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

Overview

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

• 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 the organization’s 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.

Reporting to the Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Transactions, the attorney will serve as a senior individual contributor and trusted advisor to relevant internal teams and will partner with Business Development, Product, and other groups 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 (where relevant) 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 end-to-end—from inception through negotiation, signing, closing, and implementation/integration where relevant—applying rigorous legal execution and practical business judgment.
• Serve as a trusted partner across Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships teams, collaborating with internal stakeholders including Legal, Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance, Product, and others; coordinate with outside counsel when appropriate.
• When needed, support select commercial transactions where the organization provides products, services, or technology to banks and other financial institutions; translate business objectives into practical contractual terms with Business Development, Product, and Legal subject matter experts.
• 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.
  • Use AI and other technology to improve diligence, contract review, issues lists, drafting, deal tracking, and other recurring workflows.
  • Experiment with new approaches and develop scalable processes and playbooks.
  • Review and validate AI-assisted work product for accuracy, confidentiality, privilege, and risk.

AI in This Role

AI will be used as a core part of day-to-day transactional work. The role will shape how the Transactions team operates in an AI-enabled environment by identifying which parts of the transactional process can be redesigned, streamlined, or automated while preserving high standards of legal judgment and client service.

In practice, responsibilities may include using 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
• Support adoption of effective practices by other attorneys, interns, and business partners

The attorney remains fully responsible for the work, including review and validation of AI-assisted outputs for accuracy and legal judgment, and protection of privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information in accordance with organizational 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, 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, and the ability to manage multiple matters simultaneously in a fast-moving, rapidly changing environment
• Demonstrated familiarity with and practical use of generative AI in legal or other professional workflows, including judgment on when and how to use AI, validation of outputs, and protection of privileged, confidential, and material non-public information in a public company environment
• Passion for the organization’s mission and values, 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, 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 factors including relevant experience, skill set, qualifications, and other business and organizational needs. Compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations.

Equal Opportunity

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.

Location

This role is based in a jurisdiction where the organization hires and may participate in the E-Verify Program as required by law in certain locations.