Founding Legal Counsel

Basis; New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & Wellness

Unlimited PTO

Daily meal stipends

401(k)

Parental Leave

Job summary

Basis is looking for its first in-house Legal Counsel to build the legal foundation for growth in NYC. You’ll work with leadership across Finance, Sales, People, and Operations, owning a broad range of commercial and corporate legal matters.

You’ll manage day-to-day contracting, including reviewing, drafting, and negotiating customer and vendor agreements. You’ll develop templates and playbooks, strengthen processes, and help the company move quickly while staying buttoned up.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of corporate or commercial law practice at a leading firm or in-house setting.
• J.D. and bar admission in at least one US state.
• Experience drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial agreements (incl. SaaS, vendor, NDAs).
• Strong grounding in corporate governance, equity matters, and financing transactions.
• Excellent judgment and ability to translate legal risk into practical business terms.
• Clear writing and attention to detail; can operate independently without a large team.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day contracting needs: review, draft, negotiate customer and vendor agreements.
• Develop templates, playbooks, and contract-management processes to move quickly while staying compliant.
• Support corporate governance, cap table management, and board-related work.
• Advise on strategic partnerships and other business arrangements outside templated playbooks.
• Partner with People team on employment agreements, policies, and equity questions.
• Own building a scalable legal function from early stage.

Skills

Corporate law

Commercial contracts

SaaS agreements

Vendor agreements

NDAs

Data-privacy terms

Governance & equity

Contract management

Education

J.D. from a top law school

Tools

Contract templates

Playbooks

Job description

About Basis

Basis builds real agents that do real work in the real economy. Our agents operate for hours at a time, performing end-to-end work for some of the largest accounting firms in the world.

About Basis

Basis builds real agents that do real work in the real economy. Our agents operate for hours at a time, performing end-to-end work for some of the largest accounting firms in the world.

We recently raised $100M at >$1B valuation and are racing to deploy the most advanced applied ML at production scale.

Our investors include: Khosla Ventures (Keith Rabois & Vinod Khosla), Accel (Miles Clements), Google Ventures, Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross, Adam D'Angelo, Jeff Dean, Jack Altman, Noam Brown, Kyle Vogt, Amjad Masad, Clem Delangue and many other operators/technical leaders.

"Basis is on the frontier of building production-grade, long-horizon agents. They've pushed the limits of what we thought our models could do on real-world, economically valuable, complex accounting tasks. They've been a great collaborator in helping us shape what the future of agents looks like." — Prashant Mital, Applied AI Lead, OpenAI

Location: NYC, Flatiron office. In-person team, five days a week.

What You’ll Be Doing

Basis is looking for our first in-house Legal Counsel to help build the legal foundation for our next stage of growth. You’ll work closely with company leadership and teams across Finance, Sales, People, and Operations, owning a broad range of commercial and corporate legal matters.

You’ll manage the company’s day-to-day contracting needs, including reviewing, drafting, and negotiating customer and vendor agreements. Beyond handling individual contracts, you’ll improve the systems behind the work: developing templates and playbooks, strengthening approval and escalation processes, tracking ongoing obligations, and helping the company move quickly while staying buttoned up.

You’ll support corporate governance and board-related matters, including cap table management, board and stockholder approvals, meeting preparation, equity administration, and fundraising. You’ll help ensure that our corporate records, governance processes, and legal obligations remain accurate and current as the company scales. You’ll also advise on strategic partnerships and other business arrangements that do not fit neatly into an established playbook.

In partnership with the People team, you’ll support personnel matters such as employment agreements, policies, employee relations, compensation and equity questions, and other workplace issues.

This is a high-ownership opportunity for an ambitious attorney who wants broad exposure, direct access to company leadership, and the chance to build a legal function from an early stage.

What You’ll Bring

• 2-5 years of experience practicing corporate or commercial law at a leading law firm
• A J.D. from a top law school and membership in good standing with at least one US state bar
• Experience reviewing, drafting, and negotiating commercial agreements, ideally including SaaS agreements, vendor contracts, NDAs, data-processing terms, and strategic partnership agreements
• A strong grounding in corporate law, including governance, capitalization, equity matters, board processes, and financing transactions
• Excellent judgment and the ability to distinguish meaningful legal or business risks from issues that should not slow the company down
• Clear, precise writing and the ability to explain complex legal questions in practical business terms
• Strong attention to detail, organization, and follow-through across multiple concurrent matters
• A hands-on approach: you are comfortable doing the work yourself, building processes from scratch, and operating without a large legal team or established playbook
• Intellectual curiosity and the ability to learn unfamiliar products, technologies, and areas of law quickly

What We’d Love to See

• Commercial Judgment: Examples of negotiating complex agreements while preserving important protections and maintaining deal momentum
• Corporate and Transactional Range: Experience across venture financings, board governance, capitalization matters, strategic transactions, or emerging-company work
• Operational Mindset: A history of building templates, playbooks, approval processes, contract-management systems, or other infrastructure that made legal work faster and more reliable
• Business Partnership: Evidence that business teams view you as a practical partner who helps them reach sound decisions—not simply someone who identifies risk
• Ownership in Ambiguity: Experience independently driving unfamiliar or loosely defined matters from initial question through resolution
• Growth Potential: The ambition and capability to take on increasingly broad responsibility as the company and legal function grow

What Success Looks Like

• Commercial Velocity: Sales and vendor agreements move efficiently, with clear standards for review, negotiation, approval, and escalation
• Contract Discipline: Basis has reliable templates, playbooks, records, and systems for managing contractual commitments and ongoing obligations
• Strong Governance: Board materials, approvals, cap table records, equity matters, and corporate documentation are accurate, timely, and well maintained
• Practical Risk Management: Leadership receives clear, commercially grounded advice and understands the legal implications of important decisions
• Transaction Readiness: Strategic partnerships, financings, and other significant transactions are handled thoughtfully and driven to completion
• Trusted People Partnership: Personnel matters are addressed promptly, consistently, and with sound judgment
• A Scalable Legal System: Each agreement, process, template, and decision makes the legal function more effective as Basis grows

Benefits At Basis

We offer a competitive and thoughtful benefits package designed to support your physical, mental, and financial well-being:

• Health & Wellness: Premium Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage; Life Insurance; and 6 coaching & 6 therapy sessions through Spring Health.
  • Basis will cover 100% of your Wellhub Gold membership.
  • Wellhub gives you access to gyms like Lifetime, SoulCycle, NYSC and so many more - as well as access to wellness apps like Strava & Headspace!
• Time off: Unlimited PTO + 12 paid company holidays.
• In-Office Perks: Daily meal stipends, a fully stocked kitchen, and $300 toward your custom desk setup.
• Financial Benefits: Pre-tax commuter benefits and 401(k) retirement plan
• Team Culture: Monthly office activities and frequent optional team happy hours.
• Parental Leave