactions from inception through negotiation, signing, closing, and—where relevant—implementation or integration
• Serve as a trusted partner across Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships by coordinating with Legal, Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance, Product, and other stakeholders, and managing outside counsel where appropriate
• Support select commercial transactions (as needed) where the organization provides products, services, or technology to 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:
  • Rethinking 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, developing scalable processes and playbooks, and validating AI-assisted work for accuracy, confidentiality, privilege, and risk

Core AI Work (How This Role Uses AI)

• Use AI as part of day-to-day transactional legal work and help shape how the Transactions team operates in an AI-enabled environment
• Identify which parts of the transactional process can be redesigned, streamlined, or automated while preserving legal judgment and client service
• Use AI tools to:
  • Accelerate due diligence
  • Review 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; build and refine prompts, templates, and playbooks for AI-enabled work
• Remain fully responsible for outputs, including:
  • Reviewing and validating AI-assisted work for accuracy and legal judgment
  • Protecting privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information
  • Following the organization’s AI, security, and data policies

Requirements

• J.D. or foreign equivalent
• 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
  • Independently driving complex matters through signing and closing
• Strong working knowledge of corporate and commercial law, including the ability to coordinate legal, regulatory, tax, accounting, securities, and operational considerations while balancing legal risk, commercial objectives, and strategic goals
• 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 and alignment with financial technology, stablecoins, digital assets, blockchain technology, and the organization’s mission and values

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with banking, deposit, custody, safeguarding, treasury, or other financial services agreements 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

Equal opportunity employer. No discrimination based on protected status under applicable law.

Location

This posting indicates that compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations. (No specific work location was provided in the description.)