Our client, a well-funded private technology company with marquee investors, seeks to hire a Vice President of Legal to lead the organization’s legal function. This attorney will report directly to and partner with the CEO and will be a member of the senior leadership team. As the company’s first legal hire, this attorney will build and lead the legal function and help ensure that the company is making the correct decisions to advance and protect the company’s business and legal interests. They will be a thought partner to the CEO, executive team and Board of Directors.

Our client’s headquarters are in San Francisco. The Vice President of Legal may work remotely from their home in the Bay Area and will be expected to be in the headquarter’s office when desirable or necessary.

The ideal candidate will have 15+ years of legal experience, with prior or current experience in Enterprise SaaS and/or EdTech industries. Management consulting experience is a plus but is not required. This attorney will possess experience in a wide variety of substantive legal areas including drafting and negotiating large scale enterprise agreements, general corporate, privacy, product, employment, IP, litigation management and government and regulatory matters.  Exceptional business acumen with the ability to translate complex legal principles into practical and effective business solutions is a must.

The ideal candidate will be a first principles thinker—not a playbook follower. They will be an independent thinker, with a point of view that incorporates high IQ and EQ. This executive will be comfortable advocating for a position, and then committing to the direction chosen. They will be a problem solver, operate with a sense of urgency, and will be a hard worker who is proactive and takes ownership of their responsibilities and actions. This executive, who by virtue of experience and commitment to success, does what is right without close oversight.

Key Accountabilities and Expectations

• Provide pragmatic recommendations to the CEO, the board, and business teams
• Understand our client’s industry, operations, products, and sales model to help CEO and the executive team devise business plans, mitigate risks, and find creative and cost-effective solutions to legal issues
• Ensure our client is operating with the right legal protections
• Assess regulatory requirements, obtain licenses (including policy and advocacy), and ensure ongoing compliance across a global landscape
• Manage outside counsel
• Ensure labor law compliance by state
• Responsible for ensuring that all customer and vendor contracts, NDAs, and commercial contracts in a timely and pragmatic fashion
• Personally negotiate, draft, review, and advise on key company agreements
• Assist in risk management and provide strategic guidance and management of potential and active disputes, including any active litigation
• Hire and manage a superior legal team

Core Competencies

• Experience working in a product-driven company and culture
• Experience supporting enterprise sales, product, and operations teams
• Experience negotiating, drafting, reviewing, and advising on agreements, including especially high value SaaS agreements
• Experience with government relations, political action committees, and political donations
• Corporate governance experience
• Employment law experience
• Compliance experience
• Government contracting experience
• Have a bias toward action in situations where decisions need to be made with incomplete information
• Be appropriately pragmatic and have the right risk tolerance for working at an early-stage company
• Excellent hiring manager
• Litigation management experience

This is an incredible opportunity to serve in a leadership role for a company rapidly growing and poised for significant success. Compensation is competitive and currently targeted at a base salary range of $300,000 to $330,000, plus bonus, equity, and benefits. Base salary and overall compensation will be determined by number of years of directly relevant experience and history of success. Our client remains open-minded and potentially flexible about the compensation for seasoned candidates that possess experience well beyond the position requirements that provides relevant and enhanced value to the organization.

Solutus has been retained as the exclusive representative for this desirable search.  Interested candidates, please submit resumes to search@solutuslegal.com for consideration. Resumes submitted directly to our client will be forwarded to Solutus for review and evaluation.

Given the heavy volume of applicants, we will only respond directly to applicants if their background is aligned with our client’s hiring criteria. We appreciate your understanding.

Ref. # 842-SLS