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 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.

This position reports to the Deputy Assistant General Counsel, Transactions. It is a senior, individual-contributor role and serves as a trusted advisor to internal Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships teams, partnering with Business Development, Product, and other groups on select matters.

Responsibilities

• Independently lead transactions from inception through negotiation, signing, closing, and, where relevant, implementation or integration.
• Support strategic transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, asset purchases, and other related matters, 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 arrangements
  • Account control and cash management arrangements
• Serve as a trusted partner across Corporate Development and Ventures, Treasury, and Financial Partnerships, leading matters that may involve Legal, Regulatory, Risk, Compliance, Tax, Corporate Governance, Product, and other stakeholders.
• Coordinate with outside counsel where appropriate.
• As needs arise, support select commercial transactions where the organization provides products, services, or technology to banks and other financial institutions.
• 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 for 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 and developing scalable processes
  • Reviewing and validating AI-assisted work product 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, this includes using AI tools to:

• Accelerate due diligence
• Review and compare counterparty drafts against established 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 outcomes, including:

• Reviewing and validating AI-assisted outputs for accuracy and legal judgment
• Protecting privilege, confidentiality, and material non-public information
• Following internal 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 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 environment with rapid change
• Demonstrated familiarity with and practical use of generative AI in legal or other professional workflows, including:
  • Sound judgment on when and how to use AI
  • Validating outputs
  • Protecting privileged, confidential, and material non-public information in a public company environment

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 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.

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

Location

Work location is not specified in the provided description.