Corporate Counsel at Button in New York, NY

Job description

• This role is solely responsible for the legal function at Button — with an emphasis on commercial contracting, privacy and data protection, corporate governance, and the day-to-day legal advice that every team in the company depends on to move quickly.

Responsibilities

• The commercial contract lifecycle, end to end
• You will draft, negotiate, and close commercial agreements — MSAs, DPAs, vendor and procurement paper.
• You will develop and revise standard terms, create playbooks, and set our legal strategy..
• You will work directly with the commercial and finance teams during negotiations, keeping pace with the speed of the business.
• Privacy, data protection, and platform compliance
• You will own Button's privacy posture across domestic and international law, including data processing agreements.
• You will help run vendor and partner diligence on data handling, and translate legal and platform requirements into something the product and commercial teams can operationalize.
• Other corporate matters
• You will partner with People Operations on employment matters
• You will support diligence on financing or corporate transactions as they arise.
• You will partner with Button’s product, engineering, and marketing teams to secure patents and trademarks to support the business.
• The system that lets the business move without you
• You will build the templates, fallback positions, and negotiation playbooks that let the commercial team self-serve on standard paper.
• You will help set approval thresholds and governance standards so the decisions that need a lawyer reach one and the rest do not.
• You will stand up a contract repository that answers questions about what we have signed without anyone having to ask you.

Requirements

• Gives a clear answer under time pressure and is willing to own it.
• Treats a slow contract cycle as their problem to fix, not the business's problem to tolerate.
• Has genuine hands-on drafting experience, having personally negotiated agreements rather than supervised someone who did.
• Knows the difference between risk worth flagging and risk worth blocking, and does not flag everything to be safe.
• Builds their own templates, processes, and playbooks instead of waiting to inherit a system.
• Is comfortable saying they do not know and calling outside counsel, rather than guessing.
• Wants to truly own a company’s legal function, not just a piece of the pie.
• A JD and active bar admission in New York, or admission in another US jurisdiction with eligibility to register as in-house counsel in New York.
• 5–7 years in practice, including at least two years in-house.
• Personally drafted and negotiated commercial technology agreements — SaaS, data, advertising, partnership, or similar — as the responsible lawyer rather than as support to one.
• Working knowledge of US state privacy law and GDPR as applied to a company that processes data on behalf of partners.
• Managed outside counsel on at least one substantive workstream, including scope and budget.
• Advised commercial and go-to-market teams directly, at the pace those teams operate.
• Built or materially rebuilt a contracting process — templates, playbooks, approval thresholds — rather than only working within one.
• Operated effectively in a lean, rapidly changing, or otherwise unstructured environment.
• You have been the first or sole in-house counsel at a company under 200 people.
• You have worked in adtech, martech, affiliate or performance marketing, payments, or marketplaces.
• You have advised on creator, talent, or influencer agreements, including content rights and handle access.
• You have handled employment matters beyond the basics.
• You trained at a firm with a substantive technology or commercial transactions practice.

Skills

Required

• Managing outside counsel

Preferred

• Experience with employment matters

Benefits

• Button's total compensation package includes a base salary competitive with what is offered by similar companies in major US markets. The expected base salary range for this role is $205,000 - $250,000 (compensation is based on a number of factors, including skills and experience relative to the job description listed above).
• In addition, Button provides employees with a 401(k) plan and automatically contributes 3% of an employee's salary annually.
• We also want our employees to be well-rested and live balanced lives–Buttonians enjoy unlimited time off (including birthdays off) and Summer and Winter Breaks which allow the entire company to take a breath and recharge, as well as an employee assistance program.
• For many of the health, vision, and dental insurance plans offered by Button, the company covers 100% of the premiums for employees and 80% for dependents. Button offers all employees and their dependents complimentary memberships to One Medical as well as a monthly stipend for mobile phone/internet and an annual lifestyle stipend.
• Button also offers employees in select markets "All Access" memberships to WeWork as well as regular "coworking days" and social events.
• Most of all, Button offers our employees the opportunity to live our company values–Learn & Grow, Experiment, Adapt, and Deliver–and to be a part of an incredible team of humans working together to build a better internet, fueled by commerce.