General Counsel

Aisafety; Berkeley (CA); On-site; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

FAR.AI is seeking its first General Counsel to build the organization’s legal infrastructure from the ground up. You will partner with leadership to shape governance, risk, and compliance across entities, including data privacy and IP protection, with a focus on scalable internal policies and external counsel coordination.

The role emphasizes in‑house leadership, practical decision making, and leveraging AI tools (e.g., Claude for Legal) to enhance legal work while ensuring regulatory compliance

Qualifications

• Translate legal complexity into clear recommendations for non‑lawyers.
• Experience across contracting, governance, employment, data privacy, and compliance.
• Built or stood up legal programs from scratch in fast‑growing contexts.

Responsibilities

• Draft and review contracts for grants, consulting, vendor work, and research partnerships.
• Oversee contractual compliance across government, commercial, and grant agreements.
• Develop and maintain employment, data privacy, and related policies.
• Support governance, related-party matters, and entity compliance.
• Manage data privacy, security, and incident readiness in coordination with operations.
• Protect IP ownership and licensing across entities.
• Oversee statutory filings and regulatory reporting.
• Assess legal risk and engage external counsel when needed.

Skills

Strong judgment

Breadth of legal function

Build from scratch

Tech/AI experience

AI tools for legal work

In-house counsel experience

Education

US bar admission

Tools

Claude for Legal

Job description

About FAR.AI

FAR.AI is a non‑profit AI research institute dedicated to ensuring advanced AI is safe and beneficial for everyone. We work at the intersection of machine learning, safety research, and policy, supporting a global community of researchers and practitioners. At FAR.AI, we believe in thoughtful, inclusive, and rigorous work that empowers our team and partners to do their best work.

Since our founding in July 2022, we’ve grown quickly to 40+ staff, producing 30+ influential academic papers, and established the leading AI Safety events for research and international cooperation. Our work is recognized globally, with publications at premier venues and features in the Financial Times, Nature News, Forbes, and MIT Technology Review.

We drive practical change through red‑teaming with frontier model developers and government institutions. Most recently, we discovered major issues with Anthropic’s latest model the same day it was released, and worked with OpenAI to safeguard their latest model. Additionally, we help steer and grow the AI safety field through developing research roadmaps with renowned researchers such as Yoshua Bengio. We also operate FAR.Labs, an AI safety‑focused co‑working space in Berkeley, housing 40 members, as well as support the community through targeted grants to technical researchers.

The Role

As our first General Counsel, you’ll have the unique opportunity to build FAR.AI’s legal infrastructure from scratch and work directly with leadership to shape the organization’s future. We’re looking for someone practical who has done it in‑house, knows what good looks like, and is comfortable making clear calls quickly while flagging issues that warrant outside counsel. We’re looking for an embedded legal partner who can assess risk in context and establish governance and controls that scale with us.

We expect our GC to use AI legal tools as a core part of their practice. Comfort using tools like Claude for Legal, or equivalents, is part of how we expect legal work to be done at FAR.AI.

Why This Role / Why Now

FAR.AI is entering a pivotal phase of growth, backed by over $75M in funding and expanding opportunities to shape how advanced AI systems are developed and governed. Our work spans technical research, policy, and operations, including partnerships, such as red‑teaming frontier models with leading AI companies and governments. FAR.AI also runs the events, programs, HR, communications, and community spaces that connect the global AI safety ecosystem. We are leveling up our legal capacity as the scope and impact of our work accelerate.

Your work, as FAR.AI’s General Counsel, will enable much of what we do, from funding AI safety research and events to expanding into new geographies. If you join, you’re not supporting the organization; you’re building the institutional backbone of a field that didn’t exist five years ago.

For lawyers who enjoy building (e.g., would be excited to build a legal agent), who are proactive problem‑solvers, and who roll up their sleeves to get things done, this is a rare opportunity to drive long‑term societal impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Commercial contracting. Partner with leaders across the organization to review, advise, and draft contracts for grants, consulting agreements, vendor contracts, compute commitments, research partnerships, and any other needs. Advise on risk and commercial terms across the organization.

• Contractual compliance. Oversee FAR.AI’s compliance obligations across its contract portfolio (government, commercial, and grant agreements), in coordination with the operations team.

• Internal policies. Support and build FAR.AI’s policies across employment, data privacy, conflicts of interest, and related areas. Keep policies concise, current, practical, and accessible.

• Governance and related‑party matters. Support board governance, related‑party relationships, and compliance for the 501(c)(3), LLC, Singapore CLG, and future entities.

• Employment. Partner with the People team on offers, contractor agreements, visa issues, international hiring, performance matters, and policy updates. Keep FAR.AI compliant with employment law across jurisdictions.

• Data privacy and security. Partner with and advise Operations to improve and maintain our data protection program covering employee data, research data, and partner data. Support or own incident response readiness, partner diligence, and compliance (e.g., GDPR).

• Intellectual property. Steward IP ownership, licensing, and protection across entities and partnerships, including research IP, trademarks, and licenses.

• Statutory reporting and compliance. Support Operations on filings across entities: federal and state, Singapore, charity filings, registrations, and other obligations.

• Risk assessment. Contribute to the organization’s risk register. Recommend mitigations proportionate to exposure. Own the solutioning of complex legal challenges e.g., cross‑border, multi‑jurisdictional exposure, export controls, etc. Engage external counsel when the situation warrants it.

Must‑Have Qualifications

• Strong judgment and comfort making calls with imperfect information. You can translate legal complexity into clear recommendations for non‑lawyers.

• Demonstrated experience across the full scope of a legal function: contracting, governance, employment, data privacy, and compliance. You don’t need to be a specialist in all of them, but you do need experience in different areas.

• Track record of building, not just maintaining. You have stood up legal programs, or at least key parts, from scratch and made them stick.

• Experience at a technology or AI organization.

• Comfort using AI legal tools such as Claude for Legal or equivalent.

Nice‑to‑Have Qualifications

• Experience in fast‑paced environments. You’ve worked in startups, nimble nonprofits, or high‑growth teams before and can adapt to change quickly.

• Experience as in‑house counsel.

• Nonprofit experience, including 501(c)(3) governance and grantmaking compliance.

• Experience with international entities, especially related‑party flows, transfer pricing, EoR arrangements, and standing up subsidiaries.

• An active US bar membership in good standing.

• Experience contributing to an impact‑driven organization or passionate about AI safety.

Logistics

• Structure:

  • Full time or part time, with a preference for part‑time/fractional.

  • We are open to an employment relationship, an independent contractor engagement, or an engagement through your firm.

• Location: Berkeley, CA (onsite/hybrid) or Remote, based in the US. International remote considered for the right candidate.

• Hours:

  • Full‑time: 40 hours/week

  • Part‑time: 12 to 32 hours per week, depending on scope, with flexibility to adjust over time.

• Compensation: Based on structure and experience, using an annualized employment salary of $250,000 – $350,000 as a reference. We will also pay for work‑related travel and equipment expenses, and offer catered lunch and dinner at our office in Berkeley.

• Reporting: Reports to a member of the executive team.

• Hiring process: A phone screen, an interview with the hiring manager, a scenario‑based interview, a values interview with a member of our executive team, a final conversation with the hiring manager, and reference checks.

If you have any questions about the role, please do get in touch at [e-mail]. If you don’t have questions, the best way to ensure a proper review of your skills and qualifications is by applying directly via the application form. Please don’t email us to share your resume (it won’t have any impact on our decision). Thank you!