Legal Counsel

The problem.

The firm's legal foundations are being laid now rather than maintained. The trading entity, employment terms, assignment of what people build, agreements with each venue and each vendor: those are live questions. Several of them block other things. This is a build rather than a maintenance role. The first year is the hardest one.

What you would do.

• Own the corporate structure and its consequences, with the tax and liability reasoning written down where it can be revisited.
• Own employment: terms, confidentiality, assignment of work product, and the employment and residence arrangements for a team based in Dubai.
• Negotiate and maintain venue, banking and vendor agreements. Know which clauses actually bind.
• Review what the firm publishes, including every job description on this site, before it is served.
• Manage external counsel where specialist advice is needed. Be the person who decides when it is.

What we would want evidence of.

• You have set up and maintained a structure for a business that trades, and can explain the choices.
• You have drafted employment and assignment terms that survived contact with a real dispute or a real acquirer.
• You can give a clear answer under uncertainty and say which part of it is your judgement.
• You have worked with a founder who moves fast and know how to slow the right things down.
• You are comfortable with a market where the law is still forming.

What would make this a bad fit.

This role is a poor fit if you want a legal department. There is not one. There is you, external specialists, and a long list.

This role is a poor fit if you need settled law to advise confidently. A good part of this work is advising well where it is not settled.