Counsel/Senior Counsel, Litigation

Runway; United States; On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Runway is seeking a Litigation Counsel to help manage Runway's litigation and dispute resolution work day-to-day, with strategic guidance from the Associate General Counsel, Litigation. You will handle a broad docket, advise stakeholders on risk, and help build out the litigation function as the business scales.

You'll work at the cutting edge of a highly technical area of law and collaborate with AI safety, product, and engineering teams to navigate evolving regulatory developments and policy

Qualifications

• J.D. and admission to at least one state bar.
• 5+ years of dedicated litigation experience.
• Experience in copyright, class action, securities, and regulatory matters.
• Deep knowledge of civil litigation practice and discovery rules.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver results.

Responsibilities

• Manage litigation, third-party process, dispute resolution, and regulatory requests.
• Manage outside counsel across all stages of litigation with a focus on strategy and advocacy quality.
• Build and document repeatable processes for litigation to operate efficiently at scale.
• Advise stakeholders on litigation risk and align legal strategy with business priorities.
• Field requests from legal team and cross-functional partners needing litigation perspective.
• Partner with Customer Support to advise on disputes and escalations.
• Monitor regulatory developments related to generative AI and advise product/engineering teams.
• Learn product and industry technicals to inform business advice and strategic decisions.

Skills

Communication skills

Oral and written advocacy

Business acumen

Creative problem solving

Ownership and accountability

Education

J.D. degree and state bar admission

Job description

We are building AI to simulate the world through merging art and science.

We believe that world models are at the frontier of progress in artificial intelligence. Language models alone won't solve the world's hardest problems - robotics, disease, scientific discovery. Real progress requires models that experience the world and learn from their mistakes, the same way that humans do. And this kind of trial and error can be massively accelerated when done in simulation, rather than in the real world.

World models offer the most clear path to general-purpose simulation, changing how stories are told, how scientific progress is made and how the next frontiers of humanity are reached.

Our team consists of creative, open minded, caring and ambitious people who are determined to change the world. We aspire to continuously build impossible things and our ability to do so relies on building an incredible team. If you are driven to do the same,

• Titles posted to our careers page are updated regularly to best advertise the role and expected seniority, but internally we have a flat titling system with two types of titles: one for individual contributors and one for people managers.

About The Role

Runway's Legal team is looking for a Litigation Counsel to help manage Runway's litigation and dispute resolution work day-to-day, with strategic guidance from the Associate General Counsel, Litigation. You'll work on a broad docket of litigation and pre-litigation matters, advise business stakeholders on litigation risk, and help to build out the litigation function as the business scales. You'll join a lean team where everyone carries real responsibility, and you may have the opportunity to pitch in on a variety of other legal domains to support the team.

You'll work at the cutting edge of a highly technical and rapidly evolving area of the law, navigating challenges that are shaping the future of the industry. This role reports to the Associate General Counsel, Litigation.

What you'll do

• Manage litigation, third-party process, dispute resolution, and regulatory requests involving the company. This spans everything from helping Runway develop its strategy on cutting-edge legal questions to owning all in-house-side discovery execution
• Manage outside counsel across all stages of litigation, with a focus on case strategy and the quality of written advocacy
• Build, improve, document, and execute repeatable processes for the areas above to help the litigation function operate efficiently and effectively at scale
• Advise key stakeholders on litigation risk, aligning legal strategy with business priorities
• Field day-to-day requests from legal team members and cross-functional partners who want your litigation perspective on their commercial, product, and other legal work
• Partner with Runway's Customer Support Team to advise on and help resolve small disputes and escalations
• Monitor regulatory and policy developments relating to generative AI, and advise our AI safety, product, and engineering teams on them as appropriate
• Dive into the technical aspects of the product and industry to learn them inside and out, and use that knowledge to inform your advice to the business
• Support the team in other legal domains, which may include employment, trust & safety, policy, commercial, privacy, and IP

What you'll need

• A J.D. and admission in good standing with at least one state bar
• 5+ years of dedicated litigation experience (can include clerkships)
• Litigation experience in some combination of copyright, class action, securities, and regulatory matters
• Deep knowledge of complex civil litigation practice and procedure, including discovery and federal and state court rules
• A track record of running litigation matters, including developing case strategy, managing discovery, drafting and editing briefs, gathering information efficiently and preparing witnesses for depositions
• A working knowledge of the key legal issues in Runway's industry
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. This includes giving practical, clear, and commercially sensible advice, and advocating for a position while staying open-minded
• Sound judgment under pressure and strong business acumen
• The ability to manage multiple workstreams, prioritize effectively, and consistently deliver results
• A strong sense of ownership, both in the highest-level strategic work and in smaller day-to-day tasks
• Creative problem-solving, low ego, curiosity, and a bias for action

Nice to have

• In-house experience (particularly at a technology company)
• Experience with emerging technologies, particularly generative AI and copyright litigation
• Familiarity with Runway and the generative AI video industry
• Excitement about generative AI, and the motivation to become a leading expert in the legal landscape governing a rapidly innovating industry

Runway strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on competitive market rates for our size, stage and industry, and salary is just one part of the overall compensation package we provide. There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range. Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change in the range, which again, will be communicated to candidates.

Working at Runway

Great things come from great teams.

We're committed to creating a space where our employees can bring their full selves to work and have equal opportunity to succeed.

More about Runway

• Universal World Simulator
• GWM-1
• Gen-4.5
• General World Models
• Robotics SDK
• Conversational Real-time Agents
• Runway Studios

We're excited to be recognized as a best place to work:

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