Senior Counsel — Legal Domain Expert

Cashback24x7; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 117,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is seeking an experienced counsel-level lawyer to work with an AI lab's research and program management teams. You will review legal knowledge work tasks, write instruction specs, and build benchmarks to ensure models meet professional standards.

The role is counsel-level with 8–15 years of post-qualification practice and requires on-site Bay Area work. The position is full-time W-2 with Cincinnatus LLC, based in the Bay Area, CA.

Qualifications

• JD from an accredited law school
• 8–15 years post-qualification legal practice
• Counsel or senior associate level with ownership of matters
• US state bar admission in good standing
• AI fluency in applying large language models to professional work
• Ability to commit to 40 hours per week for 6 months
• Bay Area, CA on-site work with relocation if needed

Responsibilities

• Data QA and reviews of legal knowledge work tasks and model outputs
• Write instruction specs and golden solutions for legal problems
• Design legal tasks and evaluation sets with domain depth
• Calibrate standards with client researchers and translate tacit judgment into explicit criteria

Job description

Senior Counsel — Legal Domain Expert

Company: Mercor

Compensation: $85-$120 per hour

Commitment: Full-time position

Location: Bay Area, CA

Referral Reward: Earn up to $1,920 per successful referral.

Location requirementsUnited States

Overview

We are hiring an experienced counsel-level lawyer to work directly with a leading AI lab's research and program management teams, improving how frontier AI models reason about real legal work. This listing is for practitioners at counsel or senior associate level, with roughly 8 to 15 years of post-qualification practice. If you are earlier in your career, or if you are at partner or General Counsel level, please apply to the corresponding Legal Domain Expert listing instead — we run separate listings by seniority so the rate matches the experience. Your legal expertise is the substance of this role. You will review the quality of legal knowledge work tasks, write the instruction specs and golden solutions that define what "correct" looks like, and build the benchmarks that show whether the model is genuinely improving. We are looking for a practising specialist rather than a generalist. This is a full-time W-2 employment position with Cincinnatus LLC, with the opportunity to be placed at a leading AI lab as part of their extended workforce. You will be provisioned with client-issued accounts and equipment, and will work inside the client's own tools alongside their research teams. Location: This is a hybrid role based in the Bay Area, California. You must live in the Bay Area and work on-site with the client's team multiple days each week, when required. This is not a remote role. If you do not currently live in the Bay Area, you must be willing to relocate there at your own cost before the engagement starts — relocation assistance is not provided.

Key Responsibilities

• Data QA and reviews: Vet the quality of legal knowledge work tasks and model outputs — spotting missing behaviors, thin reasoning, and answers that read well but would not survive professional scrutiny.
• Instruction specs and golden datasets: Write high-quality instruction specs, produce golden solutions to legal problems, and define new legal tasks that reflect how the work is actually done in practice.
• Benchmarks and domain depth: Design challenging legal tasks and evaluation sets, and help build legal-specific skills and tools together with the research team.
• Calibration: Work with client researchers and specialists in adjacent fields to keep standards consistent, translating tacit legal judgment into explicit, teachable criteria.

Core Qualifications

• Education: Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school; a highly ranked school is strongly preferred.
• Experience: 8 to 15 years of substantive post-qualification legal practice at a reputable institution — an established law firm, a corporate legal department, a regulatory body, or a court. Internships and clerkships alone do not count.
• Seniority: Currently at or has reached counsel, senior associate, senior in-house counsel, or Assistant General Counsel level, with real ownership of matters.
• Domain depth: Genuine specialization in at least one substantive practice area, for example corporate and transactional, litigation and dispute resolution, regulatory and compliance, intellectual property, employment and labor, or tax.
• Licensure: Admission to at least one U.S. state bar, in good standing.
• AI fluency: Hands-on working use of large language models in your professional work, and the judgment to tell a well-reasoned answer from a plausible-sounding wrong one.
• Availability: Able to commit reliably to 40 hours per week for an initial engagement of 6 months.
• Location: Living in the Bay Area, California, and able to work on-site with the client's team multiple days each week, when required. Candidates not currently based in the Bay Area must be willing to relocate there at their own cost; relocation assistance is not provided.
• Excellent written communication, and the ability to give precise, well-structured written feedback.

About Cincinnatus LLC

Cincinnatus LLC is an enterprise staffing company that partners with leading technology companies to source and employ highly skilled professionals for contingent and contract-based opportunities. Cincinnatus serves as the employer of record for these engagements, providing W-2 employment, payroll, benefits, and compliance, while placing employees directly within client teams to work on high-impact initiatives. Roles hired through Cincinnatus are not project-based or freelance engagements. They are structured, role-based positions that typically involve part-time or full-time commitments, close collaboration with a client's internal teams, and integration into standard enterprise workflows. Cincinnatus is a legal entity separate from Mercor. While opportunities may be discovered through Mercor's platform, employment, onboarding, payroll and benefits for these roles are administered by Cincinnatus LLC.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Cincinnatus is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, political views or activity, or any other legally protected characteristic. Cincinnatus is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans throughout the job application process. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to legally protected characteristics and provide reasonable accommodations upon request.