The opportunity
Column is growing its in-house commercial legal team to own the legal infrastructure behind our most important commercial and strategic relationships. This isn't your typical in-house Commercial Counsel role reviewing SaaS contracts - you'll architect novel partnership structures that enable modern banking experiences, navigating complex regulatory requirements along the way. You'll work closely with Column's Sales & Partnerships, Risk, and Compliance teams to define how we structure our deals, serve our customers, and scale our platform safely. If you're excited about combining legal acumen with a builder's mindset - and want you work to have a direct impact on how financial services are delivered at scale - we think you'll be excited about this role!
This is an in-person role with 3-4 days per week expected in our Presidio-based San Francisco office.
What you'll do
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Own complex agreements end-to-end: Structure, draft, and negotiate complex customer, and vendor, and third-party agreements covering a broad range of banking products and services, including agreements related to payments and money movement service and banking partnerships inclusive of deposit account, card, and lending programs.
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Build and manage legal playbooks and templates that scale: Develop and maintain templates and inventories of contracts, terms of services, notices, and disclosures for the Bank’s products, services, and distribution channels that enable speed without sacrificing quality.
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Negotiate: Lead negotiations with high-growth fintechs and enterprise customers, balancing commercial priorities with regulatory requirements.
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Develop strong cross-functional partnerships: Work closely with the Sales and Business teams to understand the Bank’s goals, strategy, and risk tolerance for each deal in order to develop an efficient and risk-based contracting strategy.
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Expand into additional areas of law: As the fourth member of our growing Legal team, you'll support each other with novel research, product and regulatory advice, exam management, subpoena responses, litigation deliverables, and corporate governance materials.
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Help us level up how Legal operates: Serve as a thought partner to the business and legal to support Column's ongoing growth through improvements to bank agreements, policies, and legal processes.
What you'll need to be successful
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6+ years as a practicing lawyer; priority given to candidates with law firm experience in a technology transactions or fintech practice and/or in-house experience at a fintech or financial institution
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Ability to independently draft and negotiate commercial agreements, with a strong understanding of both contract law and commercial transactions
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Experience with complex commercial negotiations
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Comfort with project management, deadlines, and juggling execution across multiple initiatives for multiple stakeholders
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Nice to haves:
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Understanding of traditional commercial banking products and services including ACH and wire transactions, accounts, lending, cards, cash management, sweeps, and check issuance/deposit, among others
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Experience in structured finance or with lending products
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Understanding of money transmission
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What you'll get from us
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🏥 Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans, including options that are 100% covered by Column for you and 100% covered for your dependents!
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🐣 Comprehensive family planning and fertility benefits via partnership with Carrot, including reimbursement of up to $20,000 in qualified expenses
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🏡 Up to $2,000 (post-tax) monthly rent subsidy for employees living within 2 miles of Column’s office
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💳 FSA and HSA account options to enable use of pre-tax money for medical and dependent care expenses
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📈 401k plan, including self-directed brokerage options
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🌴 Flexible time-off policy - take the time off that you want and need to relax and recharge
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👶 100% paid parental leave, including 16 weeks for birth mothers, 12 weeks for primary caregivers, and 8 weeks for secondary caregivers
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😇 Up to $4,500 in annual reimbursements for backup childcare
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🍽️ Catered lunches and dinners for SF employees
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🚆 Commuter benefits, including paid transportation to-and-from the office
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🎉 Regular team building events, including annual offsite
