General Counsel, Fintech & Startups

Have you ever wished you could:

• Join a company early so you could get legal right from the beginning?
• Spend more of your day talking strategy and product?
• Build the perfect tooling stack, if only you had the budget?
• Attend more events with founders rather than another ABA conference?

If any of these questions resonate with you, keep reading!

About Istari Legal

Istari provides our clients with a fraction of a legal department, rather than a fraction of a lawyer: legal department as a service. Our clients generally fall into two buckets: (1) early-stage companies that need their first in-house legal partner, as early as incorporation, and (2) solo GCs and small in-house teams who need additional capacity. Clients pay a flat monthly fee for a primary counsel who knows their business, a bench of specialists standing behind that counsel, and a systems and ops layer most early-stage companies could never build on their own.

How the model works

The GC
Every client gets one lawyer who owns the relationship. You're in their Slack and their inbox. You learn the business, shape the legal priorities, and act as a strategic partner. The work looks and feels like an in-house role—it just runs through a law firm.

The Bench
Our GCs are generalists by necessity, so Istari is building a bench of subject-matter experts to sit behind every GC. The Bench means you never stress about getting over your skis in expertise or sending the client to an expensive outside firm.

The System
Templates, playbooks, ops, and AI tooling built once and reused across every client, plus a growing client-facing layer. The System is what lets a small team deliver like a much larger one.

Who this posting is for—and who it isn't

This role is for a lawyer who has already held a senior in-house position—GC, deputy GC, head of legal, or the first and only lawyer at a company—and who can operate as a full-stack general counsel for Istari’s clients. That means fintech regulatory depth, and genuine comfort running corporate, commercial, employment, and privacy matters without a partner backstopping you on every question. Our clients range in stage, so you should be comfortable calibrating risk and output to the client’s stage and risk posture.

You'll independently own relationships with fintech and startup clients. You’ll become the trusted legal partner to founders, leadership teams, and full-time in-house counsel; manage day-to-day legal needs; and know when an issue needs the Bench. You'll also help build the firm. We mean that literally: how the System works, what we automate, what we offer next, who we hire, and where the next clients come from.

We want to foster transparency at Istari (how can you help build the business if you don’t understand the business?), so we also want to be up front about who isn’t a good fit for this role. If you're a deep specialist in one lane, or a strong firm lawyer who hasn't yet sat in-house, this particular seat isn't the right fit. But we’re always looking for great lawyers to join the Bench. Check out our other open roles or email us at [email protected].

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary legal contact for clients.
• Learn each client's business model, product, regulatory posture, financing history, and commercial priorities.
• Counsel founders and leadership teams on legal and business decisions.
• Advise on fintech product design, licensing and regulatory strategy, banking and vendor relationships, and compliance programs.
• Draft and negotiate commercial agreements.
• Support corporate governance, privacy and data protection, employment matters, and general legal needs.
• Bring in the Bench when a matter genuinely needs it—and know the difference between "needs a specialist" and "feels scary."
• Work within subscription budgets, and flag early when something won't fit rather than after it doesn't.
• Use legal technology and AI responsibly to deliver high-quality work efficiently and ethically.
• Collaborate with other Istari attorneys on shared issues, templates, research, and client coverage.
• Deepen existing client relationships and originate your own.
• Help build Istari's technology stack and firm platform.

Qualifications

• Active US bar license in good standing.
• 10+ years of relevant legal experience.
• Senior in-house experience at a fintech, financial services, or regulated technology company: GC, deputy GC, head of legal, or first/only counsel.
• Demonstrated range as a generalist: corporate, commercial, employment, and privacy work alongside your regulatory practice.
• Fintech regulatory depth in one or more of: payments, banking-as-a-service, lending, money transmission, digital assets, embedded finance, securities, and/or compliance.
• Experience working directly with founders or executive teams, including at early-stage companies, and the constraints that come with them.
• Clear, concise writing and strong client communication.
• Ability to operate independently with no supervision.
• High comfort with technology and AI-assisted legal workflows.
• Willingness to tell a founder "I don't know yet, here's how I'll find out, here's when you'll have it."

Preferred

• Prior experience at a strong law firm in fintech regulatory or financial services work.
• In-house experience at both an established fintech and an early-stage startup.
• CCO or compliance-officer experience.
• An existing professional network and real interest in developing a client portfolio.

Compensation

• Base: $250,000–$300,000, depending on experience.
• Origination credit on clients you bring in.
• Profit sharing. Equity in a law firm doesn't work the way startup equity does, so we do this instead. Everyone here should be invested in how the firm grows, including retention, efficiency, and new business.

As you take on client ownership and originate your own work, the economics move with you.

Working arrangement

The role is full-time.

We'll also seriously consider strong candidates who want to come in part-time, whether that's a step toward full-time or a permanent arrangement. Reach out and we can discuss!

Remote from anywhere—you’ll never have to worry about a looming RTO. A US bar license is required, and you need to be available during US business hours for client work.

How to apply
When you apply, Wellfound will ask you “What interests you about working for this company?” Instead of answering this question, please respond with:

1. Where would you want to pull in a specialist rather than handle it yourself?
2. What is one work tool (software, AI, pen and paper—anything) you can't live without, and why?