Head of Legal

lemlist; Paris (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

First legal hire

Direct access to COO/CEO

High-growth SaaS environment

Impact on growth & M&A

Job summary

lemlist is seeking a Senior Legal Counsel to build and scale its legal function from scratch across lempire. You’ll own commercial contracts, corporate matters, employment, privacy, and more for a fast-growing SaaS business.

You will work directly with the COO/CEO and business teams to move deals faster, manage external counsel, and shape in-house processes with AI-first approaches.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of legal experience, including significant in-house experience in a tech startup, scale-up, or SaaS company.
• Strong expertise in B2B SaaS contracts and commercial negotiations.
• Business judgment: you understand trade-offs and recommend solutions, not just flag risks.
• Builder mindset: autonomous, hands-on, pragmatic.
• Comfortable owning unfamiliar legal topics and working with specialists.
• Fluent French and English (French law, international customers/ employees).

Responsibilities

• Negotiate enterprise SaaS contracts, partnerships, and key supplier agreements.
• Own corporate governance, board/shareholder decisions, BSPCE, and our US entity.
• Lead Claap’s legal integration and support future acquisitions with external counsel.
• Partner with HR on contracts, terminations, disputes, CSE, and profit-sharing agreements.
• Oversee GDPR, data privacy, and data provider agreements with external specialists (DPO).

Skills

In-house experience

SaaS contracts

Commercial negotiations

Business judgment

Autonomous / hands-on

French & English

Job description

About us

lemlist is the outbound platform for sales teams: find leads, run multichannel campaigns (email, LinkedIn, calls), personalize with AI and book meetings.

lempire also builds lemwarm (deliverability), Claap (AI call intelligence), Taplio and Tweet Hunter.

We're at +$60M ARR, growing ~50% year over year, profitable and 100% bootstrapped, with 180 people.

We’re now moving upmarket, signing larger deals, expanding our partnerships, working with data providers, and integrating acquisitions like Claap.

Until now, all our legal work has been handled by external law firms.

We’re hiring our first Senior Legal Counsel to build and scale the function from scratch.

Mission

Build lemlist’s legal function from scratch and help us move faster, close bigger deals, and scale without unnecessary risk

You’ll own legal across lempire, working directly with the COO, CEO, and business teams.

Your job: help us close deals faster, protect what matters, and make smart business decisions.

Commercial contracts will take ~50% of your time. The rest covers corporate, employment, privacy, M&A, and everything else a scaling SaaS group needs.

You won’t be expected to know everything. You’ll handle what you can, bring in specialists when needed.

What you will own

Commercial contracts (~50%)

• Negotiate enterprise SaaS contracts, partnerships, and key supplier agreements

• Help Sales unblock deals and navigate complex negotiations

• Build templates and playbooks to make standard contracts self-serve

Corporate & M&A (~20%)

• Own corporate governance, board/shareholder decisions, BSPCE, and our US entity

• Lead Claap’s legal integration and support future acquisitions with external counsel

Employment (~20%)

• Partner with HR on contracts, terminations, disputes, CSE, and profit-sharing agreements

Privacy & other legal matters (~10%)

• Oversee GDPR, data privacy, and data provider agreements with external specialists (DPO)

• Handle T&Cs, NDAs, leases, and other legal matters

Build the legal function

• Become the go-to person for all legal matters

• Decide what to bring in-house vs. outsource and manage external counsel

• Build simple, AI-first processes that scale without unnecessary bureaucracy

How you’ll work

• Business first: You give clear recommendations, not just a list of risks

• Full ownership: You take responsibility, even outside your core expertise

• Bias for action: You move fast, build from scratch and automate repetitive work

• AI-first: You use AI and modern/ tech tools daily to work smarter

What success looks like

Within 3 months:

• Complete a legal audit and define your priorities

• Become the single point of contact for legal across lemlist

• Set up legal intake, contract templates, and Sales negotiation playbooks

• Take ownership of external counsel, corporate obligations, and ongoing employment matters

Within 12 months:

• Reduce standard contract review turnaround to 2 business days

• Make NDAs and standard contracts self-serve

• Bring recurring legal work in-house and optimize external counsel spend

• Ensure corporate governance runs smoothly

• Build a scalable legal function that helps the business move faster

Who we’re looking for

Must have

• 6+ years of legal experience, including significant in-house experience in a tech startup, scale-up, or SaaS company.

• Strong expertise in B2B SaaS contracts and commercial negotiations

• Business judgment: you understand trade-offs and recommend solutions, not just flag risks

• Builder mindset: autonomous, hands-on, pragmatic

• Comfortable owning unfamiliar legal topics and working with specialists

• Fluent French and English (French law, international customers/ employees)

Nice to have

• First or sole legal hire experience

• US entity / international contracts

• Employment law, GDPR, or buy-side M&A experience

We don’t need someone who knows every area of law; we need someone who knows how to get things done.

Why join lempire?

• Build it your way: First legal hire, full ownership, direct access to COO/CEO

• Front-row seat to $200m ARR SaaS: Enterprise sales, international expansion, M&A, AI

• Real impact: Your work directly influences growth, risk, and business decisions

• Speed over bureaucracy: Profitable, bootstrapped, ambitious

Recruitment process

1. Interview with Victoire (TA Lead)

2. Interview with Oriane (COO)

3. Business case (Contract negotiation & business judgment)

4. Interviews with Sales & Partnerships Leaders

5. Final interview with Charles (CEO)

6. Reference checks & offer