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

Responsibilities

• Support mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, asset purchases, and other strategic transactions, including:
  • structuring
  • 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
  • account control
  • cash management arrangements
• Serve as a trusted partner to relevant internal teams (including Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships), leading transactions that involve coordination across Legal, Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance, Product, and other stakeholders
• Coordinate with outside counsel where appropriate
• As needs arise, support select commercial transactions in which the organization provides products, services, or technology to banks and other financial institutions; partner with Business Development and Product (and Legal subject matter experts) to convert business objectives into workable 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 the adoption of AI-enabled workflows across the Transactions team by:
  • 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 and creating scalable processes/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. The attorney is expected to help shape how the Transactions team operates in an AI-enabled environment, including identifying parts of the transactional process that can be redesigned, streamlined, or automated while preserving high standards of legal judgment and client service.

In practice, this includes 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

The attorney remains fully responsible for the work, including reviewing and validating AI-assisted outputs and protecting privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information, and following applicable 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 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 with sound business judgment, 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, and ability to manage multiple matters in a fast-moving environment prone to 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
• 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, 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

• 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.

Location

Compensation ranges may differ for candidates in other locations. (Additional location details were not provided.)

Equal Opportunity

The employer 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, disability status, or any other protected status required by the laws in the locations where hiring occurs.

Participation in the E-Verify Program occurs in certain locations as required by law.