General Counsel – San Francisco, CA

Solutus Legal Search; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 325,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a visionary General Counsel to lead its legal department. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the legal landscape of a rapidly growing technology company in the travel sector. As the first attorney in the organization, you will be instrumental in building a world-class legal team and navigating complex regulatory environments. With a strong focus on collaboration, creativity, and execution, you will work alongside passionate leaders to ensure the company's mission of making travel more accessible is achieved. If you are an entrepreneurial spirit with a legal background and a passion for innovation, this role is a dream come true!

Qualifications

• Experience in consumer marketplace and large trust & safety practice is essential.
• Strong leadership experience in high-profile organizations is required.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the legal department from the ground up.
• Develop compliance strategies and audit current legal operations.

Skills

Legal Expertise

Creative Problem Solving

Regulatory Compliance

Judgment and Decision Making

Leadership Experience

Education

Juris Doctor (JD)

Job description

This is an incredible opportunity with visionary leaders, a great mission and a great idea!

Our client, a well-funded global technology company that is taking the travel industry by storm, has retained Solutus Legal Search to assist its executives in their search for a General Counsel. Led by founders with a passionate mission to make travel radically more accessible, the company is poised for an incredible corporate journey. It has experienced 8x year over year revenue growth from 2023 to 2024 and is on track for 5x growth in 2025. The company’s investors are a Who’s Who in the corporate ecosystem and include Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, NEA, Dylan Field and Elad Gil.

The General Counsel will report directly to the CEO and will play an instrumental role in building the legal department as well as helping to shape the company’s hypergrowth. This role is seated in San Francisco, CA and will require hybrid office/home office attendance.

The ideal candidate will possess experience in a consumer marketplace with in-person operations, large trust & safety practice, and some regulatory considerations (e.g., hospitality, ride sharing, on-demand delivery). Top law firm as well as experience working in a hyper-growth startup and a limited in-house team is required. Tenure in larger tech organization with an excellent legal organization (ideally public company) is a strong plus. IPO/IPO readiness experience is also a plus. Prior leadership experience as a General Counsel or strong #2 in a high-profile organization is required.

Competencies

• Creative & intellectually flexible:Truth-seeking & not dogmatically stuck in her/his ways. Capable of creative problem solving & generating ideas vs. just evaluating others’ ideas
• Excellent judgment:“North star” pointed toward driving overall business outcomes; able to clearly articulate tradeoffs and confidently recommend decisions balancing different types of risk (business risk, legal risk, brand risk) vs. only legal risk
• Executional Excellence:Highly operational, high velocity executor, results-oriented; can be effective as first legal hire without in-house team
• Missionary, not Mercenary:Values-aligned (especially with “Give a Damn”) and mission driven. Passionate about increasing access to travel.
• Builds the “A Team”:High bar for talent; a magnet for the best ICs; strong pre-existing legal network
• Structured thinker:Extremely organized, structured communicator and thinker, strong project manager
• Cool under pressure:Comfort amidst chaos and rapid change; stress absorber vs. amplifier
• No jerks:Collaborative with other functions and personalities. Cares.

This General Counsel will be joining an intimate team and will be the first attorney in the organization. Responsibilities will be robust and will include building a world-class legal department. Below is a sampling of what you will do:

• Develop internal capability to monitor evolving company relevant regulation internationally, implement strategies for compliance in key jurisdictions, and collaborate closely with CEO and comms team on proactive regulatory brand/comms strategy for the company’s most critical cities.
• Audit current legal operations (HR, vendor contracts, terms of service, privacy, etc.) and assess and prioritize any exposures. Design and partner with relevant teams to implement prioritized process changes to reduce risk while making business-minded tradeoffs as needed.
• Partner closely with operations organization and Trust & Safety lead to implement a structure for providing legal input & oversight of member-facing policies and team SOPs (how does the company respond to situations of various types?). Develop strategic roadmap for Member Protection Programs, and develop any third-party partnerships required, including partnerships with insurance companies.
• Drive legal work stream within the company’s internationalization and localization efforts. Prioritize critical legal efforts (i.e. localizing terms of service or contracts, developing international corporate entity strategy, deep diving into tax strategy, etc.)
• Build the company’s legal function from the ground up, establishing a network of global firms and external legal & policy resources as well as internal resources, while shrewdly and strategically managing cost to make their dollars stretch

Base salary range is $325,000 - $350,000 to start and includes stock and benefits.

Culturally, you will work with A-Team colleagues who are down to earth, passionate, bright, problem solvers with tremendous spirit and energy. The execs are looking for the same qualities in their General Counsel. For an entrepreneurial spirit who loves a great mission, opportunity to build, robust responsibility, pioneering founders and a seat at the table to take the company to great heights…this role is a dream come true!